Why DRT?

[yoyoman]

Do you guys/gals throw your knee ascender out of the tree (onto something soft, of course)after your main ascent? I’ve been doing that and it is one less thing to hang up on branches. ....

I use a foldable SAKA and just clip it on the back of my harness.

 

[yoyoman]

I constantly use both.
While we are on this discussion, IMO it is very important to understand that with a doubled moving rope your climbing device will self tend, probably obvious, BUT it will also self orient and stay configured. When climbing single stationary rope your device will not self tend, again, probably obvious but remember, it will NOT self orient. Don't let the flop or slack in that system develop or cause problems.

 

[Tim_B.]

Guilty as charged but with a little explanation. My videos are not well done, I am not a video guy and only learned what I needed to share ideas I came up with about climbing. There was no organization to them because I did not know what was coming next. I only felt a desire to share what came to me from the universe and never intended it to go much further than to share an enthusiasm for something I was enjoying and discovering. So, with that said, I truly apologize for the lack of organization
I do appreciate those that do great videos, get the sound right, look good etc. Just not me.

Hello, Richard.

My statement about Daniel Holliday's approach was not intended as a slight to all of the rest of the tree climbers in the world who go through all of the trouble and effort to shoot and post videos of interest to the rest of the community. All of it is greatly appreciated by those of us with less experience and knowledge. It all helps. Your videos are deeply analytical and show us things we might not have ever understood otherwise. I disagree with your assessment that your videos are not well done. They are clear and straightforward. Easy to watch.

I was only trying to compliment Daniel Holliday's vision. He was already a seasoned professional climber and arborist before he ever moved to Canada from England. If I'm not mistaken, he was put in charge of a company of climbers while he was still in England, because his talent and intelligence was obvious even at that young age.

So he already had great breadth and depth of knowledge when he was newly arrived in Canada. I'm guessing that since he already had this great amount of knowledge, he thought it would be nice to share it with all of the new climbers in the world, to try to help ease their transition into the trees. I'm guessing that he wished it had been available to him when he first started out. I think it's because he was already a well qualified, well rounded arborist that he felt qualified to teach others and share his passion for tree work.

It was the fact that Daniel Holliday had already compiled a fairly extensive collection of videos at the time I started looking into the subject that led me to believe that I could succeed at it. Before I came across his collection of videos, I would have had no idea how to even begin. I did not know any arborists when I first started out, and even after all of this time, I've still only met a few, in passing. He is the reason I ever got started in the first place. None of this is intended to take anything away from anyone else's contributions. I was just trying to give Daniel credit for his vision and his big heart. That is all. Tim.

 

[Treeaddict]

Wow! Richard Mumford is on here too!! Awesome!! I like the foldable SAKA idea. Once I break my SAKA from throwing it out of the tree, I’ll get the foldable version 😂. I could always let it ride my tail down while shaking the rope to slow descent. I’m very careful and respectful with my gear. It killed me to throw anything out of a tree but it killed me worse dealing with entanglement and extra stuff on my body.

Thank you for all your products and educational videos, Richard. Well done!

 

[TINYHULK]

I have the saka aswell and it never leaves my foot. I have a dmm large gear loop on each leg of my Treemotion harness and just clip it to that when I’m not needing it. So far I haven’t noticed it was there and hasn’t caught on anything that my lanyard didn’t already find. Today was another pine removal and i spurred up it instead of setting a line first. Now with my rrp I found a great benefit of being able to either choke on the spar (srt) or toss it over an above limb (drt) to always be tied in twice while cutting. Especially since it was a heavy leaning pine. Made swinging to the side without going under the lean so much easier.

 

[Tree09]

I leave mine on a bunch, and you're exactly right after a bit you forget it's even there.

 

[SeanKroll]

I have the saka aswell and it never leaves my foot. I have a dmm large gear loop on each leg of my Treemotion harness and just clip it to that when I’m not needing it. So far I haven’t noticed it was there and hasn’t caught on anything that my lanyard didn’t already find. Today was another pine removal and i spurred up it instead of setting a line first. Now with my rrp I found a great benefit of being able to either choke on the spar (srt) or toss it over an above limb (drt) to always be tied in twice while cutting. Especially since it was a heavy leaning pine. Made swinging to the side without going under the lean so much easier.

I'm a staunch believe in having an SRT line to the ground whenever cutting. DdRT requires your rope to move.

If you don't want to choke your advanced line in an SRT configuration due to concerns over something, you can easily, in a very few second, clip your termination biner to a clove hitch on your line, giving you a large, non-choking, secure loop with an SRT exit to the ground. Easy to change from the termination biner on the clove hitch back to a DdRT or choking SRT.

 

[Jonny]

Cool being able to move all around the tree with only a saddle and a rope. Feels like a basic fundamental skill.
It’s not ideal of course, and I do love the gadgets and gizmos, but at its most rudimentary, one doesn’t even need a carabiner.

 

[Bermy]

I was just talking about this to someone yesterday. One rope and you can make an entire climbing system.
It was part of my climbing exam. Put your harness on, here is a rope, demonstrate how you would build a system. Then we moved on to the in tree stuff with a more up to date system, split tail etc. But back then we were still using the other end of the rope for the second tie-in. You had to manage that big loop really carefully!

 

[Altissimus]

Would be perfect timing if Butch were still here for him to post that pic of his Taut Line Hitch ... Old School

 

[gf beranek]

Climbing gear and techniques has come a long ways since I started in the 60s.

After the internet (mid 90s here) innovation really took off.

 

[Jomo]

Haven't heard anyone mention the downsides of SRT....

SRT is a force multiplier.

Lotsa newbies have torn out their upper redirect/ TIP working decurrent spreading trees, and hit the ground hard.

As long as you understand SRT requires a stronger upper redirect point, you're ok.

Jomo

 

[Tree09]

Or how to load it in compression. Srt can't fix dumb.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

Or make a canopy anchor. No force multiplier then.

 

[SeanKroll]

Haven't heard anyone mention the downsides of SRT....

SRT is a force multiplier.

Lotsa newbies have torn out their upper redirect/ TIP working decurrent spreading trees, and hit the ground hard.

As long as you understand SRT requires a stronger upper redirect point, you're ok.

Jomo

Should they stay in their lane?