Hey TrreeGuyHR, I see you are in Hood River, great place, grew up in Portland, loved skiing Mt. Hood. You are lucky to be there.
Still trying to understand completely how you hurt yourself and learn from your experience.
Can you explain a couple of things to me.... increasing the friction under your feet, and going at a tangent?
Also, where was the branch you put your lanyard on and where did you position your lanyard on that branch?
Hope you are doing well.
Thanks
I have done most of my climbing in the last four years. A combination of experience and conditioning has greatly improved my technique, although I am a bit stubborn and tend to rely too much on strength (another story there).
The injury occurred because I wedged my foot in another, large fork in the big oak limb and also put a short lanyard around that upright side limb so I could get stable enough to work. The foot stayed behind when the smaller limb broke (well, for a long second or two :msp_scared:
What I mean about friction is changing my thinking to more of a rock climbing approach -- which emphasizes getting as much of the bottom of your foot on the surface you are climbing as you can. In a tree, you have the luxury of leaning back on your rope while also having a lanyard around the stem you are ascending (or the the limb you are walking out on). Then when you take the next step, the lanyard (already advanced) keeps you from sliding back on an angled or near-vertical or even vertical stem. We are talking about being in a multi-trunked tree here -- it is too exhausting on a single trunk, although I have used the "Batman" technique when I am going back into a tree, having left my life line in it on a pulley.
On a side limb when branch walking, the lanyard is mainly to keep you from swinging to the trunk if you lose your "foot grip". I usually climb with two steel core lanyards, a 12 and a 16 ft.; that way I can throw one or both around a limb or limbs (but not epicormic sprouts!) for stability when making a cut.
Of course, relying on foot friction works better on dry bark. You can still do it on pine, fir, or oak, but not something like birch or maple when wet. I try to avoid working in those trees when wet, as it is slower but can still be done. It means having to go up to your tie-in and then back down each side trunk from the top, if there aren't enough side limbs to work your way up from the middle or bottom by throwing a lanyard through one crotch after another and pulling yourself up. That is how I used to climb, dry or wet conditions.
I still rely solely on a Blakes, except for a high tie-in, in which case I will often set a line and climb it with a pair of jumars on webbing, and then switch to a second line to work.
I'll stop there...
