Gear Obsession

TreeMuggs

Treehouser
Joined
Dec 24, 2016
Messages
198
Location
Southwestern Ontario, Canada
Excerpt from my article...



For the majority of my climbing career I have been what you would consider a minimalist. The people that I learned from were the same. Just old-school climbing with a rope, lanyard, and handsaw. Natural crotch rigging, because it’s fast, and because, as we used to say, “friction is a good thing”. Trucker’s hitch instead of a fiddle block because it just works. No fancy gear, no new-fangled whatsits. Just one guy, one rigging line, one job well done. Consistently.

I want to paint a picture to illustrate a point. Here’s the scenario:

Early morning, mid-September. It’s you vs. Jack Nicklaus: 18 holes, winner takes all. You are playing on your home course, so you know it better than the bottom of your beer glass. Jack has never played this course before, in fact, he hasn’t even practiced in 6 months. In your corner, you have a professional caddy for expert advice, as well as a fully stocked bag with $5000 worth of the finest golf clubs that money can buy. Jack on the other hand, has to carry his own clubs around, which by the way, are old and crappy. His clubs were old and crappy in 1962. Now, any predictions on how this plays out?

Here’s my prediction: He is gonna whoop your butt.

You see, someone who is great at what they do is not great because they have all the fancy kit. They are great because they put in the time. They practiced. They studied the tape. They were willing to fail in the short term to win in the long term. They earned the right to have a fully-stocked gear bag with all of the latest gadgets and gizmos. The gadgets and gizmos were not the starting point. They were the extra bonus features tacked onto the end. The job could have been done just as well without them.

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Continue Reading: EducatedClimber - Gear Obsession


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True to a point. Pretty sure if Tom Brady and I got into a football throwing contest, he would win until I bust out the new super hyper ultra football cannon. Playing a whole game, skill wins. But for single tasks from the game, I think technology is a leveler.

Thinking of throw line and ascent specifically.
 
I agree with a lot of that, just getting to a certain place in a tree faster makes no odds if the decisions you make when you get there are flawed.

It's important when you work on a certain part of a tree be it a reduction, deadwooding or the like, to not have to go back there.

When I was younger I was racing around, wasting effort.
 
Sure, I also agree to a point.

Gear is no replacement for sound judgement.

But coming from a place where everything I learned started from that gear-intensive environment, it just served to broaden the scope of what was possible.

That's not to say ten years in the trenches, rocking out removals with nothing but three strand wouldn't instill some solid fundamentals. Of course it would. It's just there's a whole world of best practices evolving around an expanding arsenal of equipment, and the good techniques are spreading, because the good techniques make sense, not because they involve shiny gizmos.

Cheers
 
So, what are some of these good techniques coming from best practices?

Not being confrontational, I'm sure you're right, but some examples would illustrate it better.
 
I completely understand and agree with your point that knowledge is more important than gear, but look at the alternative. Most tree work around here is done by bucket, and very few outfits here climb at all. Most of the bucket guys don't climb at all, and the companies that have climbers are usually smaller outfits, or charged double because they had to climb. Do you need the knowledge on how to do your job with little to no tooling, yes. But then gear just speeds you up and makes everything less labor intensive. By adding srt, a rope walker setup (hopefully a wraptor soon), a grcs or similar, spider legs for swinging overhanging leads, a speedline setup, and for me an extra long double lanyard for multiple tie ins, graplling hook work, and srt retrievable redirects i can make a mess much faster than just using a blakes hitch and taking wraps to lower (i still natural crotch a ton, works well for me).
 
Is equipment considered gear? If so I disagree, I get soo much done now with our 35 ton crane and all the accessory equipment. I would have a very hard time going back to old school humping brush and loading blocks of wood. That being said all that is on my harness loops when I climb is a steel rope snap for throwing the rope and a binner, heck with all these young bucks with racks of 30 pieces of jangly gear....
 
So, what are some of these good techniques coming from best practices?

Not being confrontational, I'm sure you're right, but some examples would illustrate it better.

The advances in SRT. Climber longevity. Less upper body strain. . . Friction savers to reduce rope burn. Spikeless pruning. ext.

