Using your feet

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BigJohn

ArboristSite Guru
Joined
Feb 25, 2003
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Rich, Here is a picture from the video clip. Hope it helps.
 
Hey John-
Took me a few minutes to find your rope in that picture. Funny how sometimes we just end up in some of the most awkward positions. Whatever it takes!

Here's one from a couple months ago when I climbed the monster live oak with Mike Cross and Monkeypuzzle up in Tallahassee. :p
 
Anybody ever try flipping up and pulling the friction knot with their feet?

dropping down like an inverted cross from 60-70' is a rush, I'll dig up some pictures.

I did it once once in front of my mom, she almost had a heart attack!:eek:
 
BigJohn

From what I gather, you seem to climb a little freer than most. If I remember correctly, from a previous post, you seem to be a minimalist as far as the amount of gear you take with you. Also, the fact that you climb with minmal use of a lanyard seem to go along with this. I wish I could climb that good with that amount of confidence. Kudos to you!:cool: :cool: :cool:


Maybe if you come to the Western Pa. Jamboree this summer you could enlighten me on some of the tricks!
 
I'm glad to see someone reply to my post. This free type of tree climbing seems to elude me. Sometimes deep down when I have an exception day climbing ( you know, you are confident, very loose and comfortable, and very ballsy ) I feel that I really do have this inside me........what it takes! But I only have a few days like this a year. I think it is because I only climb on the weekends and more often than not it is not a job to help further my climbing skills. Most here at this site know that I don't overestimate my abilities. To me that is suicide on this forum.


Repetition may be all that I need....................time will tell.
 
Rich, I've been in this full time for decades and I'm not there. I climb because it is part of the job. High climbing for fun impresses me but it doesn't appeal to me at all. I have a fundamental fault for a tree climber-I am afraid of heights.:rolleyes: Occassionally I have a comfortable day in a tree but mostly I just do it. If you are having a fair percentage of relaxed in the tree days at this stage you may be destined for many more. If you stay a little uncomfortable you aren't alone.:angel:
 
Originally posted by Stumper
Rich, I've been in this full time for decades and I'm not there. I climb because it is part of the job. High climbing for fun impresses me but it doesn't appeal to me at all. I have a fundamental fault for a tree climber-I am afraid of heights.:rolleyes: Occassionally I have a comfortable day in a tree but mostly I just do it. If you are having a fair percentage of relaxed in the tree days at this stage you may be destined for many more. If you stay a little uncomfortable you aren't alone.:angel:



Thanx, it's nice to see that I'm not alone.
 
This whole comfort zone thing is starting to get interesting. As far as I'm concerned I have ran this through my mind countless times. I still can't put my finger on what makes the difference for me. I don't know until I get my butt up in the tree. The one thing that I have noticed is that it takes a while for me to get comfortable. A lot of times just as I get to feeling real good the job is finished and it is time to come down. Maybe it is a confidence thing. A real good friend of mine who I work for/with alot says it is all in my head. He has more confidence in me than I do. There are times when he will push me to next next level during a job. He wouldn't do it if he didn't think I could do it.


I don't mean to dump all the psycho babble on anyone here. I just thought someone might have an opinion that might be helpful. Thanx, Rich.
 
Rich, I am with you on not knowing what you're comfortable with till you get up there. Before I start on a tree which is somewhat tough, I get a bit nervous. But once I get my gear on I am fine. There have however been a couple of occasions, not many, where I went up into a tree, tied in, and came right back down because I was too scared, the times that has happened though there was a LOT of rot in the trees.
 
rich,
climbing is a big head game. it's hard to stay at your best only climbing on the weekend. the first day you get comfortable again, the second day you feel better. but you need the 3rd and forth day.

how good of a skier would you be if you only went on the weekends? that why the locals kick a@@. i'm sure the best rock and ice climbers don't have full time jobs and if they do it's climbing related.

i'm sure if you climbed 4 or 5 or 20 days straight you would have alot more confidence in yourself. as well as pick up alot of second nature moves. i'm sure every one has their own little mental tricks.:D
 
Hey rockyjsquirrel is there not that occasional dead tree removal over a house that makes you a little uncomfortable?
 
Originally posted by RockyJSquirrel

A good rule of thumb I've heard mentioned is to tie in to a limb the size of your wrist. My wrist is 2½" wide and 1½" high. I will tie in to 2" forks regularly depending on the tree species.


