rec climbing saddle

[jason j ladue]

thanks for all the positive input guys. we're all here for eachother.im never scared to ask questions. any one who attacks a guy for having natural curiosity (and the ability to set his ego asidefor a sec) -sucks!.. but i digress. back to the topic at hand: should i let it dangle or hook it to something? keep it rolling boys and girls. good thread

 

[Burnham]

Most of the time I let my cable core with Macrograb adjuster dangle, and I never wrap it around me. If it's in the way, I make a small diameter coil and twist the tail through the loops a couple of times, then clip the eye to my harness with a biner.

 

[kevintree]

GEO

BEST answer I have seen for someone hesitant to ask a question


So good if you don't mine I am making it the leading paragraph on our employee manuel

with credit to you of course.

TIA

Kevin

 

[MasterBlaster]

Any one who attacks a guy for having natural curiosity (and the ability to set his ego asidefor a sec) -sucks!

Meh, I think those getting attacked days are over.

Knock on wood... :alien:

 

[jason j ladue]

good call butch. theres no room for it

 

[NickfromWI]

Where is rocky?

 

[MasterBlaster]

Chillin, I imagine.

 

[Tree Machine]

Youz guyz....

(but sorta kinda try to stay on-topic).

Do you let it dangle when you're on the ground? I mean, a part of tree work involves having your saddle on <i>while you're on the ground</i> (occasionally when driving ). What I really mean is, you don't automatically take off your saddle as soon as you hit the ground

.... as a climber, you're in your saddle a lot, sometimes all day.

On the ground you can't really let your flipline dangle--- what do you do with it?

The options are limited, but assuming a couple things up front, like it is a steel-core flipline with a micrograb adjuster and a Swivel snap termination. Also that the flipline is 8' (2.54 M)

(which, by the way is the rig you have)

I coincidentally work-position on this system identically, and although there's been a lot of gear and saddle changes over the years, one constant that's evolved fully for me personally is the use of the 8-foot wirecore-micrograb (with a triple lock aluminum caribiner (held captive) ), linked with a screwlink (delta).
I think you'll like the system very much. Very, very trustworthy and relatively bombproof and the delta makes it even more versatile.

<b>Good for you</b> starting out with the simplest, most boiled-down, easy to use rig out there. One handed adjustment (left hand and forefinger) consistent, dependable, exact, precise control of the flipline, every time, wet or dry, hot or cold. It doesn't matter -this setup performs with the utmost consistency, giving you the confidence to go where only squirrels go.

The one-handed part is the most important. Uhhhh, I forgot what I was gonna tell you

 

[Tree Machine]

Oh!, that the flipline, flipping around you twice counterclockwise, clip to left side; that should take under two seconds.

This is one of those finessy parts of being a treeguy that has NOTHING to do with a tree. Let me just try to describe it. It would be so much easier to show you in a video. The video could be as short as two seconds.

OK, the thimble end of the wirecore is linked with a Maillon of some shape coming off your right-hand D. You set your micrograb to within half a cubit of the swivel snap at the far end and drop the rig on the ground to your right side. (and <u>all</u> this next part is all at once, OK?) step left, and with the flipline in your right hand (fully extended arm) arc the flipline from right to left. Once that flipline has begun it's travel, pivot just a tad <i>clockwise</i>, opposing the direction of the travel of the flipline. This took one second.

As the flipline goes the first time around your back, dip with your legs, downward, just a bump, and continue a rightward pivot; a hula-hoopish feel. As the flipline goes around and gets shorter, it picks up speed. Your turning to the right accelerates the already accelerating snap until it goes WHAck !somewhere around your left hip. Grab it on the rebound and SNAP! Two seconds.



I have a 32" waist (81 cm) and the 8-foot flipline goes around my midsection dead-on perfect. If your wasitline is much bigger, it IS possible to special-order a steel-core flipline that is a hand or two over 8 feet. For John Paul Sanborn to do this, the flipline has to be around 11 feet.

