Home ice climbing

Alright I know you've all dreamed about it, has anyone made it happen? I've got a hose 30ft up a tree in my backyard and I'm hoping it will turn that poor tree into a nice little dripline I can take some laps on! More specifically the hose is in a bucket that has a couple dozen small holes in it to spread out the drip. I also tacked a plastic fence up on the tree in the hopes that the plastic mesh will create a nice matrix for the ice to cling to and form on. A cursory Google search yields some encouraging results... Let the comments fly! Anyone have any suggestions or criticisms? Photo to follow...the app is pretty unsteady on my phone.

I've seen a number of folks do this and always thought it looked "entertaining" but not really great for much else. I guess it beats fig 4'ing across my cramped basement on weeknights though.

Yeah Sam I agree not looking to get any hardcore training in with this setup but hoping it's worthwhile to mess around in the backyard!

What do you think of this.Run a cable at the top of the trees on both sides. (left and right). You have to remember this is a lot of weight in ice , but with mesh / fencing you could make a wall of ice. ?????

A buddy of mine did this in a 40 foot tree in his backyard way back in the early 90s. We climbed it Christmas Eve day. Neighbors called police, town officials - nothing could be done. We took pics, sent them to Climbing Magazine and they posted a blurb in the magazine and titled it “backyard swingset!”

I had a similar problem when I lived in Florida. 

The neighbors call the cops on me  climbing a palm tree in my back yard.Because they never saw anything like that before.

People fear what they don't understand! !

i tried this once before as well (without much luck.... but it was fun and I got to do it onceish) if you take plywood, or dorm bunk bed plywood cause who gives a shit about that stuff, and string a few together, anchor on tree limb, and make it a slab.  Then run a hose to top and let it run all night, you can be in business.  Tricky part is knowing how much flow to put out so it will freeze effectively on boards and not freeze the hose...  Takes some trial and error, have a blow torch from home depot ready, and within a week you could have some good ole fun.  make sure its an alive, and burly limb cause it will have A LOT of weight on it, and best to tie in on an independent limb incase it goes with you on it.

I used some pallets to make a "ladder" and have a pvc pipe with some holes at the top. This was after a night of 20f ice making. 

A guide service in the Adirondacks tried this for several years, using a more sophisticated design of wire mesh and re-enforcing, "drip-o-lators" to spread the water flow horizontally over several feet, and flow-correlated-to-expected-nightime-temperature...and finally gave up...and moved to a more "natural" location where there already was a small ice flow over rock.  They partially diverted the naturally-flowing  water source over more rock and got far better results than the "open air" design. 

Talking with the fellow who did this, apparently there are many variabiles: temperature (of course) vs. water flow: too little on too cold a night and hoses and "drip-o-lators" freeze up, too much flow or too warm and no ice. 

However, I think the biggest issue that he had was/is that such structures as shown above allow air on both sides of the ice, so that when it warms up the ice "goes out" really fast, whereas "natural ice" (except for hanging icicles) has cold rock on the "inside".  You'd think the ice would go out "only" twice as fast, but it seems to go even faster....sort of like when the sun (finally) warms the underlying rock of a natural ice flow the ice goes really fast.

Not to say it isn't fun to try! 

Re' the "dead tree climbing"; ask around to professional tree removal people (many are climbers) and most will agree they don't climb a dead tree to de-limb or cut-from-the-top (the std technique for cutting down a tree that can't be felled)      

Dan Osmans set up

https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=11s&v=aE8OOeP-NtI

Anchored a piece of wood horizontally to the two trees, suspended chain link and some old metal crib mattress frames, Jerry rigged the hose/sprayer in various positions. Been flowing almost 24 hours a day for the last three days, temps between 5 and 20 F.  This is probably only 15’ in height m.

As to the limb being strong enough - once that ice goes floor to limb, it is effectively self-supporting. But definitely will see some weight prior to reaching that point. 

Hoping to pick up a mister nozzle to get some fine droplets and farm more efficiently. 

Have yet to sink any sharp metal objects into it yet..

Was driving through Silver Plume, CO and saw this bad boy sticking out of somebody's back yard . (apologies if this is yours and you didn't want to post it)

I love this thread!   The dead tree thing is super cool.  I have tried it.  Different bark softnesses make for varying difficulties.

No home ice wall this year, but just sunk the tools into a dead naked tree in the backyard and might have to lean a ladder up on it and fashion a top rope anchor! She’s a beefy trunk and not too dried out so should hold! (Famous last words..)

saw this in a farmers yard in the 80s. asked permission to climb it.

My climbing partner had a 30’ tall ice climb in his backyard in Nashua NH probably early 90s. We hatched the plan over beers after climbing in early December. Climbed it Christmas Eve day! It was a super cold December!

He took a pic, sent it to Climbing Magazine and they actually published a few paragraphs in a section the used to have that was always “new and noteworthy” stuff. They titled it “Backyard Swing-set.” I’ve got the magazine buried somewher!