High Garrett Radio Mast
A vertical walk in the country side accompanied by Essex constabulary for a bit of company
History
Given that it is just a radio mast climb, there isn’t a huge amount of history regarding the structure. However, it the mast stands on the grounds of High Garrett POW camp which has since been levelled. The US military used to own the site but at some point after the sites demolition the mast was handed over to Essex Police. The police still owned the site as of 2012 however its stated as ‘rented out’ but does not specify who is renting it.
The Climb
Summary
All went well getting to the top, took some photos and headed down, the police turn up so i hid my SD card that also contained a previous climbs photos. Got a slap on the writ and told to bugger off only to find i had lost my SD card. Lessons were learnt.
Full Account
As I had been exploring less than a year, this was only my second/third climb. The previous ones had been at night or in poor weather conditions so the chances of being spotted was greatly reduced. In my infinite wisdom I decided I would climb it at 12 noon, it was on a Sunday but it was broad daylight with very clear weather. This doesn’t sound too bad until you find out where the mast is situated…
As you can see, it wasn’t going to be subtle. It was a simple climb with lots of stopping points and amazingly I didn’t get spotted. Took some photos and videos from the top without issue, looked out across the country side and after twenty minutes I decided to climb down. I got a quarter of the way down when I hear sirens in the distance… I climb to the nearest platform and sit down to try and draw as little attention as possible. Being a radio tower there isn’t a huge amount of hide behind. I watched the police car come flying down the road hoping they would carry on pass. The I saw the indicator go on, fuck. The game was up. Climbed most of the way back down when I remembered I hadn’t cleared my SD card of the pervious building climb I had done. Being a noob and thinking they might take my photos/get funny about climbing something else, I took the SD card out and shoved it in my boxers.
I get to the bottom and get the standard from the police, this was my first encounter so I was arse licking a lot. Didn’t help that one of them was a massive tool but either way they said don’t do it again and off you go. Done and dusted in 10, back to the bike and head home. Just grab the SD card from my boxers… you’ve got to be shitting me. It wasn’t there! And no, it hadn’t ventured in to the dark abyss. I had managed to lose two climbs worth of photos and they never even looked at my camera! Luckily I had a few on my phone and was wearing the GoPro the entire time.
Anyway, on with the two photo and the video
Photos
Video
Thanks For Reading
Exxperious
A vertical walk in the country side accompanied by Essex constabulary for a bit of company
History
Given that it is just a radio mast climb, there isn’t a huge amount of history regarding the structure. However, it the mast stands on the grounds of High Garrett POW camp which has since been levelled. The US military used to own the site but at some point after the sites demolition the mast was handed over to Essex Police. The police still owned the site as of 2012 however its stated as ‘rented out’ but does not specify who is renting it.
The Climb
Summary
All went well getting to the top, took some photos and headed down, the police turn up so i hid my SD card that also contained a previous climbs photos. Got a slap on the writ and told to bugger off only to find i had lost my SD card. Lessons were learnt.
Full Account
As I had been exploring less than a year, this was only my second/third climb. The previous ones had been at night or in poor weather conditions so the chances of being spotted was greatly reduced. In my infinite wisdom I decided I would climb it at 12 noon, it was on a Sunday but it was broad daylight with very clear weather. This doesn’t sound too bad until you find out where the mast is situated…
As you can see, it wasn’t going to be subtle. It was a simple climb with lots of stopping points and amazingly I didn’t get spotted. Took some photos and videos from the top without issue, looked out across the country side and after twenty minutes I decided to climb down. I got a quarter of the way down when I hear sirens in the distance… I climb to the nearest platform and sit down to try and draw as little attention as possible. Being a radio tower there isn’t a huge amount of hide behind. I watched the police car come flying down the road hoping they would carry on pass. The I saw the indicator go on, fuck. The game was up. Climbed most of the way back down when I remembered I hadn’t cleared my SD card of the pervious building climb I had done. Being a noob and thinking they might take my photos/get funny about climbing something else, I took the SD card out and shoved it in my boxers.
I get to the bottom and get the standard from the police, this was my first encounter so I was arse licking a lot. Didn’t help that one of them was a massive tool but either way they said don’t do it again and off you go. Done and dusted in 10, back to the bike and head home. Just grab the SD card from my boxers… you’ve got to be shitting me. It wasn’t there! And no, it hadn’t ventured in to the dark abyss. I had managed to lose two climbs worth of photos and they never even looked at my camera! Luckily I had a few on my phone and was wearing the GoPro the entire time.
Anyway, on with the two photo and the video
Photos
Video
Thanks For Reading
Exxperious
