lo-tech idea - Mast climbing?

[ontherocks83]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Obviously the question is to figure out if / how can be adapted to be safe(r).

There is nothing obvious about it.

You are posting vidoes of people doing things in a risky, dangerous, and not smart way. Your last video of someone standing on a ledge installing an A/C unit with the statement of: So many places where stuff like this happens all the time, would indicate that you are trying to justify the inherent danger of the first video. Sometimes there is no need to re-invent the wheel. There is already plenty of safe and proven ways to climb masts without the help of a friend if that is the part you are concerned about.

[john61ct]

Wow reading in a lot. My point was actually the opposite, and I am in fact as stated just asking for feedback.

I do assume members here are not total idiots, and value their own lives more than those in those two example videos.

[ontherocks83]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Wow reading in a lot. My point was actually the opposite, and I am in fact as stated just asking for feedback.

I do assume members here are not total idiots, and value their own lives more than those in those two example videos.

I don't buy it. Feedback on what???? How horrible of an idea it is? I'll let you guess at my answer.

Your thread title is "Mast Climbing?" meaning your are asking is this a good idea to do, not a hey look how dangerous this is. If you assumed we were all not "total idiots" but maybe only partial, then you would have made the thread title a statement about not being safe, instead of asking or suggesting about an option for mast climbing in your title.

[shorebird]

Any system is relatively safe with a belay, whether from a friend, or a self belay. No one in their right minds would ascend a mast with the system shown in the video without one. BTW, you also won't find many climbers using a rope that is left exposed to sun, wind, rain and salt for months or years, and use it as a sole safety line.

[Sand crab]

The guy is sliding his feet up past each other so it has to be a really wide pole (unlike a mast). It looks to be D shaped in cross section and he's climbing the flat side of the D. We don't see a different view. To make this work on a mast one would have to disengage one foot, sandal or whatever from the mast and place it above the other. That would be scary without a rope.

[john61ct]

I was asking sincerely, not sure why it would be taken otherwise.

That's valuable info from you last two, thanks, just the kind I was looking for.

And those who think the idea cannot be safely adapted, or only in certain limited situations, that is good input as well.

[double u]

...plucked the green drinking-nuts from thr palmtrees by the boatload using linemens "hooks" & a safetyline around my waist....when I was so much younger then...

[psk125]

Going up a mast would involve getting past all sorts of fittings, shrouds, tangs & halyards which could be tricky. Masts on boats also move around a bit more than poles stuck in the ground. It would definitely be a good idea to be belayed and tied to the mast, and to have snugly fitting shoes that couldn't fall to the deck (or overboard) if they slipped off. The taper and rounded shape of some masts might create problems too. Maybe suction cups?

[double u]

..wouldn't have dreamed of using them on a mast...!
well worked, but only for the fit, alert & adventurous:
pulling oneself up on an external halyard-you can do this singlehandedly, but take CARE!!!