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UER Mobile > Canada: Other > Climbing fire towers of Saskatchewan (Viewed 8365 times)

post by FoMoCo

Climbing fire towers of Saskatchewan
< on 1/27/2017 2:15 AM >

By no means is this 'urban' exploring, it defiantly falls under remote exploration; it doesn't really fall under abandonment.

Fire towers have been around as long as forest fires have been threatening communities, but in 2013 the Ministry of Environment fire management and forest protection branch had to cut back its workforce and ended up laying off 40 towermen. They were replaced with cameras. Meaning that remote towermen cabins were left virtually abandoned and towers are left 'in use' but unoccupied. The province unfortunately removed all the cupolas (the little house on top) and just installed a camera on top that is remotely controlled from Prince Albert base, all the imagery is also sent to Prince Albert where 3 people can look at monitors from 50ish towers, 40 people's job just became 3 people's jobs. It was a controversial move by the Ministry, especially with the major wildfires in 2015. Lack of early detection was brought up when forest fires got out of hand.

Most of these remote cabins are fenced off with barbed wire, even if they weren't, the cabins are locked up. Occasionally the bases of the towers are fenced off as well, roads to them (which can me kilometers long) often have locked gates prevented one from driving to it...time for a hike in bear country!

Saskatchewan fire towers are 90ft tall and are often erected on natural heights of land creating stunning views, if you do get a chance to visit a tower keep your face out of view of the rotating camera, or go when it's not fire season.

Be safe when climbing any kind of tower; don't go alone, especially in remote places in bear country.
I have decided to say names/locations as this information as already publicly available with a quick Google search.

Photos taken from 2013-2016.
Enjoy!

PHOTOSPHERE link:
http://sphereshare...712e2f6e4c0b0d914f
This photosphere was taken at the round hill fire tower in 2016.

1.

Map of towers in the province.

2.

Nesbit tower.

3.

Anglin Lake tower, cabin in the fall 2013.

4.

Anglin Lake tower, fall 2013.

5.

Anglin Lake tower, spring 2014.

6.

Anglin Lake tower, fall 2014, note the cabin on the hilltop.

7.

Summit tower (not on the map) is located in the Prince Albert National Park; the national park decommissioned all 7 of their towers all together in the 90's, (to my knowledge only 2 are still standing) relying on aerial detection during high risk days. Furthermore the park doesn't suppress fires as it's the natural cycle of the boreal forest.

8.

Summit tower fall 2014.

9.

Summit tower fall 2014.

10.

Summit tower, fall 2014.

11.

Summit tower, spring 2015.

12.

Summit tower, fall 2015.

13.

Round hill tower, (see photosphere) fall 2016.

14.

Amazing view from Round hill tower, fall 2016.

15.

Molanosa tower, summer 2016 (didn't have time to climb it

).

16.

Thunder mountain tower and a radio repeater tower to the right, spring 2015.

17.

Thunder mountain tower, spring 2015.

18.

Thunder mountain tower, summer 2016 (now fenced off).

19.

Thunder mountain tower was located right in the middle of a 119 000 hectare fire that burned in July of 2015. This photo was taken in the spring of 2015 before the fire.

20.

Roughly the same photo almost a year later.

Overall a nice thing to do on a warm weekend in the spring.

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post by PhoenixFinder

Re: Climbing fire towers of Saskatchewan
<Reply # 1 on 1/30/2017 11:01 PM >

Awesome pictures. I wish we had stuff like this in Arizona ;(

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post by OH_ZOG_NO

Re: Climbing fire towers of Saskatchewan
<Reply # 2 on 1/31/2017 7:02 AM >

Posted by FoMoCo
By no means is this 'urban' exploring, it defiantly falls under remote exploration; it doesn't really fall under abandonment.

I think your looking for rurbex. I always though of fire towers as comfy towers with cabins at the top. Guess i was wrong. Nice pics

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post by Peptic Ulcer

Re: Climbing fire towers of Saskatchewan
<Reply # 3 on 1/31/2017 3:07 PM >

I remember reading a Kerouac novel in college (On The Road?) and he talked about being a fire watcher. It seemed lonely but there was a romance to it that fascinated me at the time. Looks like these towers have gone the way of buggy whips but you can't stop "progress" I guess...

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post by superphoenix

Re: Climbing fire towers of Saskatchewan
<Reply # 4 on 2/7/2017 3:38 AM >

These are beautiful!

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post by Whyshy

Re: Climbing fire towers of Saskatchewan
<Reply # 5 on 8/28/2019 3:53 PM >

well its different haha

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post by rampantscyther

Re: Climbing fire towers of Saskatchewan
<Reply # 6 on 10/22/2019 7:46 PM >

Man great pics. You’re brave to climb those. I’ll explore any place as long as it’s not straight up 🤣

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post by ThePilotGuy

Re: Climbing fire towers of Saskatchewan
<Reply # 7 on 10/23/2019 7:07 PM >

Some really great shots. It's unfortunate that the cupola's were removed, but I don't think I would climb the tower even if they were still up there.

You're braver than I am to climb these towers.

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post by RescueMe1060

Re: Climbing fire towers of Saskatchewan
<Reply # 8 on 1/11/2020 2:36 AM >

As expected these are some amazing views of the surrounding landscape.

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