Rocks To Trees

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UnityArborist

ArboristSite Member
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I have been a life long rock climber and made the transition to trees almost five years ago. I was wondering if there were any other Rock to tree guys out there or maybe some tree to rock guys. I feel that my prior climbing experience has given me a good perspective and a strong foundation to build upon.

That said the two disciplines are so very different. On the rocks ropes and harnesses are for fall protection only, and grabbing the rope is one of the biggest faux pas a climber could commit. In the trees, our equipment is an extension of our selves, enabling an arborist to safely do what would other wise be impossible.

Also I still have a hard time calling a harness a 'saddle.' A saddle is what you put on a horse.

Well I would be interested to hear the impresstions of any other Rock to tree guys out there.
 
Dunno about rocks but me and another climber just discovered wall climbing after starting in trees. It's a lot of fun but I get what you say about different disciplines.

Oh and the confusion over the word saddle is easy. You also put a saddle on a donkey. Guess who the donkey in the tree is?
 
I was a rock guy. Aside from the height, biners and rope dynamics, they are different worlds. Tree climbing is kinda like aid climbing. Prussics were only for rescues, harnesses were G strings with a tie in point, and I didnt have to carry a saw with me.
 
and grabbing the rope is one of the biggest faux pas a climber could commit. .

I went indoor wall climbing with my BIL earlier this year and the first thing I tried to do was grab the rope, that didn't help anything at all! Took a little while to get away from that.

If I had been tree climbing more often and in better shape I could see that type of climbing being no big deal compared to trees all day everyday.
 
I climbed Devil's Tower in Wy. back in 1993, did not make a career out of it just had some fun for about a year. I find climbing trees less taxing and yes you use the rope alot more. Both are fun, but I have not rock climbed in quite awhile.

LT...
 
I started out on rock. After many years of university i found out I could combinde my rockcliming skills (good) with my chainsaw skills (bad) and make a living. So instead of ending up teaching behind a desk, I climb and cut trees.

I notice that the rockclimbing background gives me a great advantage in moving around in the trees and using the gear, compared to loggers who are all stiff once they get up.
 
My wife is a rock climber and occasionally I'll go do some indoor stuff with her and her friends. The handholds are a lot different with rocks. Fun but I like trees alot better...... Mike
 
I climbed Devil's Tower in Wy. back in 1993, did not make a career out of it just had some fun for about a year. I find climbing trees less taxing and yes you use the rope alot more. Both are fun, but I have not rock climbed in quite awhile.

LT...

The Durrance was the hardest route I ever climbed. Most of my rock was in places like Wisconsin Dells and similar places in Europe while I was in The Corps

I started climbing trees first though.
 
I climbed Devil's Tower in Wy. back in 1993, did not make a career out of it just had some fun for about a year. I find climbing trees less taxing and yes you use the rope alot more. Both are fun, but I have not rock climbed in quite awhile.

LT...


I've been up and down Highway 212 dozens of times going to Seattle or Montana from Kansas City but never had time to go down to Devils Tower. Last Winter I took my son up to Mt. Rushmore (another place never had time to see) and one day we went out to Devils Tower which happened to be my Birthday. It was great. As a kid I always would look at the National Geographic magazines and dream about seeing places like that. It was neat and I'm glad I got to share that dream with my son, on my Birthday.


To the OP. I didn't start out rock climbing, but did a bit of rappeling using figure 8's, ATC, or a couple carbiners, and ascending using just one cord with a pursik and one cord with a shunt. I mostly rappeled or assended ropes from buildings when I use to live downtown and sometimes off the bluffs of the Missouri River, or one time I went backcountry near Rocky Mountian National Park and completely stayed off the trail so a couple times I would rappel down a cliff face instead of walking around, kinda like that Bear Grill guy only with good equipment and solid attachment points.

The only times I feel uncomfortable rappeling from a cliff is because sometimes the rock face can be pretty sharp, rocks fall off, and sometimes I'm not 100% sure my rope goes all the way to the bottom until I'm well over the side. Other then that going down has never bothered me. Going up is a different story. First off, I'll admit I'm afraid of heights to certian degree. I never have liked assending a rope off a face cliff because I always worry that the rope might be slowly cutting on the edge as I'm causing the rope to stretch up and down from slowly moving the pursik up the rope.

I like doing tree work because the equipment is so much more robust then the rappeling stuff I have and I never question the equipment after giving a quick inspection. Sometimes tree work is little more scarier because some trees you climb are not strong, and sometimes you have to tie in and work off of parts of a tree that your not a 100% sure it's able to support you. Also once you begin a tree job and start making cuts, your commited. Now I'm sure rock climbing is the same, that once you start your pretty much commited, but I'm just comparing to rappeling.

I could never do rock climbing. I never could see the point. Likewise with rappeling off of buildings or even off of some cliffs, I don't really do it much anymore. Maybe because I have a kid and I worry about him all the time. Were real close and he doesn't have any other brothers or sisters and I'm like his best friend so if something happened to me, he would be crushed. Not that anybody else's kids wouldn't be, I'm just saying the thought stops me from doing things I otherwise would do. I'm glad I know how to do some of these things just in case I ever needed to, and yes when I stay at a high rise hotel I bring my harness & rope. However, for the most part I only like dealing with heights if it serves a purpose. Tree work I get paid to do. I love hikeing and sometimes in the past I found it easier to rappel down a small cliff or a loose scree slope, but for the most part I try walking around it. Those are just my thougts, but yea, the harness/saddle thing was hard for me to grasp at first.
 
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Dunno about rocks but me and another climber just discovered wall climbing after starting in trees. It's a lot of fun but I get what you say about different disciplines.

Oh and the confusion over the word saddle is easy. You also put a saddle on a donkey. Guess who the donkey in the tree is?

You also put a saddle on horse, far from a mule aka donkey or ass.

Putting a saddle on either though is for transport, and since wearing a saddle in a tree doesn't constitute carrying or transporting the tree I can only think that your analogy is somewhat mentally flawed.

If indeed one was to don a saddle as an ass up the tree you'd know best about it. :hmm3grin2orange:
 
You also put a saddle on horse, far from a mule aka donkey or ass.

It seems I have to teach you biology as well. A mule is NOT also known as a donkey. A mule is the sterile offspring resulting from the cross breeding of a horse and a donkey.

So endeth the lesson.
 
It seems I have to teach you biology as well. A mule is NOT also known as a donkey. A mule is the sterile offspring resulting from the cross breeding of a horse and a donkey.

So endeth the lesson.

You don't "HAVE" to do anything, you choose to.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey

Your lesson has endeth alright, for asses anyway but for arboriculture is a long way off not to mention your reasoning as to humans being donkeys in trees due to wearing saddles. :monkey:
 
You don't "HAVE" to do anything, you choose to.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey

Your lesson has endeth alright, for asses anyway but for arboriculture is a long way off not to mention your reasoning as to humans being donkeys in trees due to wearing saddles. :monkey:

Fair enough. I don't have to educate you Ekka but I dislike seeing Aussies making an ass of themselves so I reach out and help people like you...... :)
 
analogy is somewhat mentally flawed.

You also put a saddle on horse, far from a mule aka donkey or ass.

Putting a saddle on either though is for transport, and since wearing a saddle in a tree doesn't constitute carrying or transporting the tree I can only think that your analogy is somewhat mentally flawed.
If indeed one was to don a saddle as an ass up the tree you'd know best about it. :hmm3grin2orange:

I end up transporting part or all of the tree to the ground, when I climb a tree. Then I transport it to my local brush dump, and my firewood pile. So maybe he was on to something. :monkey: Think about it
 
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