Whats the best way to get comfortable up high in the tree

[climb4fun]

Climb a tall tree, find a good place to hang out and just stay there. I use to take a lunch up with me and enjoy the scenery while I ate back when I was learning. I live in Oregon and have 130 ft. Tall Douglas firs at my house that are limbed up to 60 ft. They were a great asset in learning to keep my head straight

 

[Fireaxman]

Take your time, go slow. While you are still Low play with your gear. Hang upside down in your saddle. Bounce on it. Swing out on your ropes, before you start up. Establish confidence in your equipment.

As you proceed up the tree, when you first start feeling a little nervous, before you get into full blown Fear, stop and hang out at that height until you feel comfortable there. Play on your ropes again. Swing out a little, roll in your saddle, work around the diameter of the tree, check all your rigging. When you start feeling a little bored, go on up a little further.

Don't feel like you Have to get all the way to the top in a tall tree when you start out. Take only as much as you feel comfortable with. I would advise you Not to push your threshold beyond nervous into fear. Panic is definitely a killer. If you are already scared you may be pretty close to the edge of panic. Might not take much to push you into it; a bee or wasp, unexpected resistance or slack in your friction hitch, etc. Go Slow. No hurry. Take YOUR time. They tell new motorcycle riders Ride Your Own Ride, don't try to "keep up" with a more experienced rider. I will adapt that advice to our sport, Climb Your Own Climb, don't get in a hurry.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

I not familiar with those species of tree, and I do not doubt your assement of the trees condition where you live. But in all fairness here in North Carolina I have yet to see a healthy tree fail from a simple pull of a throw line nor with a rope attached and a 5 to 1 pulling at it.
Generally speaking if a large thriving white oak was to fail in my general area there would have to be obvious structural damage to the tree or Hypoxilin canker throughout the tree.

Trimmed for brevity.

Funny you should say that......one of my first insurance jobs was a fine looking White Oak about 60' tall and 36" DBH that decided to lean onto a house on a calm late spring day. It ended up about 35 to 40 degrees from vertical with its weight supported by hundreds of branches pressing against the roof. This tree was in full leaf and I would have been happy to rig BIG wood out of it the day before. It failed about 3' below grade on the uphill side, and a foot below on the downhill side. No roots were visible. Ground sloped away from the house.
It was fun climbing up that tree after setting up guy lines. Cut a few small limbs, check tension on guy lines. Repeat....repeat.....repeat. No big rigging, had to keep the whole thing in balance. Hardly any rot was noted in the tree during removal. The rot was invisible...... below the ground.

 

[sgreanbeans]

https://www.facebook.com/qctree/photos/pb.134058976615762.-2207520000.1392379171./142196612468665/?type=3&src=https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t1/40058_142196612468665_6972555_n.jpg&size=540,720&fbid=142196612468665

Same with this one. Root rot. Lady was in bathroom about 10 seconds before it came over. If she stayed in front of the mirror, she would be dead. Branch came thru the roof and all the way down into the bathroom. Would have spiked her to the floor. That house is on the national historic registry. Copper gutters. 100g's in damage.

 

[pro94lt]

I bet most of us got comfortable by throwing a high price out thinking they wouldn't hire you only to be asked when can you start...

 

[Str8six]

I have seen a lot of white oaks around my area that are totally rotten underground but look totally healthy above. I cleaned one up at my grandfathers last year. It was in the middle of a flat hay pasture, no wet ground storm or anything.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

One thing I can still remember about that tree.......asking myself why it went over on that fairly calm day, and not during the blow we had the previous week. I never found an answer.
Can roots really rot that fast?

 

[sgreanbeans]

Not sure it is a case of them rotting that fast, but getting to the point to where they can no longer hold. The wind may have still been the final blow, by working the root tips back and forth. Little by little, loosing their "grip" in the soil. That one I posted, was a perfect day, sunny, warm, no wind.

 

[Charlie Stone]

Don't look down

 

[yoyoman]

I'm hoping that some of the advice you get will also work for getting comfortable up high in an airplane.
I'm a gutted quivering human wreck in a plane. More flights and less Mayday episodes on TV would help, just like more time in a tree would/will benefit you.

Hey Dave, let's going flying sometime, I'll let you take the controls as long as you want.

 

[yoyoman]

Sometimes i feel i dont climb high enough cause nerves start to set in on certain trees.
Is there anyway to get more used to being way up in the tree ?

Get a tree boat or portaledge and sleep up there, wake up in the morning and look over the edge and dose back off to sleep again.

