Burham the worst one was a infected Norfolk Island pine which was entirely coated from tip to tail in sap, every section of trunk, crotch or limb was coated in white sap ranging from a thin skin to pockets thicker than my thumb.
By lunch time my pulleys had turned from inny's to outy's , the cam on my pole strap was gummed to a stop, my prussic had glued to the rope in fact I was sticking to the tree by that point.
Only solution we had was petrol which I had sent up, this freed me from the tree and opened the cam on my polestrap and with another climbing system I was able to descend and then could see why the grounds people were complaining about how the work rope was running by looking at the pulleys.
Never had as bad again but this heavy sap stuck in some slings and rope sections hardened to the point that we threw it out or cut it out of the materials.
Since then I have been wondering how to wash the sap out while it was still fresh and had not hardened yet without using a petroleum based product on the ropes which as a general rule I have been avoiding.
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