BajaNomad

Climbing a Tower

TMW - 8-6-2019 at 11:48 AM

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...

Howard - 8-6-2019 at 01:49 PM

I fortunately do not have a fear of heights but watching this did make me a little queasy. Wow!

DanO - 8-6-2019 at 03:52 PM

I don't have a fear of heights. Just a fear of dying from falling from high places. No gracias.

BajaParrothead - 8-6-2019 at 04:15 PM

It's not the fall that scares me, it's the landing! NOPE!!

bajabuddha - 8-6-2019 at 04:56 PM

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. :cool: However, that? Naaaahhh......

freediverbrian - 8-6-2019 at 06:26 PM

A fall from 30' will kill you as dead as fall from 1500' might as well keep climbing

AKgringo - 8-6-2019 at 06:55 PM

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!

advrider - 8-6-2019 at 07:19 PM

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...

Maderita - 8-6-2019 at 07:57 PM

Quote: Originally posted by TMW  
Have you done it. Could you do it. Do you really want to do it.

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!

bajarich - 8-6-2019 at 09:33 PM

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

Bajazly - 8-6-2019 at 09:57 PM

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.

BajaBlanca - 8-6-2019 at 11:26 PM

:o:o:o

solosancarlos - 8-7-2019 at 05:43 AM

Quote: Originally posted by TMW  
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...


ANd what does this have to do with Baja ?

AKgringo - 8-7-2019 at 07:51 AM

Quote: Originally posted by solosancarlos  


ANd what does this have to do with Baja ?


From the top of that tower, you can see Baja! :wow:

[Edited on 8-7-2019 by AKgringo]

SFandH - 8-7-2019 at 08:15 AM

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.

AKgringo - 8-7-2019 at 08:32 AM

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.

Glidergeek - 8-7-2019 at 09:23 AM

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.

MMc - 8-7-2019 at 02:44 PM

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  
Quote: Originally posted by TMW  
Have you done it. Could you do it. Do you really want to do it.

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]

Maderita - 8-7-2019 at 04:08 PM

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.

MMc - 8-8-2019 at 10:37 AM

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.