Linda

I always make sure I have plenty of differently sized and shaped plasters (that's bandaids for those of you across the pond), comes in handy when the silky gets a bit unruly. The scars will be less visible if you put a plaster on straight away instead of waiting until you've finished the job and get back down on the ground with muck in the cut. I think it only makes sense to carry a first aid kit of some sort, with not just a large wound dresser in it but other bits and bobs. Helps with being imaginative in any given situation! And it doesn't exactly take up much space or weigh you down.

Because if I know Louisa right, it'll be mostly reckie climbing?

Louisa - you should maybe talk to Jess about this, her harness is some prototype that has now come out in size xs. Very comfy. I think Trees Unlimited is sourcing it. It's tricky taking advise from men on this issue, as female bodies more often than not are constructed differently. For example, a woman's pelvis is constructed so that it can adjust (expand) when pregnant, as opposed to the fixed male pelvis. This means that a harness such as Tree Motion, which is made to sit on top of your hip bones, may put pressure on your pelvis that may cause damage to the flexibility of this part of your body. Ideally, a female harness should sit between your hip bone and your lower ribs. Obviously, females being generally smaller than males, the distance between waist bone and ribs will be shorter than the size of normal harness back supports. This mainly relates to harnesses where your only D rings are to the sides and not to the front of your legs (as in Tree Austria 2 etc). If using a harness where more of the weight is distributed to your legs then the size of the back support pad will be of less importance. Someone said that any harness size small would do. I have to say that size small is not always size small. My Tree Austria Duo is size small and a perfect fit for my waist, but my new Tree Austria 2 is also size small but won't adjust to as small as the Duo! Best advise Louisa - try as many harnesses as you can at the comp in Wales or at the APF. I assume you won't be hanging heavy saws off the harness so ignore advise relating to that. Go for whatever is comfy, check for pinching on the inside of your thighs, ease of putting on and reaching gear on the back of the harness. But I'm sure Pete's already gone through that with you! Linda

AND Philly Allen I believe.

I had a great pic of Jon T bleeding from his eye brow after the human skittles thing with Grace but managed to delete it off the memory card... But perhaps you were referring to photos of actual tree climbing, Tana Mahuta?!

I'm not disagreeing, just saying that perhaps if toxic waste is involved it'll take a little more than decomp to solve it. Soil vac perhaps if the trees are worth it.

I'd look into the problem a bit further before recommending decompaction as there may be many factors involved.

But it was also like this:

For those of you who weren't there, this is what it was like...

I'd try out the Cinch if I were you. The Positioner is a piece of bling that might not be worth its price... ;-D

Yep, the Pro Ascent boot was discontinued last year and has been replaced with the Cristallo: http://www.scarpa.co.uk/Products/Product.asp?ProductId=81

I think it's well needed. To generalise, Brits are very often quite fixed in their ways, denying responsibility and refusing to listen to advise (obviously this does not apply to any of you arbtalk guys...!). If Mark's presentation is the same as that in Germany, he will have figures to back up his facts and we will have to re-evaluate our current attitude to work site safety. Which to me is not a bad thing at all.

Had a chat with Thilo Beeker who attended Mark's presentation in Haugsburg the other week, he says it'll probably cause a bit of a stir in the UK... Looking forward to that!

Got the Tree Austria 2 in the end and climbed with it today for the first time. Felt very wobbly and unbalanced but I suppose I'll get used to it. It's much easier putting on with the leg loops having clips. I was a bit annoyed though with the equipment attachments on the back as they are situated so high up on the back pad- you can't just turn around to see where you've stored which gear! And to unclip something you have to move your arms in funny angles... Oh and the side D-rings are situated exactly above the strap buckles for the leg straps, which makes it difficult to clip in quickly. I like the colours though...

Could we have a photo of that please, Pete? Ta

What's the Visual Tree Inspection Competition? Sounds interesting... Thought you were competing Wolf, but couldn't see your name on the score sheet? I'll see you in England next week mate!

That's my view exactly, Pete. I've been fortunate to work for and with highly competent and safety conscious climbers and ground workers throughout my 8 year career, which must definitely have shaped me and my work ethics. You know those camps or rehabs that you have for people leaving neo-nazi groups? Where they get help to unlearn everything they were taught by their nazi leaders? I sometimes wish there was a rehab place like that for tree surgeons damaged by companies like the one I described above, so that they could unlearn dangerous work practices, get more training and be released out into society again as fully fledged arborists with great self confidence, self esteem and a smashing personality!

Download the software Azureus, then pick music, video etc on http://thepiratebay.org/

Right. The comp season is here again. What's your tip for a successful/fun/awarding competition experience? The do's and don'ts? Perhaps we could even get a definitive list of things to ramble on about in the pre-assessment talk of the aerial rescue!

I know the 3998 by heart, and I think it's mainly bs... I used to never recommend that work would be done to BS3998, but to the European Tree Pruning Guide and EAC A Guide to Safe Working Practice. (Download from http://www.eac-arboriculture.com/downloads/6881/6559/6707/safety_guide_2003_04_28.pdf)

If you drive by a work site where unsafe work practices are being carried out, do you as professionals feel some sort of responsibility to let the culprits know that they are jeopardising their lives and the integrity of the industry? Has anybody ever intervened? Or do you take a picture with your mobile phone and drive on? It's tricky, I think. On the one hand you want their client and the public to know that different levels of safety may be employed and that their bloke is way down the scale; on the other hand, can you really be bothered? I mean, if you weren't choosing your battles wisely, you'd end up walking around constantly upset by what's happening around us in our industry! We have a situation here in Outer Space (that's Stockholm..) where one of the larger companies keep having serious cutting and falling accidents, on top of doing less than perfect pruning work. This company employs young, inexperienced lads from UK colleges and mold them into the kind of workers that through the factory like way of working will earn the company loads of dough. The climbers are, among other unsafe practices, taught to "cut and hold" to speed up their work, which, as we all are aware, increases the risk of injury immensely. And, by speeding up the work in this fashion, the company can drop their prices, and so deflate the local market. But what are we to do? The equivalent of HSE have threatened to close down the entire climbing industry because this company keep having so many accidents, but obviously, this being Outer Space, nothing is being done about the company with the problem, mostly probably due to the fact that the HSE does not have a clue what to do or what to look for in their inspections (job opportunity for somebody..). Would you let it slide, keep your head down and mind your own business, or would you try to help the industry progress? (I apologise for hijacking this UK-specific thread for my own personal gain...)

The nicest looking vertex I've seen so far is Philippa's, painted by Matt - the union jack in forest/army colours! (Photo courtesy of Sherrill Tree)

And another one... So-called "life belt" at Merrist Wood. According to Guy Watson, the instructor of the Professional Tree Inspection course, who had put the Resistograph through the belt of this particular one, the wood was sound as. Loads of oak trees on campus had these, they're thinking it's genetic. That is, the tree people are thinking. The trees probably couldn't give a toss.

Hi Tony Felled this fella the other week. Looked well dodgy, but just as we were thinking, it was caused by an ill-growing (is that a word?!) branch that had snapped out at some point.

Splicing please!! Can't keep sending my stuff off to you now Alex, can I? Or perhaps Nod could do a one day course before the comp at Myerscough?