Spanish Climbing Books Info..

Oldtimer,

No need to re-invent the wheel: Jepson's book is already available in Spanish. I've seen it at the local arborist supply store and on the Sherrill website.

Regards,
-Knothead.

I took my Costa Rican cousin climber last month. He's 16. He liked it a lot. My spanish is more than adequate to get him up and down the tree, but I know he wanted a book with pictures so he could see it for himself.

I sure coulda used the spanish version of TCC!

love
nick

Knothead, That is a great suggestion. I will look in Sherrill site to order the Jepson Book in Spanish to send to my relatives. I never considered that someone had taken the time to translate them already but that sure is a lot easier than doing it myself.

Thanks:)

TCC is also available in German. Probably only from Jeff though.

Well, I'm not left, but back again. Patty reactivated me so I can get back in with you all and soak up some of the knowledge and wisdom flowing through this site.

Good to see you again. Have you been climbing? Bring us up to date.

Just checking in.
I'm a newcomer and am way down south around New Orleans, LA where there's not many other climbers to converse with, and it's also very hooottt right now.
I've been learning and studying a lot thanks to everyone.
I've been posting my two cents when I can contribute something, but most of the time it's a little intimidating to post with such experts. If there's any way to encourage newcomers, please do, because I think this is part of the overall problem that Nick stated where many are reading but not posting.
Thanks again all,
Charlie Brown.

Thanks for your viewpoint Charlie. So how DO we get around this feeling of intimidation new comers sometimes feel? Maybe you can help solve the puzzle or any new climbers that are reading this post here now. I and many others would certainly like to hear what can be done to inspire more participation through posting here.

It’s funny, when you use the word “expert” it has a ring of exclusiveness. It’s like new climbers don’t matter. I have been at tree climbing for a long time because it is my passion. Many breakthrough concepts at the Atlanta school have come from new climbers that presented an idea that was simple, elegant, and quite useful. The prusik foot loop is one of those ideas. It came from a beginning student and solved the big problem of how to enable climbers to gain height without having to bench press weights at a gym. The foot loop enabled common folks, especially children, a method that could allow new climbers to get up into a tree using the double rope system (Blake’s hitch).

Tell me. How do we make the message board more friendly to new climbers?

Well some ideas may be to:
1) Have the more experienced climbers welcome newcomers and maybe introduce themselves in some way.
2) Have the more experienced climbers ask newcomers if they need anything, like gear, classes, clarify problems, etc.
(i.e. I was flattered on Treebuzz to have been offered by Nick, the splicing expert, to guide me on what rope to get and to have him put an eye splice in it, when I first joined, and then felt more at home here on TCI when I saw Nick posting here.)
3) Have a newcomer forum where they can talk and then maybe gang up on some experts with questions so no one individual feels intimidated. Also maybe sources of suppliers and classes could be listed there also so all there needs are met.
4) Especially have the founders like yourself converse with newbies. It is very flattering and we learn a lot more quickly. (i.e.-I learned from intense courses with Bruce Smith, author of On Rope, who was a very good and friendly teacher and was lead there by some experienced climbers on a discussion board)
5) Promote your classes more within the discussion forums, for example, when someone is asking so much they he may get himself in trouble if he has had no training. The experienced should be able to recognize this and then suggest training. (i.e. I remember reading one guy's post here who said OK now that I've reached my first major limb, now what do I do? --After having stated how he struggled to get up on that limb. This was an obvious call for help! This guy was about to get himself in big trouble and needed a class badly. An arbo recently fell because he jammed his handled ascender up under a limb.
Anyway, I know we can't do everything, but the above is a few ideas.
I'll try to think of some more later.
Happy climbin,
CharlieB.

This thread about newcomers being fearful of posting amongst the “experts” here on the forum…

It’s as if I were reading my own thoughts in your words!
Now granted, at this point in time its apparent that I’ll post anything or ask any question, but little more than a year ago I remember being frightened about posting here. And yes, for me too, it was NickfromWI that welcomed me in and broke the ice.

Then, after kicking around TCI for a while I found this link: www.treeclimbercoalition.org/whoswho/index.cfm
And that made matters worse! Little ol’ me asking stupid rookie questions to masters like Maher, Teitelbalm, Winters, Jenkins, etc… Well, Like posting a simple chainsaw question to Mark Chisholm. Intimidating indeed!

So, I didn’t help answer the “friendly to rookies” question but at least I can see that my own original fears here were not exclusive.

Originally posted by Treeman
So how DO we get around this feeling of intimidation new comers sometimes feel? ... Tell me. How do we make the message board more friendly to new climbers?

I think the most important thing a forum offers is interaction. To increase the value of the forum and simultaneously encourage new climbers to post, increase your posting, particularly in response to new climbers' posts.

Good point. I personally left the board here for a number of months to focus on writing. It was not one of my better decisions.

I used to be one of the go to guys for greeting (and occasionally chastising) newbies. I too have been out of the pocket for some number of months...

As one of the guys who appear on the who's-who page at Treeclimber Coalition I must say don't worry about asking a question of me. I'llgive you an answer gladly. Learning from folks who know the most is the best thing you can do.

Remember what my high school drafting teacher taught us (I'm now a draftsman, so he couldn't have been wrong): "there is no such thing as a stupid question..." Of course he followed that with "...only stupid people." but I don't think that applies.

Seriously, learn from the people who know. It might save your life!

Climb Safe!
Icabod

Thanks Icabod.
More assurances like yours (even chastisements-haha) I think will get more newbies out of their shell and start questioning and writing.
Now we know another experienced climber who's willing to put up with us (newbie's)
Thanks a lot.
Your input could help save us!
CharlieB.

Hi gang,

Between a move and loss of Internet service and a hard drive format that lost my bookmarks it has been too long since I've hung out here.

It's going to take a few evenings to get caught up on the chatter.

There are a few comments here about the NewPoster Fear Factor. On one level I can see that. As a society we're influenced by Hollywood and the way that famous people are out of touch to us mere mortals. From my experiences in the tree climbing world, both rec and pro, there are very few Hollywood level celebs around the trees. Maybe I have a skewed outlook though. Since I've known a lot of the dropped names for years I might be living inside the beltway. But let me assure anyone who is intimidated about asking a question, please go ahead and post. We all learn from each other.

Right now there is a thread on Treebuzz.com about SRT. As the discussion is moving along I've been learning a little bit here and there. The more questions that are asked the better off we'll be in the trees.

The joy of the trees to you all!

Tom

PS Harv in Little Joe!