Black Cherry climb

I've been stalking this 102' woods grown black cherry since I first became aware of it in the fall '09. A challenging tree with a straight trunk up to about 40', dividing into two leaders, then into three major leaders going every which way twisting to the top of the forest canopy. An arborist climber was visiting from Virginia so I took advantage of a worthy climb partner to find out what the cherry had to offer. Bee-u-tee-ful climb...

Climb note: Black cherry bark grabs throwline!

Tuning fork


Twisty black cherry form


Up in the top


More photos

-moss

Nice tree,climb and photos.

Did you use a big shot to set your line?

greenluck wrote:

Nice tree,climb and photos.

Did you use a big shot to set your line?

I used a big slingshot but not a Big Shot. My slingshot head is called a Sidewinder, my pole is custom, 10' breaks down to 3 sections.
-moss

Black cherry tree quiz question.

What natural poison is in the bark layers?

I can't remember what the name of the toxin is, but I do know that when I was doing ROW clearance we often had to trim around horse pastures. The farmers took a mighty dim view of things if we didn't pick up every single cherry leaf that was within the fencing.

I have a nice black cherry that I like to climb that's tucked into the middle of a small grove here. Yes, it does do a fine job of turning a regular ol' line set into a gear rescue. Very grabby bark. One of the things I like about these trees is that they tend to take on a wacky direction of growth at about the 25' mark. All twisty and offering one or two good places to perch and take a snooze.

Cyanide (I think), but I cheated and looked it up. I had no idea. Very interesting.....