I strongly disagree with this rule of thumb, especially post on a board with a bunch of beginers reading. Four inch diameter would be a minumum for most climbing.
Why would you bother lugging around 5000 lb tensile strength gear, only to tie into a limb that only holds about 200 lbs?
Cutting corners with safety issues is a stupid way to improve your climbing, I say the only good climber is a safe one. If you so desperately need a higher TIP, then do a redirect. It's not that hard, can be set retrievable and low friction, and would be much safer than tieing into a 2" limb.
 
I agree with what your saying about a comfort level. I'm like ya'll. I do tree all the time that I don't feel comfortable with so it bogs me down thinking about it. Or maybe I useing a new piece of equipment I just made, a new splice. I still remember though the day I had to change my mindset. I knew I knew enough to be good and to better I had just move faster. With being faster came more money. At the time I was just going through a divorce and I was taken to court for child support. I was working at an airport doing just about everything but no money @ 260 a week but what I would have to pay in flight time made up for it. I was ordered to to 200 a week leaving me 60 a week. My flying career was over. I knew then I had to go back to climbing and I had to be good if I was ever going to make enough to get by.

I really believe confidence is key to being a good climber. I also believer over confidence can lead a good climber to be a bad one. Trust your equipment, trust the tree and most of all trust yourself. They say the best reason for working safe is waiting for you at home.
 
Originally posted by BigJohn
They say the best reason for working safe is waiting for you at home.

Yeah, don't want to leave my poor fish w/ out a father.:D JK. I totally agree that too much confidence could be a killer. I would be scared to tie in to a 2" limb, therefore making me more mentally unstable than I already am:D, and I came down out of a tree in fear of stuctural unstability last weekend (bad rot).

Rich,
Do you have a BigShot? I love that gadget!! I never have gotten very good at throwing a throw bag, and for sure can't throw it very high, but with the big shot I can set my line a lot higher and My accuracy is getting better. Like others have said, a higher tie in will give you more stabilily and the BigShot allows that for me.

-Mike-
 
Good points by all...
I was running the camera on the pic that Big Jon started this thread with and the move wowed me ( I don't wow easy)
He was pulling himself over using both hands... an extra hand was needed to give some slack so he could pull himself farther over. Soooooooo he reached back to the friction hitch with his feet. Very cool move!!!!
AS far as size of tie in.... I remember the time I almost died... I had been put up into this big tulip with a 50' bucket truck and was advancing up the tree using a 16' pole saw. I reached around the tree to re-set the climbing line and cut a little sucker out of my way... I couldn't see the back side of the tree that I was reaching around to and I remember thinking this doesn't seem right as I set the line, but I let it go, unclipped my lanyard and slid around the tree only to look up and see the line was over the stub of the sucker I had just cut..... the thing was no bigger than my thumb.... and tulip to boot.
I could have easily slid around the tree with my lanyard still clipped..
That all said I would err on the side of caution when setting a climb line... especially in removals where big wood moving fast could grab the climber or his line.
 
Confidence in yourself seems to be a catch-22! Confidence a lot of times comes from experience/knowledge. I do have a bigshot and use it quite often. But, I have found that climbing to your TIP and setting your rope helps that experience/knowledge level. You will more than likely be working close to it anyway. Climbing your way up by means of rope throwing and body thrusting is a good way to get that experience/knowledge. I guess in the grand scheme of things I am still a beginner. Advanced techniques will come in time. Thanks for all the good comments, Rich.
 
Mike and Brian, This whole size thing is pretty species dependant. My personal interpretation of the wrist rule of thumb equates to a limb diameter equal to the broadest dimension of my wrist.(i.e. 3" limbs). Mike ,you have to remember tha Brian works in a lot of Live oaks. Two inch green live oak wouldn't frighten me although I outweigh Brian by 70 lbs. On the other hand 4" cottonwood makes me nervous.:)

P.S. Actually ALL cottonwoods make me nervous!:rolleyes:
 
Don't evert trust atlanthis. I broke the top out of one once. Where it had broke at was at least 6" in diameter. It broke about 3 feet below where I tied in at. I fell a 30 ft on my back. Then I got paged to go clear a poplar tree that burning on the 13.2 kv line. As if my day wasn't bad enough. Only ever had my tie in break out twice. I take a hit pretty well though.
 
I finally had a good climb today. We did some dead wood pruning and removed a few specific limbs over the house. I only did about 1/3 of the tree (two of us were in it) plus my buddy is quicker than I am. Nevertheless I came any today feeling good about myself.:D


What a feeling to climb and everything go well!
 
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