Storm eunice

[jenkinsbrynmair]

It's not heights I mind so much, although in our case the ridge must be at least nine metres above the ground

Ah, you have a bungalow.

I was never comfortable with heights, when I told my father he said 'I'd rather an apprentice that's afraid of falling - it's the ones who aren't afraid that usually fall off' sometimes I'd be fine (later in life, perfectly happy searching ships' cranes and 'monkey islands' but I sometimes had moments when I'd jus freeze and couldn't move (I remember working on one site, had been zipping up and down a vertical ladder to the second level of a factory unit all day then once, all i had to do was step to my right off the ladder on to the scaffold and I froze, took two men to get me down!! from then on I was more afraid of freezing than I was of heights!!

 

[Erichalfbee]

We had a loose ridge tile this morning. Stan skipped along the roof as if it was at ground level. Frightening!

 

[JamezF]

Not far short of forty years ago I worked as a labourer for the builders who restored the house I now live in to, well, being a house, really. Prior to that it had an order preventing human habitation as far as I'm aware.

One of the builders had been a North Sea diver and at the time was a fireman (as with many rural stations they weren't "full time", but just had to rock up when their pager went off), so he wasn't exactly a stranger to dangerous situations. One day he ended up betting the other labourer that he could walk along one of the first floor joists (well before there were any floors or ceilings) with his eyes closed. He did it, too. Absolutely bonkers.

James

 

[Newbeeneil]

I used to work as a resident engineer on the M25/M23 motorway junction at Merstham. One morning I was stood at the south end of the half built M23 viaduct when a chippy carrying a saw in one hand and a bag in the other jumped up on to one of the steel beams which were about 600 wide and bristled with shear studs (large steel bolts that connect the beams to the concrete deck).
He proceeded to tip toe between the studs the 300m along the beam about 25m above the soon to be constructed M25.
I turned to my colleague and said “did I just see that?” He replied “Yep, and he didn’t even have any laces in his boots”
This death defying feat was to avoid walking down the embankment to the M25 level and up the other side!
It still makes me cringe to think about it!

 

[BBC]

Old school.
A lot of trust was placed in ridge tiles and coping stones!

 

[pargyle]

Not far short of forty years ago I worked as a labourer for the builders who restored the house I now live in to, well, being a house, really. Prior to that it had an order preventing human habitation as far as I'm aware.

One of the builders had been a North Sea diver and at the time was a fireman (as with many rural stations they weren't "full time", but just had to rock up when their pager went off), so he wasn't exactly a stranger to dangerous situations. One day he ended up betting the other labourer that he could walk along one of the first floor joists (well before there were any floors or ceilings) with his eyes closed. He did it, too. Absolutely bonkers.

James

I feel sick just thinking about this ... I can't walk a beam with my eyes open let alone closed ... and anything above a foot off the ground I consider high ! I do go up ladders and scaffold towers maintaining my own house but I hate it and i always try to keep one hand for myself and one for the job ...

Oddly, I have a MEWP certiifcate (mobile elevating work platform - a cherry picker) and I've never had any issues going up in one of those so it's not the actual height that seems to bother me - I think it's to do with the feeling of insecurity at there being nothing between me and the ground that is the problem.

Some years ago (when our children were very small) we went to Stone Mountain, Georgia, USA and there was a rope bridge across a canyon. I was getting along reasonably well carrying one of our kids and one hand on the rope handrail until my wife's uncle decided it would be funny to jump up and down and get the damn thing bouncing - totally finished me and I froze !

 

[Erichalfbee]

Some years ago (when our children were very small) we went to Stone Mountain, Georgia, USA and there was a rope bridge across a canyon. I was getting along reasonably well carrying one of our kids and one hand on the rope handrail until my wife's uncle decided it would be funny to jump up and down and get the damn thing bouncing - totally finished me and I froze !

Yes. I froze even on the Capilano bridge and that’s a big secure bridge.
Years later I trekked in Nepal and had to get used to rickety suspension bridges. Still almost paralysed inside.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

It's not heights I mind so much, although in our case the ridge must be at least nine metres above the ground at the back of the house which is enough to cause concern in my case.

Something weird happens when I can see stuff apparently adjacent to each other (for example the roof and the ground below it) moving at radically different speeds and it makes me feel very uncomfortable. I find the same happens when I'm driving in the outside lane of a motorway with a concrete barrier. Seeing the barrier apparently moving through my vision very quickly whilst the traffic the other side of it seems to be much slower is disturbing and I either have to move out of the lane or concentrate very hard on ignoring that part of my field of view.

James

Discworld fans will recall the wizzard Rincewind having no concerns about heights - it was grounds that caused the problem.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I feel sick just thinking about this ... I can't walk a beam with my eyes open let alone closed

you should try climbing a jacob's ladder up the side of an anchored supertanker in ballast with the wind blowing up a 5 or 6. if I was driving the RHIB it would be wait until the person is on the ladder then clear away and hold station downstream, so if they fell they'd have a 'soft' landing in the water and you could recover them as they float past

 

[Erichalfbee]

I watched my one and only child climb a Tall Ship mast once. Her whole life flashed in front of me. Awful experience and it wasn’t me doing it.

 

[pargyle]

you should try climbing a jacob's ladder up the side of an anchored supertanker in ballast with the wind blowing up a 5 or 6. if I was driving the RHIB it would be wait until the person is on the ladder then clear away and hold station downstream, so if they fell they'd have a 'soft' landing in the water and you could recover them as they float past

I've seen the Pilots doing it on more than one occasion with the car cariiers that come into Southampton - I don't know how they do it .. the car carriers are like a block of flats on their sides and even with the door open it's a five storey climb .... no safety line - very brave !

 

[JamezF]

Discworld fans will recall the wizzard Rincewind having no concerns about heights - it was grounds that caused the problem.

Indeed so

James

 

[JamezF]

I've just remembered another one... In 1999 I was working close to St Paul's Cathedral, if memory serves on the seventh floor of an office block on Gresham Street. From the windows we could look across to a nearby block that was being demolished from the top down. Skips were being lifted up to the top of the building by a tower crane and then taken down the same way once full.

At some point there was clearly some sort of problem with the hook mechanism. One of the workers clearly decided it could be fixed in situ, strolled out down the crane jib, climbed down onto the hook mechanism and started working on it, seven floors up and no safety gear. I felt sick for him

James

 

[North End Bees]

I feel sick just thinking about this ... I can't walk a beam with my eyes open let alone closed ... and anything above a foot off the ground I consider high !

You wouldn't want to be standing on the ledge where this guy is then! Makes me feel sick just watching it!

 

[pargyle]

You wouldn't want to be standing on the ledge where this guy is then! Makes me feel sick just watching it!

OMG ... nearly brought my breakfast up. I can't even walk within six feet of an unprotected edge ... I have a problem walking round the medieval walls of York where there is no handrail on the inner side in places ! Standing on any sort of a ledge with a drop would be suicidal for me...