Kid Tulocay
New Member
Hi Arborists!
Recently discovered this forum and eagerly devouring it so I can educate myself.
I have some property with a lot of trees that have not been managed well. Old and big trees. Lots of large leaning and unbalanced trees, interfering with each other, etc. Spent a lot of money on pro crews with bucket truck, but there's plenty of stuff not accessible via bucket and it gets expensive fast. Discovered there's a whole other alternative of climbing them instead. So I figure heck, I can climb trees, did plenty of that as a kid, just not high enough with enough security to do what I need to. BTW this is northern California, so lots of valley oak, live oak, California bay, Oregon ash, alder--very few conifers.
My plan is no spiking because I'm 99% of the time keeping the tree and I don't want to damage it. I can pretty much climb to everywhere I need to go, plenty of branches, so I don't need all that rope ascending technique. A lot of the aerial routes are along horizontal or 45 degree limbs that would be easy to scoot up or along, if they weren't 40' in the air. And that's the main problem. I need something to protect me from falls is all, that would work on all limb attitudes flat to vertical. Thinking of some kind of lanyard setup where if I fell, I would be hanging under the limb, sloth-style, then maybe a dangling foot loop to help be get back on. I suppose I could add a rappel line, maybe carried in a bag, for rapid/emergency descents, but I see it as optional since anything I can up-climb, I should be able to down-climb, provided I have some security.
So, am I crazy or is there a developed system for climbing around this way?
Recently discovered this forum and eagerly devouring it so I can educate myself.
I have some property with a lot of trees that have not been managed well. Old and big trees. Lots of large leaning and unbalanced trees, interfering with each other, etc. Spent a lot of money on pro crews with bucket truck, but there's plenty of stuff not accessible via bucket and it gets expensive fast. Discovered there's a whole other alternative of climbing them instead. So I figure heck, I can climb trees, did plenty of that as a kid, just not high enough with enough security to do what I need to. BTW this is northern California, so lots of valley oak, live oak, California bay, Oregon ash, alder--very few conifers.
My plan is no spiking because I'm 99% of the time keeping the tree and I don't want to damage it. I can pretty much climb to everywhere I need to go, plenty of branches, so I don't need all that rope ascending technique. A lot of the aerial routes are along horizontal or 45 degree limbs that would be easy to scoot up or along, if they weren't 40' in the air. And that's the main problem. I need something to protect me from falls is all, that would work on all limb attitudes flat to vertical. Thinking of some kind of lanyard setup where if I fell, I would be hanging under the limb, sloth-style, then maybe a dangling foot loop to help be get back on. I suppose I could add a rappel line, maybe carried in a bag, for rapid/emergency descents, but I see it as optional since anything I can up-climb, I should be able to down-climb, provided I have some security.
So, am I crazy or is there a developed system for climbing around this way?
