Big old red maples

I visited some big old red maples in the Blue Hills Reservation 20 minutes south of Boston. These are the trees that first inspired me to think about climbing into the canopy a few years ago. I climbed two of them yesterday. They are huge and challenging (for me anyway). I'm looking forward to getting a more experienced climber in to check them out. Would be curious to see how another climber approaches them. There are 3 close together and a few more nearby. The two climbed have 3 ft. diameter trunks.

On tree number one I got a line in on the first throw at around 45 ft. (the tree gods were smiling on me). The second tree required a 50 ft. throw to the first branch, 1 hour before I was able to get a a line in. The tree gods were having a good laugh The crotches on these big maples have tangled thick bark that won't let the bag drop with 12 oz on 2.2 mm line. Mercifully I was able to pull the bag back through many times without trapping it. The utility of my helmet was proved as bark chunks made some direct hits. This tree has lean which added another interesting twist. Body thrust up was pretty comfortable on the upside of the lean. The trunk stayed wide on the way up so it was very comfortable to rest against. An air descent on the down side of the lean put me a little further out into space than I expected, it was thrilling for a newbie like me.

Posted a few more photos here:
Climbing red maples
-moss

Moss,

I had a similar challenge of bringing the weight to ground on these types of crotches. I developed small bags for throwing and pack 50' line into them. It typically pays out line on descent and falls directly to ground without strumming. The relaxed line avoids thoses cinch points in the bark. The shock load from the conventional weight seems to find crevices that cinch the line. Also I designed my weights to self-release from the line if trapped. I'll never throw a conventional weight and line again.

I like your main photo here. It totally relaxes me to look at that. That's probably explains why I'm in RTC.

You have some great adventures going there. It's fun to track your activities.

Regards,
JimK

Keep FIT - Fun in Trees

Beautiful Moss! --Wish we had those type trees down south.
JimK, can you tell us more about your throwbags and line or maybe post a pic.?
Thanks.

They look great in your picture Moss. They are ideal for SRT climbing. The initial entry part is the big problem in tall trees like these ones. The Big Shoot will make your (and mine ) life a lot easier on these trees. Congrats for the great picture. I assume that you finally managed to get your line set in the right places. Thanks for the report.

Moss,

Great photos - especially the looking down one. I'm salivating just looking at them.

I also can empathize (all too well) with throwing for an hour and missing

Bad bad tree ID! Well that's how to learn. The bark didn't look like sugar maple so I had doubts about my original ID. I looked at the leaves closer today, 3-lobed makes them red maple. 5-lobed equals sugar maple.

I just went back to my original post and changed sugar to red for the sake of accuracy.
-moss

Hey Jim. I'm also interested in your throw bag concept. What can you tell us about it?