What being trained to climb power poles the first time is like. ELITE Lineman - Class 15

Ever wondered what it's like being trained to climb a pole for the first time? In this video you'll watch Randy, our instructor, walk these students through their first steps climbing a pole. If you come to our school your experience learning this will be probably exactly the same.


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[brysonmagness]

Why teach the 2 step method when belt movement with each step is so much faster? I’m in line school in Texas right now and it seems like everywhere has a different method

[edge]

Interesting how times change. Now there’s a whole industry of these “schools” to teach people how to climb and frame and do maintenance on poles. I was in the trade for over 4 decades at a large electric utility. I started as a ground hand, was taught to climb by the journeymen on the crews and climbed every day during lunchtime and after work. When I went to “line school” I could climb and work very well. Some others in the school had never been on the wood. There were no Bucksqueeze fall arrest systems back then and in school we were prohibited from belting up the pole, what we called “hitch hiking”. Everything was free climbing in school and all training was done on 40’ poles. The last week of school we were taken to bare 85’ poles to climb, then to a stand alone lattice tower to climb. The school had one journeyman assisting the instructor who climbed the tower first and waited for us all at the goats head. Once we were all at the top, we went down with the journeyman the last down. Again, no fall arrest systems back in the day either on the wood or the steel. I’ll say this, the first few times up the steel is a thrill. Good luck to all of you in the school, hopefully you find work once you finish. Try for an IBEW apprenticeship once you’re out, tough to get in, if you’re good, you’ll never go hungry, again good luck!

[Topper-gfxl]

Man, my climbing instructor walked just like him.

[danni]

This is so interesting.
If I take 2 weeks off from riding my horse, I'm so painful, I can't get out of bed for at least 3 days. I'll assume they need a massage, heating pads, hot baths, and over-the-counter pain relief.
Being a lineman is such a physical, and mental occupation, I can't even imagine the physical strength it takes.
***I'd like to think linemen have been an electrician first.***
I'm a country gal that lives on a farm, so my "fun" is driving past a construction crew and looking at the handsome men's muscles, sweating, and how fearless they are.
I suppose if I were a 'city girl', suits and ties would be attractive, but manual labor guys are the best IMO.
I wonder how many drop out of the training, because of the pain? There are deaths to consider too.

[culbyj]

this is the biggest clown show ever for lineman training.