Bucket List Item No. 13: Climb a wind turbine

Dad has taken several groups to climb wind turbines (he has connections as he built a house for the boss dude), but never his daughters, as many as their pleas were.  But since Krista is now company as well as a daughter, I guess he figured he could do it.  

Krista and I met Dad in town and rode with him up to Bickleton.  It was to be a warm day, so naturally I wore shorts.  Naturally, the first thing Bjorn (boss dude) says after introductions was, "Sorry, I should have warned you--we don't do shorts."  There was a flash of "panic" in my mind that we would have to go all the way back home, but he finished with, "I'll go find some coveralls."  He got two pairs of overalls sporting a name tag with "Tim" on them, and told Krista that she might want to wear a pair too, for fear of grease getting on her clothes.  I'm pretty sure he did that so I wouldn't have to be the only one wearing them, but I was appreciative!  We changed in the ladies' room and giggled at each other, and declared that we needed a picture.  Right then and there.

Then they ushered us off to tell us the rules, get us harnessed up, and off we went to the windmill/turbine/tower.  I'm not sure of the correct term, so I may go back and forth.  I handed Bjorn my phone and asked him to get a picture of us right before we headed up.  After saying,  "Twenty bucks," (I'm wondering if this is where my brothers got this, as I heard it several times from him!) he laid down on the ground and got some cool shots.

They send one guy up first to open up the hatch, and he also carried a bag on his back with water and our cameras in it.  I was also appreciative of that, due to the fact that the harnesses had already added an extra 10 pounds.  Also, I expected sore legs from the deal, but hadn't thought about how much you use your arms when climbing a ladder.  Should be obvious but, hey, I don't climb ladders on a regular basis, especially ones that tall.  It actually didn't take nearly as long as I thought, and therefore wasn't as hard as I thought.  It was hard, but we only took one big rest, which was less than I expected.

When we arrived up top, Bjorn told me which spots to hook my "safety rope" up to.  "Hook your left one there, and then stretch and hook to that one, and then move your other one to that one there."  Basically, it put my out on the ledge.  While I was watching the others get situated, he got busy with my camera, unbeknownst to me.

Looks like we might've known he was taking this one.

Dad getting a good look around.  For some reason I had expected a lot more room up top, but if the hatch isn't opened, it would be a tight fit.  Here you can kind of see how it is opened.  Refer to the last photo also.

One thing I had thought about most when hoping to climb a wind tower was the amazing views that we would be able to see from way up there.  I realized on the way there that I would have to make another trip, probably in the spring to get any of that.  With wildfires raging in both Oregon and Washington, we've kind of been living in a cloud since early-mid August.

Bjorn telling us all about it.

Morgan, the other guy that came all the way up with us.  He went to school with Aaron.

265 feet below...

More wind turbines.  In the top right of this photo are the headquarters for these two "farms" of windmills.  Dad built a couple of those buildings.

Krista was trying to get the reflection of the windmills in the distance in my safety glasses.  Too bad it didn't turn out, would've been really cool!

Dad pointed out some bolts to me on the way up with different colored marks on them.  They mark them each year when they inspect with a different color and that's how they can tell if they've moved.  These ones were up top.

Kind of looking in.  I think right where Bjorn is standing is where we came up.

I thought "our" shadow was neat.

These blades are 145 feet long.  And if you've ever seen them move, you, like most others, probably think they look lazy and aren't moving very fast.  Well, think of the circumference of the circle the tips have to go--about 950 feet, and the fastest I've counted them doing it is in 4 seconds.  I'm not sure if that math adds up (never mind, I checked, and it does) but the maximum speed of the tips is just under 160 miles per hour!

I have conquered the 44G!

On the way driving out, Dad noticed someone doing repair work on another turbine.  In a man lift.  265 feet up, in a bucket.  That's something that I probably would NOT do!!

There were actually two guys up there--crazy!  See how the hatch is opened?  In the first pictures up top, I was sitting just past the opening to this side, near the "tail."

This was a fun adventure that I'd definitely do again!  Of course, it was a very pleasant day, with just a tiny hint of a breeze.  If it was hot, or cold, or windy, I might've not enjoyed it so much.  Those things are made to sway with the wind after all, and that probably isn't really my style ;)