Chris Bley and an associate had one of those “ah ha” moments back in 2000 when they parlayed their passion for their hobby, rock climbing, into a lucrative career: Wind turbine maintenance.

Bley and Eric Stanfield, who are co-owners of Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Rope Partner, don’t have time to rock climb much these days because they’re now using their climbing skills to clean, repair and maintain wind turbines at wind farming facilities.

Scaling towering turbines, technicians can be suspended for 12 hours at a time troubleshooting and fixing thin fiberglass blades, which can measure up to 120 feet long.

Their 35 full-time technicians are mainly dye-in-the-wool rock climbers who then have undergone extensive training to learn the ins and out of wind turbine maintenance. Scaling towering turbines, technicians can be suspended for 12 hours at a time troubleshooting and fixing thin fiberglass blades, which can measure up to 120 feet long. Lightning or ice often damages the blades, and panels might have to be replaced and sanded down as part of the maintenance protocol.

Bley said him and Stanfield were in the right place at the right time when their vision took shape a decade ago, as the wind power industry—in North America—was in the incubation stage. Over the past 10 years, as interest in wind energy has grown and more wind farms have been erected, demand for skilled turbine technicians has soared. The company works for both owners and manufacturers of wind turbines at sites across North America, from California to New York to Canada.

“Starting this business was the ‘perfect storm’ for us in that we had the skills to access wind turbines and the industry was starting to emerge in certain pockets,” said Bley, who adds that his company will not take on work where wind turbines are more modest in height, such as 100 to 200 feet high. Instead, they only consider working in the rarefied air of 300-plus feet above the ground, leaving smaller turbine maintenance jobs to other firms.

Scaling new heights
Years ago, Bley was a student at the University of California-Santa Cruz, and partook in rock climbing as a hobby. Following graduation, Bley eventually accepted a position in Silicon Valley, working for a startup company that manufactured bar code readers. “I conducted business in Europe, where I set up two operations. I was exposed to the wind energy industry, particularly in Germany, and saw that wind power in the U.S. lagged behind European efforts. Germany, for instance, had been installing large megawatt wind turbines for years.”

Bley, who served specifically as Rope Partner’s Director of Business Development, returned to the states and made his way to regions of the U.S. that were recognized as the cradle for wind power generation—namely Texas, Wisconsin and, closer to home, the Columbia River Gorge of the Pacific Northwest. He conducted necessary due diligence and then saw a compelling reason to launch Rope Partner, bidding Silicon Valley adieu—at least professionally.

Rope Partner growth has been totally commensurate with the growth of the wind generation industry. A decade ago, Bley referred to the industry as a “small, close-knit group,” but today it has mushroomed to represent a powerhouse network of participants. To wit: Its most recent national conference attracted close to 30,000 people, said Bley, a staunch environmentalist himself as well as Stanfield.

Bley said he considers his company to be the only one that has parlayed a hobby like rock climbing into a bona fide business venture. There might be other professions that play in this space that have some degree of crossover, such as high-rise window washers or those who work on offshore oil rigs. But it’s a safe bet that these providers did not have the vision to parlay a hobby into a full-fledged business.

Extensive training required
To work for Bley and Stanfield requires an exhaustive degree of training. Bley said that his techs are required to complete 500 hours of training to attain a Level 1 technician status and then must complete 500 more hours to achieve Level 2. Eventually they attain the holy grail—Level 3 designation. Training costs $1,500, and the pay for a basic one-day job by two climbers might start at $2,000. The rope technicians work in pairs and have strict protocols to follow. The result is that no one has ever had an accident working for Rope Partner, he said.

“We have an interesting mix in that we’ll train and hire people that have pure rock climbing skills but no experience with fiberglass maintenance. On the flipside, we’ll consider people that have the wind turbine maintenance down cold but do not have rope access training,” explains Bley.

Bley said that on average wind turbine units require maintenance every two years. But like a vehicle, at any given time there might be a need for a cleaning or repair. Bley said that in Europe the regular inspection involves that of gear boxes, generators and the fiberglass blades.

Eric Stanfield (pictured left) and Chris Bley, co-owners of Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Rope Partner, don't have time to rock climb much these days because they're now using their climbing skills to clean, repair and maintain wind turbines at wind farming facilities.

Bley said he and Stanfield are eager to expand the breadth and depth of their business in several ways. One latent opportunity occurred in April when the Obama administration approved what is regarded as the nation’s first offshore wind farm—called Cape Wind and will be located off Cape Cod.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the decision would clear the way for a 130-turbine wind farm in Nantucket Sound. Cape Wind was in its ninth year of federal review, and Salazar stepped in to bring what he called much-needed resolution to the bitterly contested proposal. “We’re very eager to see how Cape Wind develops and will be watching closely because the offshore opportunity is an intriguing one for Rope Partner,” said Bley.

And to think: It all started with scaling rocks, and now Bley and Stanfield are on a roll.