 

[miko0618]

giving examples of healthy trees falling doesn't really prove anything. that's the risk. it is like any other risk. you drive to work every day no issues. one day you hit a deer and it comes through the windshield and kills you. for the most part, any visibly healthy tree is wouldn't fail from a truck trying to pull it over. in fact, most visibly sick trees wouldn't fail from a truck pulling on it. when I get nervous I think about how strong a tree actually is. I've dropped some tall pine stems and watched them smash through padding logs on the ground. the amount of force it must take to break even a 12" log must be incredible. so theres no way I could break it with my weight. if you want to prove to yourself how much a tree can hold, set a block in a normal tie in and at the base. run a rigging line to your truck and to something really heavy. a log works good. you'll be able to lift 1000 lbs through a 2-1 making a ton on the crotch. we've loaded logs into a dump this way that's how I know this strange information i personally like to tie in my final point from that location. i know it sucks goin all the way up to do it but i get to inspect the whole situation. because of it i can 100% trust my tie in. i think you have to to have fun up there. i take some big swings!

 

[szajer]

When I first started climbing, my employer put me in the biggest— 120' and near 200 year old white oaks. Everything after that seemed small. Never had a hard time with heights, but climbing ladders and being on pitched roofs? That gets me nervous.

I was the foreman of our company and I was breaking in a new climber, who said, he had lots of experience climbing. His first task, a 90' pin oak pruning. I was in an oak just yards away, watching his technique as I pruned my tree. As he got to his first tie in, I noticed he had stopped working his way up and was doing the huggy bear around the spar. I asked if he was alright— and at that time, he started vibrating like a jackhammer.

I knew he was in trouble, so I started calming him down by telling him to breath and stay put -cause he was tied in securely. He wouldn't answer me back and I then saw him untying his climbing knot, back then, a taunt line hitch.
That was the point where I had to yell for him to stop! He did- and I immediately pulled out of my tree and started up his. Side by side, I came down with him.

Well, he messed himself and I called for the boss to take him back to the shop and call it the day. He never came back the next day. And my co-workers did not make fun of the fact he lost his mind and bodily functions. It was actually pretty scary to think we almost witnessed a death due to complete fear and a shut down to any reasoning.

True story....

They're no shame being a groundman. If you're not cut out for climbing, then don't force it. Nothing beats a good groundman. Nothing.

 

[Str8six]

I also try and think about all the rope and tire swings I rigged as a kid. If some of those limbs didn't fail being tied out at the end then I'm pretty sure my climbing tie ins today won't. I did have one incident with a rope swing but that was before I knew how to tie real knots.

 

[pro94lt]

The co-dominant stem sweet gum in my back yard I learned the basic climbing techniques in failed last summer. I spent hours upon hours in that tree and it decided to fail while I was ironically working on my bucket truck no wind or anything... sometimes they just go. Hit the house and did damage to shingles, chimney and decking. It troubles me.

 

[szajer]

sweet gum

There's your problem. Sweet Gum is a notorious flimsy tree with poor branch structure.

I too had one on a property I rented years ago -that failed in the same way. Twice.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

The risk can be reduced... take time to visually inspect the tree. Once you have your climb line installed, walk it off to a safe direction and pull hard. Two or three guys pulling is even better. Just be prepared to run IF it is the RARE tree that can be pulled over.
Trusting my equipment is no problem. Trusting the TIP is easier after a good pull test. Trusting myself........ we will leave that one for a different thread.

 

[capetrees]

Maybe it's not good to get too comfortable up there? It's a high risk environment especially when you add a chainsaw to the mix. The most comfortable guys are those who climb on drugs, who are also the most accident prone.

WHAT????!!!!

So by your reasoning nobody should be up in the tree, skilled or otherwise, for any length of time because it's dangerous? Really? And if your are comfortable up there you're a druggie? WOW!!

I've been up in the trees since I was 10 and I am MORE comfortable up in the canopy than on the ground or on a ladder. I could sit in the trees for days and not care or get nerved up. Came down only once in 40 years of climbing trees and thats because a wild weather front came in and nearly blew me out of the tree and I've never done any drugs (don't even like to use asprin).

My advise to anyone that is uncomfortable climbing a tree is to NOT DO IT. Would you be an electrictian if you were uncomfortable around electricity or a doctor uncomfortable around blood or virus's? I will admit that for much of my climbing life, I climbed without gear, all freestyle and often with saws for tree and branch removal. Unsafe, you bet. Comfortable? You bet and I wouldn't have been there if I wasn't. Got my saddle and spikes just a few years ago and now I can do soooo much more in the tree and safer. But all the gear in the world won't make you more comfortable if you don't have confidence in what you're doing. I didn't trust my saddle at first but I've become completely comfortable but still respectful of the idea it could break. Become more comfortable by doing more in the canopy. Height doesn't matter. Good TIP, good saddle, good flipline and good technique will prove to you you can do it. But don't force it. Some can climb, some can't.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

The best way to get comfortable high up in a tree........

Put a big Bear in the bottom of the tree while you are in it.

 

[Pelorus]

Hey Dave, let's going flying sometime, I'll let you take the controls as long as you want.

Your kind offer notwithstanding, my itinerary for the next 40 years forbids flying anywhere.