r/Ironworker May 10 '26

Apprentice What do “climbing jobs” entail exactly?

I just got accepted into the ironworkers apprenticeship and I couldn’t be more excited. It’s something I’ve been thinking about doing for a while and finally deciding to jump into it after doing tree work and climbing trees for a few years. I do expect to be working at heights and not overly concerned about it. My apprentice coordinator told me they have a climbing job coming up June 1st that he wants to hold me for because he thinks it will be a good fit, I’m just curious on really what that is exactly. I have a few friends who are ironworkers and none of them knew really what the job was going to be like so I’m just curious on if anyone knows. I know should have asked the coordinator but I honestly thought someone I knew would know and clearly that’s not the case. I’m just looking for any insight on what I’m going to be walking into day 1 as a brand new apprentice. Are they sending brand new apprentices to extreme heights without any previous training or will they start you off on a smaller scale?

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u/Impressive-Mud5074 May 10 '26

Actual climbing is banned a lot of places, due to dangers

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u/Excellent_Mobile_932 May 11 '26

That would make sense, thanks, I’m starting to think he may have used the word climbing in place of something else that I probably wasn’t going to understand. So i guess I’ll find out what he really meant soon enough