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THE VIDEO SHELF · steeplejack chimney climbing

Fred Dibnah How to climb a chimney overhang at 50+

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.

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Why HN readers recommended it

HN shares it as a dizzying example of Dibnah's fearless chimney work, in threads about heights and climbing.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel
dovecott
Topic
steeplejack chimney climbing
Format
other
Level
general
HN recommenders in dataset
3
HN mentions in dataset
5
Recommendation years in dataset
2015–2025

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

  • 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... [VIDEO] . Made my palms a bit sweaty just watching it. Amazing that he …

    MrZongle2 on Hacker News · 2015-06
    In How my father gave me a terrifying lesson at 10

  • 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 …

    nothrowaway on Hacker News · 2015-06
    In Fred Dibnah – Steeplejack (1979) [video]

  • 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. [VIDEO] [LINK]

    defrost on Hacker News · 2025-01
    In Documenting an 1115 ft radio tower climb

Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.

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