Anyone else scared of heights?

B

Bailey28

Joined
Sep 30, 2004
Messages
439
Location
North FL
My neighbor and I decided to rent a 30' compact lift to trim the trees on our properties. The kind you see people painting the sides of buildings with, fixing lights in a parking lot etc. This thing tows behind a truck and has four outriggers that stabilize it. The rickety open sided aluminum bucket will fit two adults into it.

We set it up and I am all ready to go up in the bucket about 20' into the air near the first tree limb. I start raising it up and I look down. I start sweating and not liking what's happening. I am trying to convince myself....'what the heck, this lift isn't going anywhere', so I go up higher. Seems I need to go even higher to get to the limb. The lift stops and I looked down again. I can barely move. My neighbor figures out I am not loving life and is now laughing because he knows. I know he knows, because I am terrified at this point.

I am in the bucket, the thing is wobbling and shaking in the breeze. I cannot for the life of me lift the saw up to trim the limb off.
I lower the bucket and he asks what is it, what happened?

I was like 'nope..... this ain't for me' as I am bee lining for the solid ground.... He gets in and goes up like its nothing, trimming limbs like an acrobat at the circus....
 
If someone is not scared of heights, there is something defective with their brain. Just like knowing one is thirsty, so we drink water, awareness of heights is a normal and very necessary survival safety net genetically programmed into our DNA.

Recommendation is to feel the fear and do it anyways. Part of growth. Of course, safety is job one.
 
Last edited:
The height wouldn't bother me at all, it would be the shaky lift. Nope, no thank you.

Heights can be thrilling but whatever I'm standing on better not be moving!
 
I can go on top of buildings and look down, no problem. Near the edge I get very cautions but as long as I have something to hold onto I'm ok. Ferris wheels, tall rollercoasters, airplane travel, I am fine. Getting on the roof to make a repair, it takes a minute but once I am moving around I am fine. (one story roof, not two or more). I have painted the house inside and out, 14 foot ceiling peak on a ladder, I was fine.

I wound up being the 'ground crew' for the weekend of tree trimming. Moving the truck around and operating the lift outriggers, roping, cutting and dragging downed limbs, etc. while my neighbor did all of the trimming. I got really good at articulating the lift to get him exactly where he needed to be to safely cut.

We probably did $6,000 worth of tree work in 3 days. The county had to send two large metal sided trucks to haul it all away after we had it all cut up.

I just never new I would not tolerate the lift before I actually tried it.
 
Heights per se don't bother me. It's if it's a precarious position. Standing on a mountain peak, no problem. Alex Honnold climbing El Capitan, or Taipei 101 he recently climbed with no safety net of any kind, I couldn't do in a million years. Even if I had the ability. Which I don't.
 
my ladder broke and I broke my wrist into 7 pieces.
Watching someone else stand on the top of an old wobbly wood stepladder.. on the "not a step" at the top.. to rewire ceiling lights(12ft) had me in full body cold sweats.

As long as I have a safety harness and my platform isn't wobbly no issues.
I also went out and bought all Type I-A ladders after my werner Type-II let me down(Leg folded like tin foil)
 
Did you watch that guy climb the skyscraper Taipei 101 in Taiwan recently? Just watching him do it knowing he made to the top doesn't stop my stress. I don't like heights and have developed a little vertigo. Makes escalators challenging.
 
I'm not a fan. I don't even like getting up on the RV Roof for cleaning.

As I recall, there are a lot of people that crapped on this video's commentary (And apparently many OSHA violations in the climb). But, just mute it and watch the dude climb. Still gives me the willies to watch it. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does.

The 30 pound tool bag is the least of his worries. The 2000#'s of brass he's dragging around has to make it a hard climb.

 
ctechbob said:
I'm not a fan. I don't even like getting up on the RV Roof for cleaning.

As I recall, there are a lot of people that crapped on this video's commentary (And apparently many OSHA violations in the climb). But, just mute it and watch the dude climb. Still gives me the willies to watch it. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does.

The 30 pound tool bag is the least of his worries. The 2000#'s of brass he's dragging around has to make it a hard climb.

Click to expand...

Free climbing on a tower is one of those "Not enough money in the world" kind of jobs for me. No sir, no way.
 
I am to a degree, and it's been paralyzing in a couple of situations. My roof has a very steep pitch and even tight jeans and Cougar Paw boots can leave me feeling like I don't have enough grip. I've frozen on the roof on a couple of occasions until I gained enough confidence to get down.

I was able to paint my entire house until it came time to paint the siding above the garage door. I got out the extension ladder, leaned it up against the house, got 3/4 of the way up and the wind started blowing. I've seen videos of ladders sliding with people on them, and while mine didn't slide, I couldn't get the image of it sliding out of my head. What I really should have done was park the truck tire at the base of it, but the wind was still really messing with me and I was trying to hold a bucket in my left hand and a brush in my right. Again, I froze. That job I hired out.
I watch roofers in amazement as they walk on the roof as if they're walking on a sidewalk. But they're usually 4'10" tiny-framed Hispanic males going the roofing and I can only imagine that would make it easier.
 
I don’t have issue with heights, but I don’t like the idea of falling. So no problem in an airplane or behind a railing. But I don’t see myself standing or sitting on the edge of a cliff or jumping from rock to rock above the the Grand Canyon. Or hiking a trail that has me a foot or two from the edge of no return. I fear my clumsiness combined with exposure is incompatible.
 
BIG error on that video @5:10.
The narrator mentions checking for lightening and alludes to the fact that if a storm blows through, "there's no quick way down".
I can think of one.

Seriously, I was waiting for them to open the black topped beacon and realize they brough up the wrong bulb!
 
If I remember correctly, from US Army Airborne school.....the mock jump towers had a floor height of 34'. This height was deemed the height at which a person has a fear or heights........and whether or not an individual would be scared enough NOT to jump and cause a safety concern for those left in the stick.

But fear of heights and fear of falling are two different things IMO. You have to trust your equipment!
GON said:
If someone is not scared of heights, there is something defective with their brain
Click to expand...
hmmm, kind of agree

Funny enough, with nearly 1000 jumps as a younger person, both in the Military and as a civilian, I don't like ferris wheels.
 
I spent years in my youth working in the trades and was up on roofs and ladders constantly. I got pretty immune to the risks. I remember one job on Lake Chelan in Eastern Washington where the back of the house abutted a high cliff over the lake where it was a couple of hundred feet down to the ground. I remember remarking to myself about how chill I was feeling up on the edge of the roof.

I'm not as comfortable with heights as I used to be, but at the same time, I'm not as strong or limber as I was then, either.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Cujet
The angry neighbor nonsense of the day
3 4 5
Replies
80
Views
3K
Cujet
G
installation of extended driveway without permit
2 3
Replies
48
Views
1K
dlundblad
W
concerns about AI; what scares me
6 7 8
Replies
142
Views
3K
vwmaniaman
T
The first customer I've ever fired
2 3
Replies
44
Views
2K
chazthespaz
D
I was so confused why my computer went offline - until I looked at it.
Replies
7
Views
259
danstraylee
Back
Top Bottom