Continuing my accounts of newbie climbing...
I climbed this past weekend with a friend Joe who's an arborist. This was my first opportunity to work with a climbing partner. Joe inspected my equipment and knots and declared it ok. He had a good laugh at my zing-it throwline which he referred to as dental floss. His line was heavy duty and nice to throw, makes sense for everyday arborist work.
We chose a sycamore maple, a beautiful tree with big twisting limbs and plenty of tie-in opportunities, and put our ropes up. After I installed my rope w/false crotch I decided I didn't like the way the branch joined the limb, had a strange bend at the union. I reinstalled on a better looking branch.
Joe did an excellent demo of footlocking up a doubled line, I went up with a footloop. I actually got myself onto a branch which is a first, I've just been going up and down on my first few solo climbs. I tried out my homemade lanyard, made it 22 ft, the extra length came in handy. I also put a pulley slack tender on it which worked well.
I practiced three points of contact with the tree, well actually it was total contact since I was clinging to the limb like a baby monkey when I first got on. Joe coached me on using opposing tension from the lanyard and main rope to adjust my lateral position as I moved up. Note to self: put a slack tender on my main rope/friction hitch. I found myself using my teeth at one point to tend slack. Some refinement of technique is in order
Joe trimmed a few dead branches with a hand saw (the tree's in his yard), that was good to see how he tethered the branch with a web loop before dropping it.
It felt good to get up into the branches, it's a lot friendlier than hanging in mid-air. Going down I stayed in contact with the limb and trunk (which had a good lean) and used the lanyard and main line to keep me balanced, basically scooting backwards down the trunk.
Joe's wife made some awesome sardine sandwiches which we inhaled after a good workout in the tree.
-moss
