1600 foot elevator ride and then a 178 foot climb... It's high but less than I climb every day for walkdowns. I wish we had elevators for 9/10s of our climb. I'd say that 178 ft is pretty white knuckle at that height
Especially free climbing. Id'a lost a bet that they didn't have a safety track all the way up with camlocks. There was a day some quite a few years ago where climbing towers (500 or so foot high cooling towers) wasn't that odd to me, had no fear of heights at all. No longer true, I run out of interest real fast. I hope they get paid for that. REALLY well paid.
Wrestling a quirky TACAN antenna off it's perch atop a 70' tall ship mast into an open-ended crane bucket was enough for me - not afraid of heights, but don't care for it either......
+1 to that my pucker factor would be so bad that an atom would have a hard time coming out of that end.
If one plans their fall correctly, they only have to drop 176' to the top of the Sears Tower. I guess you just have to say, whether I fall 176' or all the way to the ground, I am dead either way.
Another copy: http://www.theonlineengineer.org/TheOLEBLOG/ YouTube - Stairway to Heaven -- Worker climbs up a 1786 ft Tower [Helmet Cam]
Not Airborne but I have been sky diving. And oddly enough that didn't cause me any real vertigo...might have had too much adrenaline in my system? Byte
There is a subtle difference between free climbing and jumping out of perfectly good aircraft with a pair of parachutes on your carcass. One is certain death, the other leaves you a chance. Brrr. Shudder.