First climb and the story about it

[kkottemann]

This ought to be fun. what was your first climb and what is the story to go along with it??? Where was it? what kind of tree? Why or how did you get the call to go up?? ect....

My first climb was a small river birch on st. charles ave. in new orleans. I had been working for a few weeks as a climber trainee with the big outfit. I was learning everything about the operation from knots to chipper maintenence when one day the climber I was working under went up the tree and got zapped by a hornet on his elbow. His arm swelled up and as a result he was grounded. Well It was time to step up to the plate, I had all brand new stuff and was ready to go. I set my rope and tied a tautline hitch and hip thrusted up the tree. It was a prune so no spikes on this one. I was obviously a rookie, took about 5 minutes to get 25 feet up. Sliced my hand open with the pruning saw and got a limb hung up on a gutter which had to be replaced. I was hooked!!!! The next day I had a crew of my own and was promoted to foreman. The rest is history...

 

[jrparbor04]

full on removal of a 48" white oak and about 80ft tall,,,the climber that i was working under told me to get my rope and saddle and some spikes ready with your saw gased,,,limbed up to the top and was preparing to take the top out,,,still a huge diameter top,,,kinda nervous,,,knew i was going for a ride,,,the climber trainer told me after the top broke off to hold on and make sure the spikes were in good,,,deep breathe,,,deep breathe,,,took the top out and went for my first good ride,,,almost to the ground and ran out of rope with about 7 ft to go,,,i said,,,what the hell do i do???? just jump to the ground,,,,wooohooooo,,,,scared the crap outta me at first but when i got to the ground to fell the whole thing,,,,I LOVED IT!!!!