TMW
Select Nomad
Posts: 10659
Registered: 9-1-2003
Location: Bakersfield, CA
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Climbing a Tower
Have you done it. Could you do it. Do you really want to do it. Highest I've been is 270 ft. Note: Most tall towers especially over 1500 ft have
elevators. To climb a 1500 ft tower is taxing to say the least, you need to be in shape.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/f1BgzIZRfT8?feature=player_emb...
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Howard
Super Nomad
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Mood: I'd rather regret the things I've done than regret the things I haven't done.
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I fortunately do not have a fear of heights but watching this did make me a little queasy. Wow!
We don't stop playing because we grow old;
we grow old because we stop playing
George Bernard Shaw
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DanO
Super Nomad
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Location: Not far from the Pacific
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I don't have a fear of heights. Just a fear of dying from falling from high places. No gracias.
\"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.\" -- Frank Zappa
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BajaParrothead
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Location: Portola, CA / Los Barriles
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It's not the fall that scares me, it's the landing! NOPE!!
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bajabuddha
Banned
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Location: Baja New Mexico
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Mood: Always cranky unless medicated
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Was once on a trip where the participants invented a new drink, called "Heads or Tails"..... a shot-glass of Stolies and a dollop of Cholula hot sauce
in the bottom of it.... not tossed for the taste, I assure you.... but within 10 minutes you wanna go CLIMB sumpin'!
Not for the faint of heart.  However, that? Naaaahhh......
I don't have a BUCKET LIST, but I do have a F***- IT LIST a mile long!
86 - 45*
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freediverbrian
Senior Nomad
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A fall from 30' will kill you as dead as fall from 1500' might as well keep climbing
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AKgringo
Elite Nomad
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Location: Anchorage, AK (no mas!)
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Fortunately for me, adrenalin has always been my drug of choice, and I preferred working on tall projects vs footings and slab work! I never climbed
a tower that tall, but as Brian pointed out, a fall from heights just gives you more time for prayers or profanity on the way down!
I even had one job that had me working under a bridge (officially a troll!) installing seismic supports over an ice cold river!
If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much space!
"Could do better if he tried!" Report card comments from most of my grade school teachers. Sadly, still true!
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advrider
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Nope! I'll just pay my cable bill.... I neighbor kid fly's in on hot lines, I think 660v, in a chain mail suit and slides down the lines in his little
cart to fix chit! Nope, I'll just pay my power bill...
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Maderita
Senior Nomad
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Well, since this is about Baja, the closest thing to a 1,500' tower that I know of is El Gran Trono Blanco. "The Throne" is a majestic granite
monolith which overlooks Cañón El Tajo in the Sierra de Juárez, BC. The near vertical east face is approximately 1,600'. One of my routes, "El
Milenio" is 15 pitches (rope lengths) and 2,000'. The difficulty is 5.11b/c on "dime edges". That climber's jargon means standing on tiny edges, about
the thickness of a dime.
Tower climbing? Yawn. You'd have to make a conscious effort to fall from that!
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bajarich
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Registered: 1-13-2005
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The climber on the tower always had good protection. He would never fall more than a few feet, plus, he always had good foot and hand holds. When I
used to climb, I found that as long as I was tied in, the exposure (to height) was not so bothersome. Take away the rope and it's a whole different
story.
Watch "Free Solo", a movie about Alex Hornold's free solo ascent of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley.
Here's the trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urRVZ4SW7WU
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Bajazly
Senior Nomad
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Mood: More Relaxed Everyday
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Going up is the easy part, down climbing is the suck! Topping out on some sketchy summit then having to down climb to a decent belay stance is always
what I dislike most about a climb but 1500' would be brutal.
Believing is religion - Knowing is science
Harald Pietschmann
"Get off the beaten path and memories, friends and new techniques are developed"
Bajazly, August 2019
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BajaBlanca
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solosancarlos
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ANd what does this have to do with Baja ?
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AKgringo
Elite Nomad
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Location: Anchorage, AK (no mas!)
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From the top of that tower, you can see Baja! 
[Edited on 8-7-2019 by AKgringo]
If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much space!
"Could do better if he tried!" Report card comments from most of my grade school teachers. Sadly, still true!
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SFandH
Elite Nomad
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Acrophobia is one of my two phobias. The other is seeing photos of palm trees that supposedly disprove a communist plot to steal our freedoms by the
imposition of a carbon tax to combat sea-level rise, ala David the K(ook) logic.
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AKgringo
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5807
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Location: Anchorage, AK (no mas!)
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Mood: Retireded
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Claustrophobia is my choke point! When I worked at Prudhoe Bay in the mid 80s, I could build a hella tall scaffold to reach some of the overhead pipe
racks, but crawling in between the pipes gave me the willies.
If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much space!
"Could do better if he tried!" Report card comments from most of my grade school teachers. Sadly, still true!
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Glidergeek
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I've had flights to over 27,000' a few times and over 1100 hours in glider. That's not a problem,but walk me up to the edge of a building or cliff and
that is a problem.
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MMc
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Mood: Current
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Kool, I did the Giraffe in the 80s. I was a great time 1.5 days. Heights are just plane fun.
Quote: Originally posted by Maderita  |
Well, since this is about Baja, the closest thing to a 1,500' tower that I know of is El Gran Trono Blanco. "The Throne" is a majestic granite
monolith which overlooks Cañón El Tajo in the Sierra de Juárez, BC. The near vertical east face is approximately 1,600'. One of my routes, "El
Milenio" is 15 pitches (rope lengths) and 2,000'. The difficulty is 5.11b/c on "dime edges". That climber's jargon means standing on tiny edges, about
the thickness of a dime.
Tower climbing? Yawn. You'd have to make a conscious effort to fall from that! |
[Edited on 8-7-2019 by MMc]
"Never teach a pig to sing it frustrates you and annoys the pig" - W.C.Fields
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Maderita
Senior Nomad
Posts: 634
Registered: 12-14-2008
Location: San Diego
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MMc, Kool indeed! You belong to a very small club who have climbed one of the east face bigwall routes. Most of the ascents have been on "Pan-Am". In
the 1980s, you were one of very few to ascend "Giraffe"! Bad burro for sure! According to John Long on the FA, the route got it's name because they
were sticking their necks out, risking long falls.
There were a few others, but here's a partial list of early ascents.
First Ascent: Hugh Burton, John Long, Ray Ochoa 1975
Werner Landry, John Vawter, March 1978
Tom Scott, Adrian Almodovar, April, 1981
Dave Wonderly, Jack Tripper, Jeff Elgar, Spring 1984
Craig Fry, Erik Erickson, 1985
A fire last weekend burned along the north side of Trono Blanco. Hopefully took out some thickets of chaparral, making the approach slightly less
hideous.
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MMc
Super Nomad
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Maderita, I was climbing around the time John long/John Bachar, et all were pushing the limits. I saw JL slide show about the route and put it on the
bucket list. Checked off about 86 or 87, it was rated "R" for sure. We wanted to do the Pan Am, but never did.I loved climbing in that area, you never
were sure you starting up. It was kinda a badly kept secret/misto place.
Climbed around a bunch of those other guys, they were always better than I. I was a 5.11 trad climber. I sent some 5.12 routes clean but flew on most.
"Never teach a pig to sing it frustrates you and annoys the pig" - W.C.Fields
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