dovecott
3 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2015–2025
5:52 · 6.7M views · Jan 10, 2008
Footage of British steeplejack Fred Dibnah climbing a chimney overhang at over fifty years old, without a harness. It is a short clip from his steeplejack work.
HN shares it as a dizzying example of Dibnah's fearless chimney work, in threads about heights and climbing.
5 comments from Hacker News
If anyone is wondering how he got the ladders up the side of the chimney in the first place: [LINK] I rediscovered Fred on YouTube a couple of years ago, and spent far too much time watching pretty much everything I could find. As the title suggests, watching the overhang climb in this is enough to make you feel dizzy: this video
As an American, I had to Google Fred Dibnah since I had never heard of him. The quick-and-dirty: [LINK] Extra bonus video: here he is at age 50 scaling a chimney... this video . Made my palms a bit sweaty just watching it. Amazing that he didn't even use a harness.
I free climbed radio towers on mesa's in the Pilbara as part of work experience in high school .. bit before health and safety was a thing. The steeplejack work of Fred Dibnah is quite a thing to watch. this video [LINK]
Those are good points - and match what I've seen with arborists who climb trees, prune, and do full removals for a living - chunking trees down from the top, oftentimes while they're in them. A lot of safety procedures and best practices diverge wildly from those in other industries. I get the impression it's probably the same way with chimneys in the UK, given that industry's long history. [1] In arboriculture, the following weird things are acceptable(-ish, depending on the country): - The climber is often supported by a single non-redundant rope, unlike rope access in other fields where two ropes are required. - "Riding the ball", or using a crane to hoist a human load, is done in exceptional circumstances. - Some critical PPE gear is often hand-made, it's very common for climbers to splice their own ropes. - Even the most die-hard chainsaw-safety advocates will grudgingly acknowledge that sometimes situations call for one-handed use. Some of these industry practices are in direct-conflict with more broad OSHA and/or EN safety standards. It isn't that the industry disregards safety - most climbers and crews I know are very safety conscious. Rather, the situations are different enough that the risk-mitigation calculus arrives at different answers. Where a ladder climber may be not-always attached to the ladder, in the tree-care industry, that's utterly unacceptable. [1] eg, one of the many Fred Dibnah videos on YouTube this video
Whole host of his videos are on Youtube, many hours worth: [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] *Other videos* - [Fred Dibnah laddering a chimney (Part 1)]( [LINK] ) - [Fred Dibnah laddering a chimney (Part 2)]( [LINK] ) - [Fred Dibnah How to climb a chimney overhang at 50+]( this video ) - [Fred Dibnah How to erect a chimney scaffold]( [LINK] ) - [Fred Dibnah Tribute (2004)]( [LINK] )