Smooth climbing

[bob]

Not too necessary if you have a nice tight eye but can just stop it rolling round the corner which is far from ideal

[skyhuck]

Mr Kipling's Lemon slices!!! YUMMY!!!!!!!!!

[Matt Butler]

not really a gd represantation ?????

eeerrrrmmmmm

 

 

don't get me wrong, its an amazin climb, but what im saying is that it isnt real life, i mean hes probably been round that tree 100 times before and has chosen a tree that lends itself to what he wants to do,

 

the commercial climber, who is trying to make money out of the job, does not havve this luxary

[Rupe]

don't get me wrong, its an amazin climb, but what im saying is that it isnt real life, i mean hes probably been round that tree 100 times before and has chosen a tree that lends itself to what he wants to do,

 

the commercial climber, who is trying to make money out of the job, does not havve this luxary

 

Its still good sport, and I bet he's a good commercial climber aswell who makes his money out of the job.

[Mark Bolam]

Is northumbria in scotland now?

 

How come he doesn't speak Scottish then?

[Angus]

Joe is definitely a commercial climber, and heavy engaged in industry around the country. The style he uses in that video, is the same he uses at work.

[Ross Smith]

i know hes well respected down under.

im not surprised wit climbing like that.

[Rupe]

How come he doesn't speak Scottish then?

 

Hes definatly Scottish!

[Mark Bolam]

Oh well.

 

At least he went to a Northumbrian college.

 

Someone on passport control must have had a nightmare.

 

I've just watched that Harris vid again. Far from tempting me to buy a Spiderjack it's made me realise how much I'm better at being a groundy than climber!

[joe into trees]

Hi guys,

 

Thanks for all the kind words. I couldn't work out why the video had so many hits, until someone referred me to this forum and it all became clear. Thanks for watching the clip!

 

There were a couple of things I wanted to reply to. You guys are right that I've climbed that tree plenty of times, and it's one that shows the spiderjack to best advantage. It's a pretty well-known training tree, and the particular circuit in the clip is one I've seen a lot of very good (world-class) climbers go round. It would be really difficult to do with a VT or other hitch at the same speed as the spiderjack: too much taking in slack.

 

The spiderjack has some disadvantages (poor running when the tail is deflected over a branch would be a problem in a lot of UK trees; I have not found the inability to attach midline to be a major issue) but descending in mid-air is not one of them. It allows considerably faster and longer jumps/descents than a hitch - in fact after 2 years of climbing on it I still haven't found the limit.

 

As Angus mentioned, I do use the SJ for all of my regular work. Even for some of the really

as well (not so pretty as the other video). It has some drawbacks. The SJ doesn't like the rope not being parallel, so when you are tied round the stem or close to a large branch it doesn't work as well.

 

The only other thing that was mentioned was the use of two carabiners. It isn't a standard setup. The two biners are connected by either a dyneema tape sling or a breakaway lanyard. It means you don't have to keep doing the velcro up, and also gives better access to the spiderjack body for your left hand. There's a halfway decent photograph of the setup near the bottom of this page.

 

Take care and safe climbing