Any Arborists here? ( Tree climbing )

Hey Tree climbers, are there any out here?   

Frieda Murphywrote:

Hey Tree climbers, are there any out here?   

Aspiring

Climbing Weaselwrote:

Aspiring

Hey, what are you up to? At what stage are you in? 

Frieda Murphywrote:

Hey, what are you up to? At what stage are you in?

Currently dicking around with systems while dangling around on ropes hung from convenient branches. I’m a competent feller and can clear storm damage etc but haven’t done anything above the ground. 

SRT is the way! Better for the tree, better for your body!

Yes there is, sup guys n girls? 

Yeah, still around hehe, but I`ve been out for a while due to injury. Still managing to get back on track after the wrong branch cut...

I found it quite a bit more dangerous than recreational rock climbing, so fun though!

Full time arborist for 12 years.  Still prefer climbing to bucket work.  We put on a local tree climbing comp every year.  That’s super fun.  And chainsaws are cool.

Calebwrote:

Full time arborist for 12 years.  Still prefer climbing to bucket work.  We put on a local tree climbing comp every year.  That’s super fun.  And chainsaws are cool.

Hey, Caleb. What`s the comp? Is there a name for it, can you drop the link to take a look? Anything juicy for the winner?

Nah, it’s nothing fancy.  It’s just a local thing among the tree people.  No website or anything.  It’s just word of mouth, show up and sign the waiver.  The winner takes home a little trophy we made until the following year.  It’s just a primer for the ISA regional comp. It would be cool if we had enough interest to do prizes, but tree folk mostly want to stand around and talk.  Only about 10 people take it seriously.  

Yeah, "master arborist" here lol. I usually only climb trees for fun though, mostly in the summer when shade is hard to come by on the rocks. It's really a wonderful connection that compliments rock climbing nicely to me at least. It's like 3 dimensional climbing on a living organism. I mostly do SRS these days, my favorite thing is limb walking out on a high branch, laying down, and meditating while the wind sways you about :)

I tried it for a couple of years. Exciting and rewarding work but it was brutal trying to send on the weekend because I was so tired (no bucket truck for us). I was whining about it to a 5.14 climber when I ran into him in at the crag and he just goes "that's why I have a desk job". My back hurts just thinking about being up in a tree for hours. I always had a few patches of dried sap somewhere on my arms. Definitely not a good job for someone who lacks situational awareness.

I worked with a guy who climbed so it was cool having a partner with the same schedule. The most knowledgeable arborist I met was this crusty old school punk rocker from Cincinnati who would boast proudly about how his crew ran all the white power skinheads out of town. He was genuinely creeped out by sunflowers and would groan when we pulled up to a house with a row of them. "They're like eyes...all staring at me..."

Learning how to footlock up a rope with just a prussik was pretty sick. I still have my Stihl 020T.