Adding friction at the terminal rigging point. Ways to add more rope into rigging systems. The move from blocks as rigging points to lifting. Proliferation of the effects of dynamic forces in rigging. Friction devices/bollards. Slide lines. MA haul systems. Remote rigging points set from the ground. . .

It's a good question Mick. Quite a bit more than I can come up with off the top of my head.
 
I think I'm reading your post wrong because I don't speak Canadian but I digress. The impression I'm getting is that you may be seeing a lot of guys trying to use gear to make up for a lack of experience and know how, which is fair, but also putting guys that are great tree workers and climbers who are running a razors edge on production and looking for any leg up to move a little faster into that same category, which is maybe not so fair.

I do see a lot of younger climbers trying to use gear to make up for lack of experience, which I don't think is safe, and when I train guys I start them on a Blake's hitch, but I don't see any issue with experienced workers trying to make the job a little easier or faster by upgrading gear. Then again those guys can normally see the benefit of a piece of gear before they buy it.
 
.....For the majority of my climbing career I have been what you would consider a minimalist. The people that I learned from were the same. Just old-school climbing with a rope, lanyard, and handsaw. Natural crotch rigging, because it’s fast, and because, as we used to say, “friction is a good thing”. Trucker’s hitch instead of a fiddle block because it just works. No fancy gear, no new-fangled whatsits. Just one guy, one rigging line, one job well done. Consistently.....

I, personally, have a problem with trainers that use this approach. You are supposed to be teaching. Suppressing a student's curiosity on tool use and implying that a really good climber doesn't need that "new fangled gear" is just as bad as going the other way.

I much prefer a balanced approach that explains how things work in detail so the new climber can make an informed decision as to what is appropriate for a given situation.
 
plus gear is just straight up fun. the day goes by faster when your dazzled by your bling. I can climb fine a tree without a rope or with just a rope, so what? I like me toys.
 
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Wow, I was just trying to spark a conversation. Seems I have offended a few. This was just something that I have been thinking for a few years now and finally wrote down.

First of all, I am not a Luddite. I don't drive to work in my horse and buggy and make fun of the Englishers. I love the new gear as much as the next guy. I love the marketplace that has grown up around this industry. It is amazing. I still have my original Rope Wrench that says "Made in Detroit". I am not suggesting that great climbers shouldn't have the best gear. My writing is for the younger crowd. If I had a young climber just starting out, and I could choose between them having a deep sense of personal responsibility, or a [insert newest piece of kit here], I think you would agree with me which is more important.

Gear is great. I love new gear. But that doesn't change the fact that "fancy gear does not a great climber make." Deny that all you want, it rings true.

I, personally, have a problem with trainers that use this approach. You are supposed to be teaching. Suppressing a student's curiosity on tool use and implying that a really good climber doesn't need that "new fangled gear" is just as bad as going the other way.

I am not "suppressing a student's curiosity" in any way. There is a ton of noise out there. There are literally so many options out there for beginning climbers that they couldn't possibly know what they need. All I am saying is that what you need is experience, and good judgement, and knowledge - not gear. The gear comes later. The Basics are what matter. Learn the Basics and learn how to get the job done with less, not more. This is all I am trying to teach my apprentice. Please don't read anything more into it than this.
 
I, personally, have a problem with trainers that use this approach. You are supposed to be teaching. Suppressing a student's curiosity on tool use and implying that a really good climber doesn't need that "new fangled gear" is just as bad as going the other way.

I much prefer a balanced approach that explains how things work in detail so the new climber can make an informed decision as to what is appropriate for a given situation.

I'm not sure if I'm disagree or not. When I teach I start with a Blake's DRT and then move into the newer stuff as a progression. If you can't limb walk with a Blake's a zig zag isn't going to help you. I don't feel I am limiting guys by starting old fashioned, i think I am establishing a solid base before we move to the zoom zoom shit.
 
Patrick, it is not that what you say is untrue, or Cory, that starting off with the basics is a bad idea. It is instead the "machismo" displayed in the paragraph that I quoted. It can be hard enough to learn this trade with all its variables. Making statements that could make a young wannabe hold their tongue for fear they would somehow be less of a climber, is not my way.
 
