So 3Climbr (did I spell it right?) and I went out yesterday to climb us a tree in the Angeles National Forest. The morning was...entertaining, to say the least. I'll spare the details so we can get to the good stuff- Eventually at like 10am, we got to the Charlton Flat parking area, parked the car, then started hiking in through a shut-down campground.

The forest here is made up of large (100-150' Incense Cedar, Couter Pine the occasional Douglas Fir, and lots of Ponderosa Pine.

We picked a Pnderosa Pine (getting ready for the Rendezvous!) about 1-2 miles down the trail. This tree was a beauty. From the ground, I guessed it was at least 110'. DBH- I didn't measure it (I should've) but it had to be maybe 5-7' (I know that's a big range)

The canopy was dense and the Big Shot wasn't working out, so after a few hand throws, we got a line set at about 60', and we both SRT'd up, then switched over to our own DRT systems. Once we were both in the tree, we just sorta climbed our way up. Like I said, the canopy was dense, so progress was made via very easy hand throws. We both used the Alternate Lanyard Technique to get up. The trickiest part was that the first 40' or so, the limbs had a downward slope to them, so we had to be careful with our placement.

We took our time, making our way to the top, often helping eachother set lines, if the other was in a better place to do make the toss, or maybe they were already 10' above and could just set it while standing there.

Due to the shape of the tree, we were able to literally stand on top of the entire tree, looking down on the whole tree and the surrounding forest. We were surrounded by dramatic ridgelines on either side, and big tree forest to the east, fading to chapparall to the west of us- we were climbing right on the edge of the forest.

It was a GREAT climb. We headed down, had some snacks that I brought (peanut MMs, cashews, and an apple.) We worked our way down, without incident (except my friction saver getting stuck, which took like 10-20 minutes to unstuck), then packed up and headed home.

I'll share a couple pictures...maybe Robert will too.

love
nick

Here's a pic of the tree we climbed...

As a reference, here's my friend Cody standing next to a nearby similarly sized tree.

Tell me if the photos are too big...

Here's Robert going up...

Here's some neat sap. The sap on this tree smelled really good, but I couldn't quite place what it smelled like and it was kinda bugging me that it distinctly smelled like something really good. Then robert said he smelled lasagna and it all made sense! It sure did smell like good, spicy, italian food!

Here's me up in the tree

Robert brought a full length throwline up. When we were at the top of the tree, he lowered the throwbag all the way through the tree until he could feel it was on the ground. Then he marked the line even with the very top of the tree by tying a large knot at that point.

When we got back down, I compared that length of throwline to my 150' climbing line. The climbing line was 10' SHORTER than the tree. Robert picked the name "Cozy" for the tree, and Cozy is 160' tall!

love
nick