 

[Burnham]

Tree Machine, your system looks/sounds good. It would be a different ball game for me because I use a cable core lanyard that is twice as long as yours, due to the large diameters in my work. Often enough I am loaded up with two of these! As to your question about dangles on the ground, etc., I agree that often I wear my saddle on the ground, and yes, even drive with it on, but my practice is to just remove the lanyard(s) from my harness, coil it up and stick it in my gear pack. This takes longer than 2 seconds . More like 15. I hope that doesn't automatically make me one of those totally slack, time-wasting gov't. employees foraging at the tax payer funded gravy trough .

 

[Tree Machine]

Ahh, I get it.

my practice is to just remove the lanyard(s) from my harness, coil it up and stick it in my gear pack. This takes longer than 2 seconds . .

Which totally drives the nail that says "Dual-ended swivel snap wirecore lanyards. Secure, EZ on EZ off. Allows you to use the lanyard enirely on the right side, OR the left. Gives work postioning that extra UMphhh of versatility and options.

Options are good.

 

[jason j ladue]

tm, first off, that flipline is18'. i know-way too long to be practcal in most aplications. but i got a screamin' deal on it. treetools was clearing them out-$45! probly could have payed for mine and then some by buying the others they had and putting them for sale on line.they had mis-ordered.
so any way...if i come down w/ the intention of going back up again somtimes ill just leave it clipped to my climb line. often though ill just coil up the exrta and fasten it to the hind loop of my saddle w/a little split tail line that i usually have there for "just in case". it happens to hang there pretty natural/comfy. i also am a skinny guy 32" waist not a drop of fat on me-for whatever thats worth.
i use that flipline in rather unorthodox fashion sometimes though. i like to use it for keeping myself in position while making (awkward) cuts, or while moving my climb point. its suprising how much time gets wasted tying and untying knots. nice to just clip and go. i have a simple positioning lanyard/strap too, but the steel core is much more versatile. that extra weight/steel cable makes it alot easier to flip that buckle around the trunk...it is less likely to get caught up in the ivy or one of those little twigs thats always on the back side of the stem you're trying to fasten to. besides that there is the bullet proof factor of having a steel cable holding you there. peace of mind like that is invaluable. when you're 70' up and tring to focus on the task hand the last thing you want to be thinking about is whether or not you are being held securely in place. and, as ive said before, image is every thing. this is a serious piece of machinery. when someone sees you walk up to the tree and whip that sexy beast out, throw it around the tree-clink, and take off skyward, they know they are watching a pro in action. its like walking into the bank and the guard all in uniform topped off w/a 10mil. glock on his belt. you know hes serious w/out even knowing which end of the gun the bullet comes out of. proffessionalism is easy to spot...

oh! you know what i forgot to include in that photo of the things i always climb W/ (and im kind of suprised no one called me on it)...

 

[Tree Machine]

Dual handle ascenders and the backup hitch (eye-eye tress cord)

 

[jason j ladue]

Dual handle ascenders and the backup hitch (eye-eye tress cord)

whats those? show me

 

[Tree Machine]

Oops, I wrote that before looking at your picture. Yes, helmet,; a must.

 

[Tree Machine]

Dual handle ascenders

whats those? show me

Those is those things that mark your place in the near-empty classroom of new school climbing; simpler, but incorporating metal pieces, devices and 11 mm rope with spliced eyes.

Here's a discussion on the duals, with LOTS of progress in evolving the safe use thereof Check it out here.

 

[jason j ladue]

cool. ive seen em before but never used em/didnt know what they were called.
theres already a thread for it, but hows that "fly" treatin ya?

 

[Tree Machine]

New England's FLY

I used the fly for about a year and a half. It was my first 11 mm arborist rope, a little less dynamic than a rock climbing rope, but other than it comes with one end spliced, it for all practical purposes, IS a rock climbing rope.

I retired it after a puff grew to too much to handle, and then I diced it up. My 11 year old nephew is climbing on the biggest remaining intact piece, a Christmas present from Uncle Tree Machine, and the rest I've morphed them into shorter accessory lines.

Is that what you wanted to know?

 

[jason j ladue]

yeah. im using a piece of that stuff right now, but i replace my lifeline every year. just out of my own, wierd general principle. wondering if i should switch, and what to go to next...

 

[Tree Machine]

Depends how much of a gear geek you are. Any arborist rope out there will get you in a tree.