Night patrol

It's 19:45 and I'm 45' up the pin oak in our yard. In the last 1/2 hour I saw 2 cars slow down to avoid hitting some deer on the road behind us. Now I can hear the deer making their return. My wife calls and wants me to see who pulled in the neighbors driveway. We look after her and take care of her yard work. She's like a grandmother to us. Thankfully the van leaves, I call, everything's ok. More deer movement and a handfull of kids getting an early start on trick or treating. It'll be pretty interresting if they stop @ our house. After they run away screaming, they'll talk about "that night" for years.


Look up kids.

20:30 I decide to come down. I land safely, undo my knots tie an "8" to retrieve my sleve...crap, it's wedged in up top. Or something. I can't really tell. It's dark. So...

I toss a monkey fist over the lowest branch. An easy 15'er. Rig my split tail and double lanyard 45' up to the original TIP. Yup. Wedged in real good. Get earthbound again. 20:45. Unrig, tie the"8", pull rope. Starts down, falling clean...nuts. Wedged again. Monkey fist, split tail, double lanyard, again...at least it's only a 25' climb this time. Unwedge sleve, again, go back down, 21:00. Unrig, tie the"8" , pull rope...woohoo! Houston, we have a successful landing.

The whole thing would've been greatly frustrating if it were'nt so comical. Plus it turned out to be a good training exercise for a night time "rescue". Boy oh boy, I'm ready for a bowl of cereal now.
Nighty, night...

Ron

Good story, made me smile. Cereal? Aren't you 21 yet!?
I've learned the hard way, as you seem to have, that impatience makes things take longer than if you had taken the extra time to do it the right way the first time. I have learned that pulling enough rope down through the cambium saver, before, tying a knot, to be able to work both ends from the ground makes it so much easier to retrieve my line. Or, I sometimes retie my throw line to the main line to let it down gently. Almost never gets hung up that way

Yep, cereal. I'm twice 21 plus a skosh, but some things you never out grow. That's a pretty tame one. That and penut butter.

You're right about the throw line rig for retrieval. I do that sometimes, but I've been up in this tree several times before, used the same TIP, never had a problem. 1st time for everything I s'pose. I think all my night climbs from here on out I'll do the "controlled sleave retrieve" method. Hey, that would make a decent term for the BTCC. The CSR. I think the milatary types would take to that.