I was up next

On climbing suspension bridge towers

We we were driven out on the Banana from the garage at the toll plaza to the Dartmouth tower. The top of Dartmouth tower on the Angus L MacDonald Bridge is 338 feet above Harbour, 150 feet above the road. I was there to climb it.

I agreed to climb this tower for my gig as a host of a TV show called Behind the Scenes. There, I’m introducing the world to people and places that we may pass every day but never see what goes on there or how they work. During the call to the crew to see who was willing to go up, there wasn’t a lot of fighting. One thing was made clear. The climb was optional for “everyone except Jim”.

I knew part of the deal here was that as host, I would be doing all of the seemingly dangerous, physically demanding things. Sure there would be some easy parts, like touring a cannabis farm, but most of the time I’d be learning to escape crashed helicopters, or climbing ladders to high up and far away places. Deciding was easy. The next part, the climb, the execution of the com…