Climbing at heights!!

[treequip]

Always best to allow drainage for the more extreme symptoms of disco leg or Elvis knee syndrome.

[Leyburn Lad]

Leyburn, I'd get disco legs if i realised i'd never done up my leg loops

 

See photo 2

 

Jamie

 

I was perched for a charute moment(roll up) always keep the old amber leaf in my side pocket in the saw pants, unfortunatly i need to undo the leg loop to open the pocket bandit:

[Yorkshireman]

extra height only adds seconds to the time it takes to hit the floor

if you screw up !

after all people die falling off step ladders

 

its not how high you are up

its how well you tie in & rig your lines, to stop you falling that matters ,

 

my advice check, trust & believe in your step up & gear

[Khriss]

Always best to allow drainage for the more extreme symptoms of disco leg or Elvis knee syndrome.

 

Havent had 'disco leg' 4 years............miss it

[peteroughton169]

ha ha, i love this thread. i was an arborist in north east but moved onto the 400kv powerline work. everyone says i must be mad to wotk on 2-300ft pylons, but when your up there, your busy, and you dont realise where you are. gotta trust your gear too! i miss the big deadwoods and reductions tho! nowt like being at the end of a real long limb taking tips or deadwood off.

[Jason James Gairn]

Is it true you have to take a dump up those pylons if your caught short?

[Jason James Gairn]

one thing that does get the blood pumping and the leg dancing is climbing at night under head torch light. carrying out emergency treeworks for electric companies at night in all weathers is great. Even in the rain an snow etc it just feels good helping people get their power back on as well as just the adrenalin rush. climbing with a headtorch is quite surreal just you the tree and the elements, the tree takes on a whole different persona. if you get the chance just try climbing under torchlight it's ace.

 

Brilliant insight. I can see your having a blast in your chosen career. Good attitude man.

 

Personally height is irrelevant, as its the situation that dictates the risk. I've been bricking it 20 ft up because of the situation and quite happy sitting in nothing but my shorts at 100ft. on rock this is even more exaggerated. disco leg also called sewing machine leg.

The fear..

[peteroughton169]

nah, you hold it in! i was nearly pissed on during my training though! ive pissed in the estuary at morecambe midspan at about 250ft up with boats going under, bit o a shower for them! ide actually finished pissin before it had hit the water!

[Log-ologist]

Being higher only gives you more time to contemplate the fragility of life as you are falling.

[ArbJoe]

Im in a similar position myself, started climbing with the college a few weeks back, have CS38 next week.

 

I personally dont find the heights thing much of an issue, it just took some getting used to the natural movement of the tree when its real windy and trusting your eqiuptment and knots.

 

Like others have said, concentrating on what your doing, not where you are is a great way of dealing with it.

 

Heres some pictures from last fridays climb, cracking views from top:

 

-Joe