Downtown tourists gazing up wide-eyed. Workers ogling out of their office towers. And Steve Crank, dangling off some of the Twin Cities' most recognizable — and tallest — buildings, wiper at the ready.

The safety manager for Squeegee Squad, a St. Paul-based window-cleaning business with locations across the U.S., has been a high-rise window cleaner with the company for almost 20 years. His work has taken him to Las Vegas and Brazil. And his personal hobbies include snowboarding in the Rocky Mountains, cheering on Minnesota United as a season ticketholder and frequenting local breweries and concerts.

But none of that makes his voice perk up more than when he's talking about a spotless window.

"I don't know," Crank said. "It's just something about it."

The 39-year-old has polished the glass on both U.S. Bank Stadium and Huntington Bank Stadium. The tallest structures he's rappelled off of: Downtown St. Paul's Airye Condominiums, roughly 450 feet, and downtown Minneapolis' RBC Gateway, more than 500 feet.

Peak seasons for a window-washer are right now in the spring as well as the fall. But Squeegee Squad's business actually goes year-round, meaning Crank's been astride a skyscraper in the heat of the summer and thick of the winter, working through rain and wind.

Just not lightning, which is how Crank and his radar-watching ways earned him the nickname "the Weatherman." Being cautious also comes from Crank's experience on the job before federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations changed in 2017 — When building owners didn't have to provide anchorage for rope-descent systems, Crank said.

Now, though, the tall task is as safe as anyone's job, he said. In an interview edited for clarity and length, Crank shared what it's like in his shoes.

How'd you get your job?

It's funny, until I became a window-washer, I had no concept that people got paid to clean windows. I lived in a smaller town, Alexandria, and the Squeegee Squad owner had married someone I was family friends with. I wanted to move to the Twin Cities, and I knew if I called him, I'd have a job.

What drew you to it?

Instant gratification. It's really quick and easy to clean a window, and a clean window is just the best. All my friends work office jobs, and I like working with my hands. Initially, it was just a job, but it really became something I enjoy doing.

What's a typical day like?

Every day in the morning is kind of different. We'll get our routes for the day, and then we'll head out to the job sites. When we get to a site, we head up to the roof. Most of our rappelling projects are multiday, so we leave our equipment at the building. So it's mostly just getting up to the roof, then we work top-down.

Do you fear heights?

I do. I believe that evolution-wise, we all should be afraid of heights. But the amount of safety training we do, and the knowledge I have, that brings peace.

We get this all the time as window cleaners: People walk by and go, "You guys are crazy doing this!" and I just laugh it off. We roll our eyes and move on. But if I sat that person down for half a day, or even a couple of hours, I could convince them that what we're doing is safe.

The people that I get scared of when we hire them are the people that aren't afraid of heights. Because that means you don't respect it. If you don't respect it, you stop taking all of the steps to do the job correctly.

What's a memorable on-the-job moment?

It was 2011, I think, and we got to clean the scoreboard at Target Field. That was pretty memorable because I had just started with the company, and we had never done anything like that. More recently, I got to meet Minnesota Wild player Kirill Kaprizov. We cleaned his windows. I've met the rapper Slug from Atmosphere, Gophers coach P.J. Fleck, fromer NFL player Ben Leber. We get to see some cool stuff, and every once in a while, you meet somebody.

Any surprising parts?

How young of a recognized industry it is. They really changed a lot of the OSHA rules in 2012 here in Minnesota and in 2017 federally. Our industry used to be really cowboy. Wild, Wild West type stuff. It's the opposite of that now, which is good. The good companies out there do a really good job training their employees. Even our competitors: There's a lot of good companies here in Minnesota that train hard. But the industry was a fairly dangerous place not too long ago.

Why do you love your work?

Our rappelling team is pretty small, and we're all pretty close, because you have to rely on each other. If there was an accident, that person that's working with you is responsible to try and help rescue you. We're the most skilled of all of the window cleaners. We have been at the company the longest and received the most training. So we feel like we're this cool little gang. Not everybody can do this work.

There are some days where I'm sitting on the edge of the roof, where I look around and go, "Yeah, this is a really weird way to make money." But other days, the sun is out, it's cool, it's like, "Man, this is awesome." We're up on a penthouse that's however many millions of dollars, and they paid for that view. But we get to see it for free.

Gannon Hanevold is a freelancer writer based in Minneapolis. His email is gannonhanevold14@hotmail.com.

In Their Shoes is an occasional series highlighting Minnesotans at work. If there's a type of job you want us to profile — or if you have someone who would be a good candidate — email us at InTheirShoes@startribune.com.