Hello
I'm a newbie on this site, so a little bit about me.
I'm a retired tree surgeon with many years of experience and I would urge anyone wishing to get into the game to learn it thoroughly from an experienced tree climber. As Stihlproincky says, this is not a trade to learn by trial and error! And never forget you will be learning every day because every tree and every situation is new and different.
As far as kit goes, I used the same Barrow Hepburn harness (the GT77) throughout my career, and have no doubt that it was the best ever made. Simple, comfortable, and effective at keeping the user totally safe; everything was in the right place and crucially the suspension point was correctly positioned for rope climbing and not too high to upset the balance. It made manoeuvring in the tree as easy as it could be.
I and my team climbed on the classic prussic knot technique, free climbing with 2 strops (so you are ALWAYS roped securely to the tree) and climbing iron if necessary then setting up the climbing rope over a suitable anchor point (one which has a second catch if possible) and tying the prussic at the correct height for easy handling. We modified the technique slightly by adopting the ring strop system when that was developed. We always used 12mm nylon rope of the highest quality (NEVER skimp of the quality of safety gear - what price your life?), initially 3 stand hawser laid and later 4 strand multiplait which has the advantage of not twisting up on a rapid decent.
Whatever gear you buy and whatever technique you use, learn it thoroughly and have confidence in what you are doing.
Good luck!
