Monday, November 22, 2010

Climbing To The Top Of The Fort Worth Space Needle On Top Of Mount Tandy

I was peacefully deep into a salubrious endorphin trance, on my 10th day in a row of hiking the Tandy Hills, in a desperate attempt to get myself in shape, when, as I was hiking across Lost Sunglasses Ridge, I heard a lot of shouting.

I looked in the direction of the shouting and saw what I thought might be human forms on the Fort Worth Space Needle that sits atop Mount Tandy.

I'd not parked at the top of Mount Tandy for this particular excursion, I was parked on View Street. I'd not intended to hike to the top of Mount Tandy.

But, seeing someone climbing the Fort Worth Space Needle motivated me to get closer.

As you can see in the picture, there are 3 guys on the tower. They seemed to be clipped on to the structure. I could not tell what they were doing. They did not move up or down while I was watching.

The top of the Fort Worth Space Needle does not have a revolving restaurant. You have to bring your own sack lunch to the top and do your own rotating.

A few days ago I ran into a raven-haired, red lip-sticked beauty, with a dog, on top of Mount Tandy, underneath the Fort Worth Space Needle. This was the first day I had seen all the cable on the ground, with it apparent the tower was being worked on.

The raven-haired beauty told me the support cables were being replaced. And that the day before she'd watched a guy, part way up the tower, go into panic mode when he ran into a hive of bees who were not happy to see him. She also told me she had a friend who worked for whoever maintains the tower and that he was barely on the job when he had to climb to the top of the Fort Worth Space Needle.

Which I believe is something like 1,000 feet tall. He told the raven-haired beauty that the tower swayed at the top, even when it was not windy. When her friend was back on the ground he vowed to never climb such a thing again.

It was quite windy on the Tandy Hills today, which makes it a bit surprising that ascending the Fort Worth Space Needle was being attempted.

I do not know how much money it would take to motivate me to climb to the top of the Fort Worth Space Needle. Maybe a million, half up front.

3 comments:

Stenotrophomonas said...

This gives a bit of the flavor of working on an antenna. It's a taller antenna, but the first 1600 feet was an elevator ride.


http://www.iviewtube.com/videos/167824/climbing-up-the-tallest-antenna-tower-1,768-feet

Durango said...

Yikes! S-man, I watched that video and I don't remember the last time I got such a case of the acrophobe willies. That free climbing part to the top. Yikes, again. And how the hell was that filmed? I tried for an embed option so I could put the video on the blog, to no avail.

Stenotrophomonas said...

I thought it was a helmet mounted camera. The audio must've been dubbed in later, unless the guy has unlimited lungs and can concentrate on talking while properly placing his feet. The video appeared on YouTube last summer, then disappeared for a while.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txdv_oNq81I&feature=player_embedded#!

reappeared:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uccjrp5NRYE&feature=channel

and promptly disappeard. Not sure if the one I linked is from or approved by
http://www.theonlineengineer.org/TheOLEBLOG/

So watch it while you can!


I was approaching the top of Mt.Tandy a few days ago when I saw some liquid drops coming off high up the tower. Since there are no restroom facilities up there I paused for a minute....

They will probably be replacing the guy wires to various locations around Mt.Tandy. Did you notice all the giant spools behind the building?