Canyon Angler
Addicted to ArboristSite
Hey guys, new hobbyist/homeowner climber here.
I have a 18-yr-old bald cypress 15" DBH that got a split tip that broke and half broke off and half is hanging from a strap of bark about 20' up.
Need to get handsaw and cut that hanging piece down. (No spurs.)
BC seems weak, brittle. Not sure how much to trust branches for climbing it. I'm new at this so I have some questions:
I should use a rope and saddle along with lanyard, being new, shouldn't I? (Have this stuff already.)
Or would saddle and lanyard/prusik (would use lanyard double-ended) alone be enough?
Tree has lots of branches, and I plan to use them to go up. If I use a rope, it'll just be for safety, with prusik loop to saddle, not climbing on the rope.
What concerns me if I use a rope is how safe it is to trust a skinny branch crotch up high for a lifeline in bald cypress.
And for all I know on this tree, the split might continue down the stem.
If I could get a "cinch" choker on main stem up high, I would trust that for lifeline, but not sure how to do that from below.
One idea: Throwline rope over branch, walk rope back around tree, then attach carabiner to end to make loop to cinch on main stem.
But if I did that, how would I get carabiner and other end of rope back down after I climbed back down?
I guess I could switch over from a cinch to a crotch once I got up in the tree but would rather not.
Sorry so wordy and probably using wrong words (thinking it through as I write it) but do you all have any tips for a FNG on this? How can I cinch the main stem from below and use that as anchor point, in a way that I can get everything back out of the tree from below afterwards? It seems like I've seen this somewhere but I forget.
My rope climbing knowledge is limited to DRT as taught by Peter Jenkins's "Tree Climbing Basics" DVD and Jeff Jepson's "TCC" (also have On Rope and Freedom of Hills) and what I've learned reading A/S, watching youtube, etc., so please keep it basic. Trying to learn as much as possible "old school" without gadgets in case of emergency (and can't afford gadgets). Problem is, there's really no one around here to teach me in person, so I have to teach myself, and have a dope for a student. So sorry if this is a really basic dumb question. Not knowing the terms, I don't even know how to search for the answer.
Thanks for any help.
I have a 18-yr-old bald cypress 15" DBH that got a split tip that broke and half broke off and half is hanging from a strap of bark about 20' up.
Need to get handsaw and cut that hanging piece down. (No spurs.)
BC seems weak, brittle. Not sure how much to trust branches for climbing it. I'm new at this so I have some questions:
I should use a rope and saddle along with lanyard, being new, shouldn't I? (Have this stuff already.)
Or would saddle and lanyard/prusik (would use lanyard double-ended) alone be enough?
Tree has lots of branches, and I plan to use them to go up. If I use a rope, it'll just be for safety, with prusik loop to saddle, not climbing on the rope.
What concerns me if I use a rope is how safe it is to trust a skinny branch crotch up high for a lifeline in bald cypress.
And for all I know on this tree, the split might continue down the stem.
If I could get a "cinch" choker on main stem up high, I would trust that for lifeline, but not sure how to do that from below.
One idea: Throwline rope over branch, walk rope back around tree, then attach carabiner to end to make loop to cinch on main stem.
But if I did that, how would I get carabiner and other end of rope back down after I climbed back down?
I guess I could switch over from a cinch to a crotch once I got up in the tree but would rather not.
Sorry so wordy and probably using wrong words (thinking it through as I write it) but do you all have any tips for a FNG on this? How can I cinch the main stem from below and use that as anchor point, in a way that I can get everything back out of the tree from below afterwards? It seems like I've seen this somewhere but I forget.
My rope climbing knowledge is limited to DRT as taught by Peter Jenkins's "Tree Climbing Basics" DVD and Jeff Jepson's "TCC" (also have On Rope and Freedom of Hills) and what I've learned reading A/S, watching youtube, etc., so please keep it basic. Trying to learn as much as possible "old school" without gadgets in case of emergency (and can't afford gadgets). Problem is, there's really no one around here to teach me in person, so I have to teach myself, and have a dope for a student. So sorry if this is a really basic dumb question. Not knowing the terms, I don't even know how to search for the answer.
Thanks for any help.