Snowday climb

The snow was/is falling and my wife was out for a few hours, so...

I figured I'd go take a shot at the sycamore that I spotted a couple of weeks ago. My official stats are, 33"dbh, 100' tall and an 85' spread. At about 45' up it "Y"'s out with good branching on both sides. It has a gentle "S" curve at the bottom and has about a 5 degree lean to it. I went up to the 85' mark and took a few pics and made a short video of my surroundings. I actually made it a plug for my climbing school and am in the process of posting it to you tube right now.

The tree, "Snowday", is a nice climber. Choice of branch or trunk routes, with good spacing between the branches so you can really hike around once you're up there. You could even do a nice traverse of about 20' or so because of the "Y". I'm planning on setting up a treeboat in it this summer for an overnight stay. I came down after about an hour & a half and trudged back home.

It was a great day for a climb. 27degrees, snow falling, no wind. Very peacefull. A bit slick due to all the snow that was on it. But that just made for a good challenge. I'll definately be back for more.

Ron.

Sounds like a nice climb. Is the tree on public land?

Is everyone naming their climbing trees? It seems to be a common practice.

Looking forward to seeing the video.....

Public land...well, no not technicaly. It's owned by the local water authority and is posted. But everyone uses it for all sorts of stuff. Have for decades. It's don't ask, don't tell. So, having said that, if you got the gear go on in and have a good time.

I shot the vid with my phone and is only 90 seconds long. But sometimes it takes forever and a day to upload from my phone. This is one of those times. As soon as it's up I'll let you know. I'm sure there's a quicker way to post it. But I'm not all that tech savy. Sorry gang.

Public land...well, no not technicaly. It's owned by the local water authority and is posted. But everyone uses it for all sorts of stuff. Have for decades. It's don't ask, don't tell. So, having said that, if you got the gear go on in and have a good time.

I shot the vid with my phone and is only 90 seconds long. But sometimes it takes forever and a day to upload from my phone. This is one of those times. As soon as it's up I'll let you know. I'm sure there's a quicker way to post it. But I'm not all that tech savy. Sorry gang.

greenluck wrote:

Is everyone naming their climbing trees? It seems to be a common practice.

I'm not a big tree namer, sometimes one just calls to be named, other times they just want to remain nameless
-AJ

Ok, the vid finally posted. Go to you tube and pull up "Tree-ba dachi Winter Climb". Keep in mind this was an off the cuff vid done with my phone. Baby steps.

Nice job on the vid 2chops, I really like that you positioned rec tree climbing as a perfectly reasonable winter activity! Because it is, we need to put together a simple guide on how to climb in winter conditions and have a safe climb and a good time.

I embedded the video (to do click on the little film icon above in edit mode and paste in the video URL/link:


-AJ

Thanks moss. And thanks for the tip on how to embed vids. Part of what I want to do is, as you mentioned, post tips and ideas about our multi season activity. I also plan on doing some vids on what to do once one is @ height. I.e. Lunch, read, play tunes, nap...

Hi 2Chops. I just read an article on Tree-ba Dachi Tree Climbing Academy. Sounds exciting - I hope you're successful in getting it 'off the ground'!

http://www.sungazette.com/page/content.detail/id/553226/New-busines-spotlight-on-Tree-ba-dachi-Climbing-Academy.html?nav=5002

Michael

2chops

Spent some time viewing your video. Great video for a phone! I hope to see more in the future. I'm sure videos posted on YouTube and climbing sites will help drive people to Tree-ba Dachi.

Nice article too, I hope you have a lot of interested climbers in 2011.

Open climbs every 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month from 2-5pm at Shaw Park? Sounds like fun......PA sure is a short drive from OH....What kind of trees are in Shaw park? Starting in April?

Greenluck

Thanks guys. My phone's a Palm pre plus. Got a killer deal on it last year. We're going to buy a decent camera this year for better pics and video quality.

As for the start up last year, we got a late start due to working with local govt. agencies. But the Mayor was on our side and my thanks to him for his help. Our 1st event was Aug. 22nd, and from then through Nov. 7th we put 74 people up our tree. Didn't really advertise much. But got some nice free press. Our grand opening will be this spring.

The city's letting us use 2 trees in 2 different parks. The main one is the one in Shaw Park. It's a 76' black walnut. Nice tree. Our opening event will be Apr. 3rd, weather permitting. Plus we have at least 4 groups that want to book private gigs right off the bat. Looks promising. It's definately a lot of fun. We have a good group of repeat climbers that are anxious for the start of the new season. Great bunch of folks.

Ron