Cabling question for Ohio Champ American Basswood
- Thread starter flashover604
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MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
I don't understand not being able to climb higher in the tree. It's like not being able to drive your car out of the city. I mean - once you're aloft, you're aloft.
flashover604
TreeHouser
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- #53
That makes sense to someone who does it. With me, I get to a certain point and from there every inch brings more doubt and fear. I KNOW every piece of my system will hold a pickup truck. I KNOW that the ten inch limb isn't going to break, but I can't get past the fear of falling. It's totally a head thing. I hate it. I start double checking carabiners. Is that eye splice still solid? Is my hitch still holding good enough? It's totally ridiculous, yet I get to a point where I can't make myself go higher, let alone push myself off of the trunk or limb and swing around. The little stuff in the back of my kind totally takes over scares the hell out of me. I love the rigging part. I love tying the knots and setting the line and making everything work. I love the actual climbing.
Until I get too high. Then it's not worth it to go higher for me. I'm working on it. I'm getting better as I climb more, but I don't know if I'll ever be comfortable at 100'. It's really the only real phobia I have.
Until I get too high. Then it's not worth it to go higher for me. I'm working on it. I'm getting better as I climb more, but I don't know if I'll ever be comfortable at 100'. It's really the only real phobia I have.
MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
I never pay much attention to the height. I just focus on what I'm doing, where I'm at. Where the ground is doesn't factor into the equation.
flashover604
TreeHouser
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #55
Man, that'd be nice. The highest I've been was halfway up a 137' green ash. That was my tie in at the second limb. We had five people in the tree removing grapevines. It was all I could do to let go of the rope and grab vines to pull. 70'. Letting go of that limb to come back down was terrifying. Not being afraid of heights is a gift. Don't take it for granted.
There's a hard edged truth about climbing professionally, or for fun IMO.
If you're genuinely scared at any height, you don't belong up there.
Nothing to be ashamed of at all, most the millionaire owners I helped make rich were pitiful climbers, but smart enough to accept that fact and pay good money for pro climbers to accomplish what they couldn't.
Good management skills made them successful, not their egos.
Even groundie's capable of making a pro crew hum along smoothly are rare and hard to come by IMO. It takes a certain keen awareness and good reflexes to run a ground crew, making him just as important or even more important than any climber when it comes to a completed job and check in the owner's hand.
Back in my high production years it was not uncommon for me try a dozen aspiring groundies and fire them in the first few days before finding a heads up keeper.
I still believe I did those fired groundies a favor, because the hard truth is, the vast majority of the public ain't got what it takes to do this work in a safe n consistent manner.
Ruthlessness ain't all bad when it comes to dangerous occupations as a living!
Jomo
If you're genuinely scared at any height, you don't belong up there.
Nothing to be ashamed of at all, most the millionaire owners I helped make rich were pitiful climbers, but smart enough to accept that fact and pay good money for pro climbers to accomplish what they couldn't.
Good management skills made them successful, not their egos.
Even groundie's capable of making a pro crew hum along smoothly are rare and hard to come by IMO. It takes a certain keen awareness and good reflexes to run a ground crew, making him just as important or even more important than any climber when it comes to a completed job and check in the owner's hand.
Back in my high production years it was not uncommon for me try a dozen aspiring groundies and fire them in the first few days before finding a heads up keeper.
I still believe I did those fired groundies a favor, because the hard truth is, the vast majority of the public ain't got what it takes to do this work in a safe n consistent manner.
Ruthlessness ain't all bad when it comes to dangerous occupations as a living!
Jomo
squisher
THE CALM ONE!!!!
It's all about exposure. Just remember that fear/anxiety that you're feeling while getting high(he he) is more than likely the most dangerous part of what you're doing. Stay relaxed and focused. I don't think it comes easily to most like Butch describes, a fear of heights is a normal healthy reaction.
Mick!
TreeHouser
I do, when I was being taught 20 years ago I kept getting stuck at maybe 20 ft, I'd look down and think "if I fall from here I survive, I'll break something, but I'll live, as I got higher my inner dialogue was "you will die if you fall from here, don't go any higher" took a while to break through and stop listening to that particular monkey.
flashover604
TreeHouser
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #59
I enjoy climbing. I enjoy it up to a certain height. I just stay below that height! It keeps the canopy free for the rest of you guys that like in up there.
MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
I'm kinda thinking this, too.
flashover604
TreeHouser
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #61
I don't necessarily agree. I've worked on poles for twenty years. The lions share of the people that I've seen get hurt were the ones that got too comfortable up there and took risks I wouldn't have dreamed of taking. I STILL visually verify that I clip into my D's. I know two people, one at the phone company and one in the National Guard that had climbed for years. They both THOUGHT they'd clipped the D but actually didn't. One had clipped the handle of his 9" pliers. They leaned back without testing their belts and both fell. I think a little fear keeps you safe. I understand that mine is worse than most, but I check my gear more than the average bear too. I don't go higher than I want too. I enjoy it when I'm up there within my comfort level. Wasn't there just a well known lady climber that just fell? Something about her rope failed? I can't imagine a rope "failing". Is it possible that maybe she got too complacent and missed something?
I've got a small fraction of one percent of the climbs most of the professionals here do. I'm never going to be a professional climber. I don't want to be. No offense is meant by that. I do it for fun and to push myself a little to try and get rid of some of this fear. I understand that gravity isn't just a good idea, it's the law.
MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
Ain't that the truth! 
pantheraba
More biners!!!
hahahha...great statement about gravity..."gravity isn't just a good idea, it's the law."
Nothing at all wrong with knowing limits...once known they can be approached, sometimes pushed back.
I read once, "think about what you are doing, not where you are doing it". That can help tame the mind monkeys sometimes.
