Report on 4/23 BTCC in Atlanta

I attended the TCI Basic Tree Climbing Course in Atlanta this past weekend (4/23-24). There were five students with Peter Jenkins leading the class, assisted by Brett as facilitator. We had great weather, a little on the cool side but once we got climbing there weren't many thoughts about air temperature. All I can say is that my expectations were exceeded to the maximum. I'm still on a major tree high a few days later.

Here's a photo from the Monday rigging class, it's Peter working with Greg from Montreal:


As a climbing birder it didn't hurt that we had a nice avian migrant fallout on Monday morning with several Scarlet Tanagers, Palm and Yellow-rump Warblers, RC Kinglet and others in the immediate area. I also had a chance to wander around the Lake Clair neighborhood and land trust which surrounds the Atlanta Grove. What a jewel of a place, and some wonderful people encountered.

Looking back on my newbie solo climbs in the last month and a half, I can now see I was fortunate not to get in a serious jam or worse. The systematic approach to safety and climbing technique taught in the class gives me something that I couldn't easily reach on my own.

If any of you are thinking about taking the course and want any questions etc answered from a students perspective, I'd be glad to talk about it with you.

Getting a little higher and safer,
-moss

Being a relative newcomer to this board I've missed all of the past controversy. I've been reading some of the older posts and now realize there is quite a bit of sensitivity around trained vs. untrained climbers. Since my recent report on the TCI BTCC landed with a resounding thud on the forum I'm realizing perhaps why. It is ironic because I'm self-edumacated in just about everything, in my professional life and in my other interests. The last place that I graduated from before getting my TCI certificate was junior high school many years ago. My peers at the software company where I work might be quite surprised to know that, everyone I work with is a friggin' genius and educated to the max. So, one thing I have learned over my years of informal education is that learning takes place in a huge variety of stituations. And there is tremendous value in hanging out with people who know alot more about something than you do. The learning curve is dramatically reduced. It's really slow going learning in a vacum. So I did something out of character for me. I took a climbing course! Outrageous behavior considering my history of classroom phobia. So that's how I look at my TCI experience, a chance to hang with some experienced teachers and highly motivated students for the weekend, and to learn a lot!.

I'm not done yet! So what does it mean now that I've taken the course? I received an excellent jumpstart, a more solid grounding in safety than I was practicing and a gentle push in a direction which I'm free to improvise on as I gain climbing experience. The climbing and learning is all ahead of me. So brothers and sisters in the alleged trained and untrained ways of climbing trees throw down your cudgels and diplomas (not your 'biners), we're all headed in the same direction (and you know which direction that is) by whichever method that works the best.
-moss