Tree Climbing!
Jun. 13th, 2011 01:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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disobey_gravity(rydra_wong asked me to xpost here)
Backstory: some while back, someone asked me what I wanted to do that I'd never done; I said I wanted to go tree climbing, get myself up into an old-growth canopy. (Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have some amazing forests. I'm very familiar with them at ground level, but I hear the canopy is a thing unto itself, and I'd like to see it.) Come Christmas, my partner,grrlpup, gave me an enrollment for a one day tree-climbing workshop. Which happened last Wednesday. :-)
There weren't that many pics, mostly because I was busy all day, and y'know, I can take photos or I can do stuff. But have what photos there are!
So, it was a one day workshop, in an oak grove on the instructor's farm outside of Oregon City. This area of Oregon used to be all oak savannah, although most of the oak groves you see around nowadays are only a hundred years old or so -- in fact, the trees we were to climb were about that age. We had been worried about the weather, but it was nearly perfect: overcast, cool, and dry. Maybe a little too cool for the learning our knots parts of the day, but climbing is enough work that a cool day was nice.
This is the kind of scenery we had. Except that it's sweeter from up in a tree. ;-)
This is the grove, but not the trees we climbed. The trees we climbed were farther into the grove and a bit bigger.
We started the day climbing on pre-rigged ropes -- the instructor said that making students begin by learning how to rig their own ropes kills their desire to learn? (Silly peeps! Rigging is cool!)
The basic climbing maneuver had a lot in common with crevasse self-rescue via prusiks, although the actual rigging was different -- from what the instructor was saying, the technical lineage for tree-climbing is all through professional arborists. Basic set-up: a rope hung over a high branch/crotch (running through a bit of flexible conduit, to protect the branch from the rope), with the running end 'binered to your seat harness and then tied with a friction knot to the standing end; below that on the standing end, a prusik loop (with two foot loops tied into it); below that, a slip knot as a safety knot (something for the Blake's hitch and prusik to jam up against, if needed). As you climb (stand into the prusik foot loops, slide seat knot up; sit, slide foot knot up; repeat -- just like crevasse self-rescue), you tie new safety knots below you as needed.
For the record, I found that the climbing motion is a lot easier when you've got a wall to lever against. It's also easier when you're in better shape than I am in right now -- my coordination and timing were those of a novice, which meant that I spent a lot of extra energy flailing. Unfortunately, I didn't have a whole lot of extra energy/strength to spare for flailing. :-/ However, I was climbing the sole trunk rope (i.e., a rope hung within a few feet of the trunk), so I eventually started using the trunk as I would use a wall, and got on much better. But still, it was much more difficult than I remembered it being from self-rescue-via-prusiks.
(And now that I'm looking at videos of tree-climbers and of crevasse self-rescue side-by-side, I'm thinking it wasn't just me being out of shape now, but that the rigging they were using on the trees is more difficult to climb efficiently with? Which makes me wonder afresh why tree-climbers do it that way instead of another way. I never did get a chance to ask.)
After we came down, we spent a while learning knots. Then a while more practicing the knots. Then broke for lunch, then came back to see if we still remembered our knots. Then we learned some cool stuff about how exactly they get the rope up into the trees (clever throwing technique! clever use of hitching!) and how they get the cambrium saver positioned just so (clever use of slip knots!), and then they sent us off to go rig our own ropes.
So we did.
It's hard to see, but there's a bit of conduit up over the tree branch, to protect the branch from the friction of the rope. I thought the technique for getting that in place was clever, but the really exciting part for me, was the throwing technique -- it almost makes me want to go hang a bear bag. (Hahaha! Just kidding! I'm pretty sure I still hate hanging bear bags!)
From left to right: figure eight on a bight, which was our clip-in point; figure eight (which somehow figures into rescue, but we didn't learn that); five turn Blake's hitch; figure eight used as a stop knot. There's too much slack in these knots as pictured, by the way -- if I were to load this with my body weight, the Blake's hitch would end up out of my reach. Lower on the down-rope is a prusik loop(contrasting color), set up with a triple crown knot to make two foot loops (not pictured).
The rope is arborist's rope: somewhere between static and dynamic in its properties. Neither static nor dynamic ropes should be used for this.
And then we climbed.
(Yeah, I dunno, I was having trouble with that helmet all day. Shoulda brought mine, obvs.)
And the aftermath:
The ones on my right hand didn't tear open, so it did not amuse me to take photos of them. ;-)
Fun day, exhausting day, geeky day, and yes, I would do it again. I have been eyeballing trees ever since we got back! But oh, man, I'm going to have to hit the weight room before I do.
rydra_wong asked me to xpost here)Backstory: some while back, someone asked me what I wanted to do that I'd never done; I said I wanted to go tree climbing, get myself up into an old-growth canopy. (Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have some amazing forests. I'm very familiar with them at ground level, but I hear the canopy is a thing unto itself, and I'd like to see it.) Come Christmas, my partner,
grrlpup, gave me an enrollment for a one day tree-climbing workshop. Which happened last Wednesday. :-)There weren't that many pics, mostly because I was busy all day, and y'know, I can take photos or I can do stuff. But have what photos there are!
