A lot can go wrong

One reason is that tower construction and maintenance inherently dangerous. Its practitioners are clamped to an exposed structure while they are dozens — even hundreds — of feet above ground, with only their gear, skills and training standing between them and serious injury or death.

In other words, a lot can go wrong.

"They have to be cognizant that, every time they're working on a tower site, they have to have their head on a swivel," Schlekeway said. "They have to know what everyone else is doing, and there has to be communication."

Another factor is the climbers' attitude. For years, the tower industry was plagued by a perception that climbers had a "cowboy" mentality that often resulted in irresponsible and reckless behavior. Schlekeway believes that considerable strides have been made to drive out the cowboys, but the profession still attracts a personality type that isn't always safety conscious.

"The thing about this industry is that the Type A personalities are the ones that are going to be attracted to the role of the tower climber," he said. "So, sometimes there's an aura of invincibility when you're working with folks like that. That's why we preach to our member companies … that they have to create a culture of safety up front within their organization."

John Paul Jones — vice president of training for SafetyLMS, which provides classroom and on-site training for tower climbers — said the mentality of the climber is less of a factor than his age.

"When you see a 19-year-old kid show up on site, throw on their belt and start running up the tower, you have to ask yourself, 'How much time has that employer spent with this guy? How much real, good training has he given him?'"

Jones has a unique frame of reference because he also owns a tower-construction company — Tower and Turbine LLC, in Austin, Texas — and has a young son working for him as a climber. Young climbers tend to take risks that they're not trained to handle, largely because of a malady that Jones calls "testosterone poisoning."

"I know what it's like to have your 20-year-old son on the tower," he said. "Three times a day, I have to tell him to slow down, that it's not a race."

However, Scott Kisting, vice president of Midwest Underground Technology, Inc. (MUTI), a Champaign, Ill.-based tower construction and maintenance company, doesn't think a climber's age or personality type are the most significant factors. In fact, Kisting doesn't even think "cowboy" is a dirty word.

"It's okay for them to be a Type A personality, someone who has drive and excitement about life and doing things, as long as they're willing to learn and their ownership treats them with dignity," Kisting said.

"What we need is the right leadership. We won't be able to change a person's character, but what we can do is create a culture that allows people of excellent character to excel and enables people who need to mold their character to do so, if they choose to."

Standing in the way of Kisting's vision is the current reality, which is that tower construction, despite Jones's proclamation to the contrary, is a race — an arms race.