That "machoism" I think comes from the guys that trained us up. Have spurs will travel. Guys my age got trained by the guys that retired watching all this crazy new shit hit our industry and couldn't make heads or tails of it. The 201 came out and shit the bed and split tails became a thing at the same time so they probably suck too. Now we have 25 year old guys that have $6,000 climbing systems and just scream through it at ISA competitions and can do light prunes with a babysitter, but they can do frig all when it comes time to blow a top or do a removal in general, because a tree motion won't cover a fear of heights and $600 spurs won't make you not afraid of gaffing out.

So we perhaps think back to when guys had bullshit gear but loads of experience and could actually get shit done. However these kids with the new fancy bullshit are one day going to be better than the old timers ever could have been, the gear allows it. When the industry grows into it the best climber from 2000 won't be able to prune to standard or do a manual removal within a time hack.
 
Go buy all the climbing gear on tree stuff or Sherrill. Lay it all out. It looks like that. Guys trying to buy fear away.
 
You actually think gear junkies are trying to buy fear away? Or is it "hey, could this make my climbing easier?" Just because you have it doesn't mean you have to take it with you up the tree every time, but if it's handy sometimes, more power to it. Now I'll admit, i use gear to make up for lack of physical conditioning and outright climbing skill. Where most guys would just limb walk up a leader, i prefer to just toss my epple hook over, traverse over, and climb 5 feet rather than working the whole thing. Does that make me a wimp and a crappy climber? If so, i don't care.

Now i also give mad props to the old timers who did it without any of the modern gear we have now. The inventiveness that they used is amazing, and it was impossible to fake climbing skill. What needs to be addressed in my opinion is the fact that most "new" climbing shit is actually old shit, even more so in rigging. Rigging rings were called deadeyes for a few thousand years, and were used in place of blocks on sailboats because they are cheaper. The three hole rigging thing is nothing more than a rappeling rack. Foot ascenders are a step up from using an alpine clutch, but serve the same purpose. The srt stuff, motorized ascenders, and mechanical devices are completely new as far as i know, but they represent one of the few advancements in rope working in the last 100 years. Jerry had a knee ascender in the fundamentals, as well as friction savers, thimbles, rigging capstans, and a bunch more stuff that will be improved upon and likely patented without as much as a nod to him for putting it in a book let alone even a case of beer.
 
Here's most of my stuff...

Plus a rope and saw...
 

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Overall, I really do agree with what your saying.I consider myself a minimalist climber like you as well. I do pride myself in knowing that I don't need anything other than a rope to climb the biggest tree. But personally, I would be excited if a young climber that worked for me was blowing all his earnings on gear that he will never use. On one hand, There are poseurs who buy all the gear and then return to their desk jobs, but I don't think they are the ones we need to worry about as they probably wouldn't make it past your front door. But a young guy that is passionate about climbing and all the different ways it can be done is great! I would never discourage it. Its their money. I am a gear head admittedly and to me its only been a positive. I can't think of a purchase that I regret when it comes to climbing gear. I realize full well when I make a purchase that chances are it will get used a couple of times and tossed into my file cabinet. , I own a big shot and an apta, but prefer to shoot by hand. Reg had a similar post in the form of a video not long back. My harness has filled up and emptied, than filled up again.. gear that I once though invaluable has not been used in years now. I tie different knots than I used to in places. Constantly searching for the better way. One way to realize that simple is better sometimes is to have so much shit that you get tangled up in it... or lose it. just my thoughts. Anyway. This is a good thread, a good topic and well written piece. I have really enjoyed your website.
 
To your original post, I agree that fancy gear doesn't make you a good climber. I also believe everyone should start out with the basics. I climbed for almost 20 years on a taught line hitch and natural crotch rigged everything with minimal ground support and was able to be considered " the man" in my area. In the past few years I've been buying more gear and I've definatly stepped up my game. The gear made me adjust and have to learn more, but because of that I became better and more efficient. Also because I know the "old school" way I'm not a one trick pony.

Since we're on new fancy gear, any updates Kevin? It's gotta be getting close.
 
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