whats your end goal?AviD said:What is the best way of going about finding a local arborist and/or training facility to learn and ask hands on questions, preview equipment, techniques, etc?
jmack said:whats your end goal?
A four letter word? Does that mean good, like love, beer, meat, sexy,? Way to go Avid, learn with spurs, learn the other way later. My advice is to go and watch/work for someone on the weekends, why you want to be in a tree without a chainsaw puzzles me but whatever. Spurs and a steelcore, can't go wrong.inztrees said:thats a 4 letter word gaff :hmm3grin2orange:
clearance said:... why you want to be in a tree without a chainsaw puzzles me but whatever. Spurs and a steelcore, can't go wrong.
Fair enough.Fireaxman said:Other side of the story - if you are in the tree and you are not using a chain saw, you probably are not doing a take down. There may be times when it is not economicly feasable to climb on ropes for pruning, but those times are rare. If you are just climbing for recreation, or to put up a deer stand, ropes are safer for you and better for the tree.
Gaffs injure the tree, and (my opinion) are actually harder to learn to use Safely. Your natural impulse is to stay close to the trunk of the tree. Hug the tree with gaffs and you will probably "Cut Out" and (at the least) scuff yourself up. Learning to lean back and trust my flipline was harder for me than "swinging" on a rope (most of us learn to trust "swings" in kindergarten).
Learn to use the ropes first. Better for the tree and better for you.
Fireaxman said:If you are just climbing for recreation, or to put up a deer stand, ropes are safer for you and better for the tree.
Fireaxman said:Gaffs injure the tree, and (my opinion) are actually harder to learn to use Safely. Your natural impulse is to stay close to the trunk of the tree. Hug the tree with gaffs and you will probably "Cut Out" and (at the least) scuff yourself up. Learning to lean back and trust my flipline was harder for me than "swinging" on a rope (most of us learn to trust "swings" in kindergarten). If I had someone to teach me "The Ropes" when I first started climbing, I may never have bought gaffs. Regardless if I have gaffs, I would always want ropes. There are a lot of things you can do with ropes that you cannot do with gaffs (limb walking for instance). I can't think of anything you can do with gaffs that you cannot do with ropes (maybe Clearance can educate me).
Gaffs are faster, thats all. Ropes are safer, easier on the trees, and can be used for more varied applications.
Learn to use the ropes first. Better for the tree and better for you.
AviD said:... I looked at the steel core flip lines, they are pretty heavy (ala the core)...not sure how necessary they will be for what I'm doing (no chainsaw work, so no really risk of cutting through the rope outside of using a handsaw).!
AviD said:We briefly discussed something that interested me, which was how climbers manage to gaff themselves either on the top of the foot or through the achilles tendon.
Question for the gaff crowd, how exactly does one manage to gaff themselves? I would think your feet would be on opposite sides of the tree (nearly) most of the time...at what point do your feet come that close in contact that you might actually step down and gaff yourself?
AviD said:I can see setting up throw lines at my locations, and then packing a climbing rope in for a climb with ascenders/stirrups and swapping it with the throw line...but its positioning them that I can see be problematic for several of the trees I hunt. Plus I wouldn't have a universal secure point height for the climbing rope, so I'd have to imagine the worst case possible and get an appropriate length of rope.!
AviD said:Really alot to it, and I have a ton to learn on it. Unfortunately working a full time job, I can't get on a work crew and learn the ropes, so my only other option is formal training or self teaching.
"Set gaffs firmly into the tree at a distance apart no more than the width of your shoulders". If your feet are on opposite sides of the tree you are hugging the tree, a sure recipe for a "Cut Out" and a face full of bark. Also, that would put your weight on your groin muscels, which are very weak compared to the muscels in the front of your leg. On small diameter trees your gaffs are much closer than shoulder width. Clearance could probably give us a good rule of thumb on this, but I would guess I keep my gaffs no more than shoulder width or no more than 1/3 of the diameter of the tree apart, whichever is less.
whole lot here,again why?AviD said:Ultimately I just want to learn climbing techniques, not interested in running chainsaws, not doing any heavy cutting/lowering or anything. Primarily gaff climbing and gear selection (harness, lanyard, etc)...but would like to learn single and double rope techniques eventually as well. I know the gaff vs non-gaff crowd is pretty split here, but for my climbing application, they are what I am interested in initially. I've extracted quite a bit of info on here as far as some of the gear, but I'd prefer to spend some time with an experienced climber rather than just reading and applying. I'm confident I can learn it on my own and I have non-climber profession friends that use gaffs and could "show me", but doing it the smart/right/safe way with someone that has the professional experience is my preference.
lync said:I'm sure you do some pre-hunt scouting for rubs and droppings. Why not set a throw line and leave it in the tree while your scouting, then when your going to hunt pull thru the climbing line tie it off at the base, use a set of handled ascenders srt to gain access. You could set up numerous trees just leave the throw lines in place. Trim branches set lines one day climb and hunt, the next.
Corey
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