Making DRT Easier?

[SeanKroll]

Minimalism is body thrusting, on MRS, with a Blake's hitch and a bottle of ibuprofen.

 

[Bermy]

...All I know when I got to the top of a 30' mid air SRT climb on Monday...my energy was depleted, CV19 slowdown fitness drain
...but would have been soo much harder air humping up.

Sort of segue-ing into the base/canopy tie thing...on that tree my TIP/PSP was over a limb hanging a bit away from the main trunk as I needed to access two smaller trees below that needed dead tops cut out. When I did the bounce test before ascending that limb was quite flexible! But as I mostly base tie, my down leg wove its way down the tree over several limbs behind and I felt quite secure on my 'fishing pole'. Had I isolated that TIP and canopy tied, I would have been hanging on only that bendy branch...

 

[Altissimus]

I use single mostly , but double all the time if I want ... you mentioned fifteen feet and others mentioned basically repeat and you will toughen up .... anything under thirty gets double w nothing fancy. All good , it takes time , I call that ascent "commuting " and it took me years literally to get good at it. Upside is after getting good you can laugh at people on ladders trying to do this work.

 

[lxskllr]

Yea, I'm already pleased with my performance/technique compared to Homeowner Joe, but I want to get better than that.

 

[Tree09]

Having mentioned ladders, I'm not above using one if it makes sense. I did a shorter ash, backyard, solo, rigging almost everything. Set my lines by throw line, rigged it all up, went up a ladder simply tending my hitch, swung out to do the cut (leaving plenty so i could pull it with a tag line), rapped back down, pulled it and then lowered. The ladder helps if you literally are going back and forth all day, because you simply climb rather than set up. Very handy in that kind of setup. But with help and only going up a few times, simply climb.

Btw that is not a recommendation on how to do this, working solo isn't really a good thing, especially if you are learning. Especially on complicatedish rigging involving pull lines to swing the piece away from you and structures. If the piece swings the wrong way it would clobber you, i had one that snapped too soon, thankfully went the way it was supposed to. Had to both tip and butt tie them, and use a pull line to swing them away from the house. I hate stone dead ash.

 

[lxskllr]

Not a fan of ladders. I'm sure they have their place in a professional's arsenal, but I'm not really doing this stuff to get on ladders, and it's easy for shit to get out of control. I have a ladder I need to fix from years ago that I broke dropping a limb on it :^S

I could have gotten enough of that oak from the roof of the house to keep the insurance company happy, but getting on the roof isn't cool :^D

edit:
Good videos Ben. Very helpful :^)

 

[Jed]

@Jed send this guy my zk1 wrench! SRT is dDRT made easier

Will do.

 

[Howard70]

Lxskllr:

I initially found DRT impossible (teaching myself) and body-thrusting was more like fish flopping on the deck. Thought I was just too old & weak until I saw a suggestion somewhere to extend my hitch climber from the bridge so I could pull down on the climbing line below the pulley with more travel. After that I could finally make enough progress to get somewhere. I adjusted the extension from the bridge so my prusik was always in reach for descent. Recently switched from the hitch climber to a Zig-Zag and found climbing much easier. Added a foot ascender and then a Haas Velox for situations where I'm away from the trunk and things are almost comfortable. As mentioned above practice does lead to improvement, but I had to get the basic system working to move to practice. I am convinced that I'd never get off the ground with a Blake's Hitch! Sixty-seven and a history as a cyclist (absolutely no upper body strength) work against that!

Currently I'm able to work trees on our property and help some friends, but I'd never make any money if that was necessary - I'm just way too slow. Having a lot of fun though.

Howard

 

[lxskllr]

A prusik tender would help. That's what I was looking for when this thread came to mind. I need to put my saddle on, and figure out how I'd put it together. I'm using a split tail, with a standard prusik, and my saddle's basic, with split twin Ds. Sitting here at the computer, I'm having trouble visualizing how it goes together. I'd need to have the saddle on, with the parts in front of me to get a feel for the distances involved.

 

[Altissimus]

Not a fan of ladders. I'm sure they have their place in a professional's arsenal, but I'm not really doing this stuff to get on ladders, and it's easy for shit to get out of control. I have a ladder I need to fix from years ago that I broke dropping a limb on it :^S

I could have gotten enough of that oak from the roof of the house to keep the insurance company happy, but getting on the roof isn't cool :^D

edit:
Good videos Ben. Very helpful :^)

... I refuse to access and work off customers roof , nope. Not usually best approach anyways and I'd feel wide open for liability on roof itself. When I used to do it as a Rook , up there standing on brittle old Asphalt Shingles or worse Cedar Shakes with pole gear ... don't want that call later. I remember Butch being surprised I would not go up w Blower or Broom after the job for the sawdust , no way ... when I do the bid I do say the only thing touching the Roof will be some sawdust.

 

[SeanKroll]

 

[lxskllr]

That looks easier than the way I do it Sean. My system looks something like this...

HEAVE!
HEAVE!
HEAVE!
HEAVE!

:panting:

Think I'll stop here for a minute and enjoy the from :looks down: 7' up

:^D

 

[Tree09]

This is his follow up, and what i copied. I still use that kind of knee ascender setup, just with a handleless ascender and clipped to the chest box. My thinking was if Jerry saw the benefit of a roller box then so do i.