So, it was a one day workshop, in an oak grove on the instructor's farm outside of Oregon City. This area of Oregon used to be all oak savannah, although most of the oak groves you see around nowadays are only a hundred years old or so -- in fact, the trees we were to climb were about that age. We had been worried about the weather, but it was nearly perfect: overcast, cool, and dry. Maybe a little too cool for the learning our knots parts of the day, but climbing is enough work that a cool day was nice.
This is the kind of scenery we had. Except that it's sweeter from up in a tree. ;-)
This is the grove, but not the trees we climbed. The trees we climbed were farther into the grove and a bit bigger.
We started the day climbing on pre-rigged ropes -- the instructor said that making students begin by learning how to rig their own ropes kills their desire to learn? (Silly peeps! Rigging is cool!)
The basic climbing maneuver had a lot in common with crevasse self-rescue via prusiks, although the actual rigging was different -- from what the instructor was saying, the technical lineage for tree-climbing is all through professional arborists. Basic set-up: a rope hung over a high branch/crotch (running through a bit of flexible conduit, to protect the branch from the rope), with the running end 'binered to your seat harness and then tied with a friction knot to the standing end; below that on the standing end, a prusik loop (with two foot loops tied into it); below that, a slip knot as a safety knot (something for the Blake's hitch and prusik to jam up against, if needed). As you climb (stand into the prusik foot loops, slide seat knot up; sit, slide foot knot up; repeat -- just like crevasse self-rescue), you tie new safety knots below you as needed.
For the record, I found that the climbing motion is a lot easier when you've got a wall to lever against. It's also easier when you're in better shape than I am in right now -- my coordination and timing were those of a novice, which meant that I spent a lot of extra energy flailing. Unfortunately, I didn't have a whole lot of extra energy/strength to spare for flailing. :-/ However, I was climbing the sole trunk rope (i.e., a rope hung within a few feet of the trunk), so I eventually started using the trunk as I would use a wall, and got on much better. But still, it was much more difficult than I remembered it being from self-rescue-via-prusiks.
(And now that I'm looking at videos of tree-climbers and of crevasse self-rescue side-by-side, I'm thinking it wasn't just me being out of shape now, but that the rigging they were using on the trees is more difficult to climb efficiently with? Which makes me wonder afresh why tree-climbers do it that way instead of another way. I never did get a chance to ask.)
After we came down, we spent a while learning knots. Then a while more practicing the knots. Then broke for lunch, then came back to see if we still remembered our knots. Then we learned some cool stuff about how exactly they get the rope up into the trees (clever throwing technique! clever use of hitching!) and how they get the cambrium saver positioned just so (clever use of slip knots!), and then they sent us off to go rig our own ropes.
So we did.
It's hard to see, but there's a bit of conduit up over the tree branch, to protect the branch from the friction of the rope. I thought the technique for getting that in place was clever, but the really exciting part for me, was the throwing technique -- it almost makes me want to go hang a bear bag. (Hahaha! Just kidding! I'm pretty sure I still hate hanging bear bags!)
From left to right: figure eight on a bight, which was our clip-in point; figure eight (which somehow figures into rescue, but we didn't learn that); five turn Blake's hitch; figure eight used as a stop knot. There's too much slack in these knots as pictured, by the way -- if I were to load this with my body weight, the Blake's hitch would end up out of my reach. Lower on the down-rope is a prusik loop(contrasting color), set up with a triple crown knot to make two foot loops (not pictured).
The rope is arborist's rope: somewhere between static and dynamic in its properties. Neither static nor dynamic ropes should be used for this.
And then we climbed.
(Yeah, I dunno, I was having trouble with that helmet all day. Shoulda brought mine, obvs.)
And the aftermath:
The ones on my right hand didn't tear open, so it did not amuse me to take photos of them. ;-)
Fun day, exhausting day, geeky day, and yes, I would do it again. I have been eyeballing trees ever since we got back! But oh, man, I'm going to have to hit the weight room before I do.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 07:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-15 04:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 08:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-15 04:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-15 04:27 pm (UTC)(Belaying, on the other hand, generally requires anchoring. Or Looney-Tunes-esque comedy. Or both.)
no subject
Date: 2011-06-15 04:33 pm (UTC):: (Belaying, on the other hand, generally requires anchoring. Or Looney-Tunes-esque comedy. Or both.) ::
Hee. Been there, done that.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 08:53 pm (UTC)Belated question: how do you approach learning knots? Or is it one of those things that you've always been into?
Any recs for online guides to key knots?
no subject
Date: 2011-06-14 10:14 pm (UTC)The site I've seen people rec is animated knots. It's not a complete source for climbing knots, but a solid beginning. (Some of the classic climbing knots are under "basic", not "climbing".) Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills is fairly comprehensive, and what I learned from; I don't know if there's an online site that matches it.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-15 04:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-15 04:35 pm (UTC)Me, I was happy to see the one-hand bowline demonstrated there. I've had a hard time picking up the alternate methods of tying knots.