Rope walking and biceps

[Treeaddict]

During a 90’ ascent, I stop twice. Once at 50 and once at 70. As much as I focus on form and powering the climb with my legs my biceps need about a 30 second rest. Is this normal?

 

[Burnham]

Nothing about climbing trees can be considered "normal".

 

[Altissimus]

Hehehehe , normal ... what state ?

 

[treebilly]

I stop a few times as well for an ascent to that height. Legs and catch my breath. I use my hands to help steady myself but barely need to touch the rope.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

During a 90’ ascent, I stop twice. Once at 50 and once at 70. As much as I focus on form and powering the climb with my legs my biceps need about a 30 second rest. Is this normal?

This is about how it goes for me too. My asthma holds me back sometimes.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Also why I like SRT so much. You get to stop on your ascent From time to time to cut and work. Climb a little. Work a little.
No need to rush a rec climb. Jamies tree was like 180'?
There were some nice veiws along the way. Nice to stop and take those in. Eventually, you were just a monkey advancing the line up the tree as you stepped up through the limbs.

 

[Treeaddict]

Stephen, that’s a nice size tree! When in the 180’ tree, did you have a climb line to the ground at the upper elevations? What length line were you on?

 

[CurSedVoyce]

200 foot. Srt. If you want your line back, you double it through an FS. Descend 1/2 way. Then repeat.
Lines were preset for others to ascend to a point. Then you keep on to the top with either two flip lines, short climb line and flip line, or your own hank and a flip line.
You could come down figure 8 or a rack on the preset line. But since mine was one of the presets to the top, i ddrt down to 1/2 way point.
It was a redwood at his cabin we got to play with early Akimbos.
Got a video somewhere.

 

[Bart]

I used to find that I would unconsciously hang my body out backward a bit because my arms were ok with it. Till they weren't. If you overly keep the line close to you it helps take the strain off your arms. I think that's the backwards bicycle pedalling thing. If you run an ascender you instead worry about the screws all staying tight and not overheating the battery, controller or motor.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Albiet, this was before my full rope walking SRT set up. Old proto type Akimbo. Double hand ascender to a foot loop and a Pantin on the other. I went up the preset Blue Moon with my orange 200 footer to the top. Using it after I ran out of Blue Moon. Then left mine in the top for others.

 

[Burnham]

Nothing about climbing trees can be considered "normal".

Joking aside, it's pretty hard to get a really legs only ropewalker system working without a full-on chest harness mounted roller box. You also need a seat harness that fits such that balance is oriented more towards straight up and down the ascent line rather than leaning away from it...not many harnesses provide this, and some people are not physically built in such a way to ever achieve it (low center of gravity), no matter what harness they wear.

If you think about it, simply raising your arms from chest high to full overhead 60 to 90 reps per minute like ropewalking requires will tire most people's arms right out over not very many minutes...unless you are like @treebilly, who can do onehanded pullups and is clearly from another planet than this one .

Take care to not be pulling your feet upward even lightly loaded as you simultaneously raise both your arms and your feet. Even a little extra load on the arm muscles will tell on you sooner.

 

[Tree09]

I'm top heavy so i figured out pretty quick that a chest roller was worth it for me. The closer you can get your center of gravity to the rope the better, so the chest box does that for you. You still need to stand up straight to resist the much smaller but still there force trying to fold you in half, which is wayyyyyyy better than using your arms to do it. Easiest way to achieve that form is simply look up, which will help straighten your back out. Take moderate steps, comfortable and controlled is much faster and sustainable in the long run. Despite all this, the basic physics of it make you go up the line like a rattle trap fouled up on the front treble hook

 

[Bart]

Given the same vertical speed, does anyone else find that smaller size "up" steps takes less energy? Stay more vertical? Or is it just that you end up ascending slower. I found that big strides put my body all gangly out of shape regarding balance i.e. used more arms too. Incidentally I do the Pantin/Haas hand over hand. Used to do the Pantin/hand ascender with single footloop, other hand directly on rope.

 

[lxskllr]

Same. Little steps is gold. I haven't been up on a rope in awhile, and was trying to remember arm fatigue, and I don't. I have general fatigue, and take my time on ascent, but I don't remember my arms being a problem. On mrs, my arms take more of a beating, and hand cramps are a problem, especially adding saw work to it, but ropewalking's just a matter of doing it. I think I could get pretty... we'll say steady; I don't think I'd ever be a speed demon if I were doing this daily.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Yup. Little determined steps.

 

[treebilly]

No more one armed pull up’s for me. Pain now shoots through my shoulder joints and whatever muscles and tendons when I attempt them

 

[Burnham]

Same deal with long clear spur climbing, for me. Long steps are counterproductive.

 

[Burnham]

Bummer, Rich. I feel all let down now. A mere mortal like the rest of us .

 

[SeanKroll]

During a 90’ ascent, I stop twice. Once at 50 and once at 70. As much as I focus on form and powering the climb with my legs my biceps need about a 30 second rest. Is this normal?

If you are against a clean trunk, a lanyard does great when used like you're spur climbing, fwiw.