At long last...US Forest Service Treeclimbing Guide revision is released

[Burnham]

Interesting that free climbing is an acceptable means of tree access complete with instructures on how it is safely done.

If you do it right as described in detail in the Guide, in the right part of the right tree, under the right environmental conditions, with the right mental discipline, it is safe enough to be worth the huge savings in effort and consequent reduction in fatigue...which has a proven track record as a direct cause of accidents in and of itself. Proof of that is, in the untold thousands of climbs in western conifers since the 1960's, USFS trained and certified climbers following these proscriptions have had less than 5 injury accidents from the practice. No fatalities.

For the record, OSHA currently accepts our position on this practice.

But I would be not telling the whole story if I did not acknowledge that there is a constant pressure from within the FS climbing community to remove this practice from our tool kit. I disagree, but it may well come to pass sometime in the future...and I would not be greatly surprised. I'm just glad I didn't have to climb all those young second growth Dougs for all those years, always tied in .

In this revision, the use of free climbing has been severely restricted by language. In a nutshell, it has to be more hazardous to stay tied in than not, to justify free climbing. I dislike this, but I am a pragmatist and crafted that language rather than lose the tool altogether.

 

[Burnham]

Without really knowing, I suspected that your normal wages likely covered your writing efforts during your time as an employee of the service, but I thought that you had mentioned continuing to work on the literature after retiring, so I was hoping there could be something a bit more lucrative applied for compensation. Anyway, the thread isn't about compensation, I know you well enough to understand where your utmost motivation lies. The compensation mention was really a veiled compliment for producing such an excellent resource. Before reading it I thought to myself some topics that occurred might be important, but perhaps of somewhat lesser relevance when you weigh the overall picture that you want to be giving people. I thought I might be able to not find something, and possibly trip you up that it wasn't covered, but everything I could think of, is in the guide. It's obvious that there is a lot of experience that was channelled into producing the booklet. By experience, I mean sweat too.

I hope the students won't simply be technically educated by the guide, they will also see it as offering inspiration. That's how I view the information that Jerry supplies as well.

Frankly Jay, no...while employed I bootlegged on the books, and as often off the books on my own time, virtually all the work of writing and editing you see there. As to post retirement...all my time was volunteered because I wanted to see the revision finished, and bluntly, I was in a better position to help that happen than any of my former co-contributors, 'cause they are still doing it all bootlegged and on their own time.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Wasn't it called "Three Point Climbing?"

That's how I remember it...

 

[Burnham]

By the USFS definition three point climbing is a technique used in ALL climbing, free or not, excepting SRT or rappelling...free climbing is a method of tree climbing that employs three point climbing, too. It's what is considered a point of contact that differentiates.

Check the table of contents, you can read the details as the USFS sets them out if you wish.

 

[DMc]

Thanks, Burnham. Good to know.

 

[kevin bingham]

By the USFS definition three point climbing is a technique used in ALL climbing, free or not, excepting SRT or rappelling...free climbing is a method of tree climbing that employs three point climbing, too. It's what is considered a point of contact that differentiates.

Check the table of contents, you can read the details as the USFS sets them out if you wish.

Interesting. I am an avid recreational free climber. I love the freedom and the speed. At our work it is prohibited for more than 12 feet.

one of my only injuries at work involved a small maple tree, free climbing, a dead branch, and a severely sprained wrist and elbow. Doesn't osha have a standard of 12 feet limit for free climbing? Or is that ANSI? Does the forest service fall under a different category? I imagine some of those western trees are bassically big ladders.

It became a lot easier to stay tied in after I moved from a taughtline/Blake's to an open system.