And for me...230 feet up a redwood, lots of limbs around, in a forest...no problems, no anxiety.
But, 80 feet up on top of a naked spar that I just de-limbed and topped, just me and that minimal amount of wood trunk...granted, it is plenty strong...but it is the exposure that plays with my mind. That question "now why am I really up here???" niggles through sometimes.
Those monkeys are always there, sometimes more irritating than others.
Glad to have you here sharing with us...good thread.
Nothing at all wrong with knowing limits...once known they can be approached, sometimes pushed back.
I read once, "think about what you are doing, not where you are doing it". That can help tame the mind monkeys sometimes.
And for me...230 feet up a redwood, lots of limbs around, in a forest...no problems, no anxiety.
But, 80 feet up on top of a naked spar that I just de-limbed and topped, just me and that minimal amount of wood trunk...granted, it is plenty strong...but it is the exposure that plays with my mind. That question "now why am I really up here???" niggles through sometimes.
Those monkeys are always there, sometimes more irritating than others.
Glad to have you here sharing with us...good thread.
flashover604
TreeHouser
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #64
THIS. This makes sense to me. I'll give a bad example. A couple years ago, before being introduced to rope access tree climbing, I found a geocache in a maple tree. It was probably 40' up in the tree. The tree had a ton of limbs all the way up. I climbed it without a problem. No rope, no problem. Had that tree been limb free and I was on rope? I'd still be worried until I got into the limbs. It's weird. If there's something around me it's like a reverse claustrophobia. If I could find a 200' tree with limbs all the way up I think I'd be fine. I wonder if the limbs and leaves kind of block out the fact that you're up so high?
flashover604
TreeHouser
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #66
I've never had to deal with a teenager texting in the trees yet, either.
treelooker
Treehouser
flash thanks for reminding me to empty inbox, and to restore my sig line; not sure where that went off to!
Send me a contact via website and I can send up a generic bid with info.
http://www.historictreecare.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Cable-Thoburn-Oak-DB-AA.pdf
Send me a contact via website and I can send up a generic bid with info.
http://www.historictreecare.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Cable-Thoburn-Oak-DB-AA.pdf
flashover604
TreeHouser
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #69
Jomo, that's nuts! That had to burn up his hands a little!
Treelooker, I'll do that. Thank you.
Treelooker, I'll do that. Thank you.
treelooker
Treehouser
O and sotc, the Wye Oak failed not because of lightning but because they put in >2 MILES of cable (per MD DNR), but never made a reduction cut, not wanting to violate I/USA dogma.
The shell wall was measured over a 12-year span. It did not change in that time. the trunk broke around the point they drilled it to measure.
The shell wall was measured over a 12-year span. It did not change in that time. the trunk broke around the point they drilled it to measure.
sotc
Dormant hero!!
So do you think the cables put a higher load on the trunk by limiting limb movement? How big Wye the test holes?
Btw, I'll get to meet you in September finally, up in Bend
Btw, I'll get to meet you in September finally, up in Bend
flashover604
TreeHouser
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #72
Man, 10,000+ feet of cable? The weight alone would be, what, 2500# at a quarter pound per foot? An extra ton of wire?
The sad truth is that unwarranted cabling became a fad back at the turn of the 20th century.
Ticks me off too, because once it's done and the tree's dependent on it, you really have few options but to continue on with the stupidity.
The historic Morton Bay Fig in front of the San Diego Natural History Museum's a prime example. Forty friggin cables installed by various yahoos over the decades, in a variety of tree that should never be cabled in the first place period. They put off aerial roots to support themselves naturally in their natural environment. Furthermore these aerials can be teased out and encouraged to grow into supporting pillars by using drip systems placed above aerials guided into perforated pvc tubes packed with sphagnum moss going straight down to ground level, the whole pvc mess gets enveloped inside the propagated pillar over time.
I know having my name associated with replacing and modernizing such a jumble of unnecessary cables in such an historic tree's a two edged sword, one side cuts in a bad way folks might mistakenly believe cabling Morton Bay Fig's cool, when to me it's anything but cool. Cool would be spending the money to propagate aerials on every friggin cabled lateral on that tree, over time, say a ten year plan, when the pillars are sizable enough to cut every friggin cable out of that otherwise marvelous tree.
Jomo
Ticks me off too, because once it's done and the tree's dependent on it, you really have few options but to continue on with the stupidity.
The historic Morton Bay Fig in front of the San Diego Natural History Museum's a prime example. Forty friggin cables installed by various yahoos over the decades, in a variety of tree that should never be cabled in the first place period. They put off aerial roots to support themselves naturally in their natural environment. Furthermore these aerials can be teased out and encouraged to grow into supporting pillars by using drip systems placed above aerials guided into perforated pvc tubes packed with sphagnum moss going straight down to ground level, the whole pvc mess gets enveloped inside the propagated pillar over time.
I know having my name associated with replacing and modernizing such a jumble of unnecessary cables in such an historic tree's a two edged sword, one side cuts in a bad way folks might mistakenly believe cabling Morton Bay Fig's cool, when to me it's anything but cool. Cool would be spending the money to propagate aerials on every friggin cabled lateral on that tree, over time, say a ten year plan, when the pillars are sizable enough to cut every friggin cable out of that otherwise marvelous tree.
Jomo
sotc
Dormant hero!!
What is your name? Background?
Well, according to my good buddy Tom Dunlap?
I'm an outlaw arborist howling unheard in the moonlight!
However I'm just another old has been whose 15 minutes of fame was over way back in 92. When I was a somebody, a contender!
Jomo
I'm an outlaw arborist howling unheard in the moonlight!
However I'm just another old has been whose 15 minutes of fame was over way back in 92. When I was a somebody, a contender!
Jomo
