How'd it go today?

Where I started out, if you didnt free climb up to your tie-in-point, there was something wrong with you. And we'd be spurring 90-100 feet, beech, poplar, dead elm, sycamore....tie in when you got to the top and start work from there. Nobody had fliplines, or had even heard on one. You'd be clinging on by your nails on a wide trunk, nose pressed against the bark. Not a word of exaggeration. On pruning trees with large gaps between limbs it was acceptable to use both ends of your climb line....but other than that you free climbed. No hardhats. In hindsight it was totally reckless on the part of the management....but when you're 17,18, hungry and so eager to fit in and impress....you just get on with it, and it becomes normal.
 
We free climb ladders all the time.
Trees can be so much safer, really enjoy the free climbs but really nothing compares to the weightlessness of swinging from rope.
Expelliarmus highflyus. :big-jump::big-jump::big-jump::big-jump:V
 
RegC said:
You'd be clinging on by your nails on a wide trunk, nose pressed against the bark. Not a word of exaggeration..
Click to expand...

Yup. Those would be scary as shite. I'm so glad that is a thing of the past, for me.
 
I have a tree out back I free climb and limb walk with no rope all the time. Worst case is jumping/falling 8-20 feet if I screw up :lol:
Looking back though. Working on just spurs and a flip line with a linesman's belt is what brought me here to the TH. I just felt, there had to be a better and safer way.

Dare I mention the Ailanthus altissima that I free climbed and removed with my first 200T?
Nawwww :/:
 
When a kid there were a row of tall trees on a ridge above a park, that you could climb pretty easily to what seemed like great heights. No matter how high i went until fear made me stop, a friend of mine named Flint could always go higher. He had the talent, and was the same kid that my mom was not at all keen for me to hang around with. Still, we were the best of friends and still in touch today. There could be a connection to free climbing and a bit on the wild side.
 
RegC said:
Where I started out, if you didnt free climb up to your tie-in-point, there was something wrong with you. And we'd be spurring 90-100 feet, beech, poplar, dead elm, sycamore....tie in when you got to the top and start work from there. Nobody had fliplines, or had even heard on one. You'd be clinging on by your nails on a wide trunk, nose pressed against the bark. Not a word of exaggeration. On pruning trees with large gaps between limbs it was acceptable to use both ends of your climb line....but other than that you free climbed. No hardhats. In hindsight it was totally reckless on the part of the management....but when you're 17,18, hungry and so eager to fit in and impress....you just get on with it, and it becomes normal.
Click to expand...
Started tree work the same way & for similar people. It was crap & I don't miss it.
Wham I did get a lanyard, it was not even adjustable. Spliced at both ends you just wrapped it around as many times as needed. I do wonder in hindsight if the owner ever gave a shit about us.
 
woodworkingboy said:
No matter how high i went until fear made me stop, a friend of mine named Flint could always go higher. He had the talent, and was the same kid that my mom was not at all keen for me to hang around with. Still, we were the best of friends and still in touch today. There could be a connection to free climbing and a bit on the wild side.
Click to expand...


Ha, great story! And sounds like your crazy bro has the perfect name, FLINT!!!!
 
When I was growing up I was an avid free climber. A bunch of friends would join me. Two friends that were brothers were climbing a Beech with me. We got as high as I considered to be safe and the older brother who was a bit heavier than me continued to climb up a scary distance more. I looked over at his brother to see his reaction and he gave the circling index finger by his ear. That signified crazy back in the day. I agreed.

No one ever fell or had close calls that I can remember. Good luck more than anything else.
 
I free climbed all the time and didn't think twice about "safety." I only fell once and landed flat on my back - I think that's what saved me. I forget how high - it wasn't all that high.

Crikey, it's starting get hot out there!
 
Un roped climbing keeps you honest about your skills..............unless it kills you first. I never looked at tree climbing as free climbing. Just clambering up easy limbs. Still, if you fall your focked.

Beyond trees, I find that my mind is more powerful then my body. Can I do it, will I do it? Unchain the mind. Do not let doubt enter your mind.

Since I have reason...... I carry a rope most times. So I get to live.............
 
Cobleskill said:
. We got as high as I considered to be safe and the older brother who was a bit heavier than me continued to climb up a scary distance more. .
Click to expand...

Ha another good story about nutty guys with a knack for climbing high.

Reminds me of a climb I did with a crazy Vermonter friend. We climbed a 100+' pine to get an aerial view of his woodsy property. I spurred up to near the top, got a good perch and then lowered down the spurs and saddle to him so he could climb belayed, seemed like a good idea as he had never used spurs etc. So he makes it up to where I was, which seemed plenty high in the skinny wood close to the top. And then he goes right by me to get higher for a bit of a better view. Every twig that he broke up there made my hair stand on end. Two guys in the tipity top of brittle white pine, it was a climb to remember.
 
The guy that taught me to climb initially free climbed everything. Stomp up to the top, tie in, light a smoke. I started out that way but got away from it very fast. I just knew it was asinine. He was a good climber. Not the best for sure, but he got it done one way or another.
 
I quit early today. taking the top growth out of windbreak casuarinas, two year rotation...about 50'. Hot, sweaty, worked through lunch. Cut limbs were jammed in the branches below and I got real close to my down rope...twice...with the 200t. Was time to stop.
Went for a swim.
 
No_Bivy said:
Un roped climbing keeps you honest about your skills..............unless it kills you first.
Click to expand...

Obviously rock climbing has plenty of serious dangers, but I think a big difference is tree climbing is a full time 40+ hr/wk JOB whereas rock climbing is done, ultimately, for fun and challenge. So even though many trees are cake to climb, you have to keep your guard up by using safe, hopefully fool proof techniques so that you don't get stung when you least expect it.

"Its the easy ones that will get ya."
 
No really big waves...bit of body surfing on the beaches. There is one break in the reefs slightly offshore (less than half a k) that surfers go to, but generally its not a surfing place. Too many reefs and too extensive to get big waves close to shore...unless you go out in a hurricane ground swell, which would be stupid :)
 
I just talked with the guy I've been working with since Mike became ill, and I told him I'm done working with the crane operator he been using. He may be good for setting an AC unit on a roof, but he sucks as a tree crane man. The worst part is he's been doing it for at least five years or more, and he still acts like he's trying to kill me. His other climbers have nothing but complaints about him, it's not just me.

Life's too short to suffer morons idiots. :drink:
 
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