We appreciate your posting letting us know about an educational opportunity concerning tree climbing. Please keep doing us the service by letting us know where we as climbers can further our knowledge.
I would like to make a few of my own comments concerning this event as I have been to this climbing seminar recently when Sherrill Arborist Supply hosted it last spring. The instructors were the same at the Sherrill event.
This seminar is targeted for professional cutters. It might be of use to a recreational climber if they wanted to broaden their horizons as far as different tools and techniques are concerned and would be useful if a recreational climber was considering the trade of arboriculture.
About what I saw at the Sherrill event. It was a “show and tell†format with no hands on experience. Of particular concern to me was the introduction of about eight new climbing knots from Germany, France, and elsewhere. These knots are reported to “be faster†which is always a concern to me because fast is not always better in the trees. Mark and Scott repeated many times that these knots needed to be tried low to the ground before using them high in the trees. What they did not say is that these knots need to be tied repeatedly to create “muscle memory†where the “hands know†rather than relying solely on intellectual memory, which can be VERY fragile when the body is fatigued.
The idea of showing a number of new knots and having them on display without really training a person on their chosen knot is like handing a child a loaded gun as saying, “Here kid. You figure it out.†These knots use a smaller diameter cord which you are instructed to discard “when they look worn.†This does not appear to be a good idea to me. I would much rather see an arborist rope with a lot of room for error (surface glaze) than a thin cord that could fail and drop you like a stone.
I personally feel Scott and Mark preach from an old school that has you loop your climbing rope from a single branch to create a doubled rope. They do not mention single rope technique using mechanical ascenders where a line can be placed over the highest part of a tree and the other end tied off at ground level to create a rope that is looped over numerous branches with ease and considerably more safety. If one branch breaks out it drops down to next branch it is looped over.
As previously mentioned, this is a presentation for tree cutters. Mark and Scott are good at answering questions. Bring a notebook to take notes. You will probably get some new ideas but be very careful with any new climbing knots you want to try. A local climber recently was using a new knot and he fell 70 feet and will never climb again. Falling is a very common cost to a professional climber for a little mistake high in the trees.
Waving from a treetop,
Peter Treeman Jenkins
