company

Rope Partner’s history lies at the intersection of mountain climbing and the early “megawatt” wind energy industry.

In 1998 founder Chris Bley, an avid outdoorsman and environmentalist, was climbing in Joshua Tree National Park where he met a pair of enterprising climbers, Robert Jatkowski and Frank Seltenheim. They had started an unusual niche business in the former East Berlin: they offered their climbing and access skills to churches and construction sites that needed work done at hard-to-reach heights. In 1995 they were hired by world-famous environmental artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude to execute the complicated wrapping of the Reichstag, which further pushed their experience in the evolving field of rope access. In 1999 Chris visited Berlin and found the two climbers were increasingly being courted by another industry—the wind energy sector. At the time Germany was easily five years ahead of the U.S. in wind power development, and as Robert and Frank were beginning to specialize in wind energy, Chris was inspired to work with them and establish a U.S. presence in the nascent industry and so Rope Partner was born.

From these humble, grass roots beginnings Rope Partner has steadily built a reputation for integrity and trust that forms the foundation of a company that has the respect of all those in the wind industry who are tasked with the repair and maintenance of turbines. Over the years our pioneering rope access technique has become the benchmark for efficient, cost effective and environmentally appropriate access solutions.