Galich tower

The height of the towers in Elektrostal is 220 meters. Near the small town of Galich in the Kostroma region, there is an abandoned television mast that is over one hundred meters higher. The top platform of this mast is situated at a height of 350 meters. For comparison: the height of the Eiffel Tower is only 324 meters.

The tower in Galich is so large that it cannot fit into a single frame unless you step back a respectable distance.

Like the towers in Elektrostal, the tower in Galich stands strictly vertically and is resistant to wind thanks to dozens of thick metal guy wires. Of course, the tower doesn’t have the tenfold safety margin. The Elektrostal radio complex was built in 1933 and could still be successfully operated to this day. The tower in Galich was constructed in the 1990s and will soon be demolished without ever being operational: the technical report already mentions a 5-centimeter deviation in the support. Soviet junk or not, they built things for eternity back then.

Inaccessible height.

The adventures begin at the very bottom. First, workers are welding up the tower. According to the plan, they are supposed to dismantle the iron bridge from the adjacent building, weld the first two floors of the tower with iron sheets, and remove the wooden staircase.

Wooden staircase! The first two spans have already been cut, but that didn’t stop those who wanted to climb the tower, and someone built a ladder from two birch trunks and cross planks. The steps were nailed to the trunks with nails, and the ladder was secured to the support with tape.

Climbing a wooden structure held together with tape twenty meters up is indescribable. After overcoming the first obstacle, another one arises: the hatch on the third span is welded shut with a grid, which needs to be chipped away from the outside.

In the VKontakte group, they mentioned that someone recently slipped and fell from the tower. Presumably, that’s why they’re welding it shut. But the workers don’t give a damn: climb up, guys, it’s your business.

On one of the spans, right at the spot where the hatch is welded shut and needs to be chipped away from the outside, a bouquet of flowers is attached. Whether it’s just for decoration or in memory of the deceased is unknown.

It doesn’t take much brains to climb the tower. You don’t have to be strong either. You climb slowly, taking breaks on the platforms between spans. After an hour with swollen hands, you find yourself at the top — 330 meters high.

The view from here is wonderful.

You can climb another 20 meters higher. This platform is a technical one, and the antenna itself was supposed to be located on a separate mast. This mast is already standing without guy wires, so it sways slightly in the wind.

The staircase to the top is located inside the mast. It’s rusty and narrow. Here, fear of heights smoothly turns into claustrophobia.

And then back again.

The height, however, is not felt here as acutely as in Elektrostal: there is nothing to compare it with. From the Elektrostal tower, you can still see the city and three other towers, and feel the full scale of the madness. In Galich, there are forests and fields around the tower that stretch for many kilometers beyond the horizon. The city is not visible; it is thirty kilometers away from here. There’s nothing to measure the height against, so that special feeling is missing.

There is no famous crossbar here that everyone loves to climb on in Elektrostal. There is only a two-meter pole with mounts for the antenna. You can climb onto it and take a selfie, but be careful: there are no barriers or railings.

All in all, it was pretty ordinary. We climbed up, took some photos, and then climbed down. It was more exciting in Elektrostal.