Angus

I wear steel capped safety boots while climbing. Why would chainsaws be the only risk in the trees to you guys? What about when you get to the ground, do you walk to the car and swap from your work runners to your boots? My boots have saved my feet from enough potential injuries in the tree to know they are worth having. Mostly crush and puncture injuries. Different work environments I guess.

Best bet would be to contact ATRAES and find out what the shipping is. Australian Tree Climbing Gear And Rope Access Equipment :: Tree Climbing Equipment :: Advanced Climbing Systems :: ATRAES MicroFrog SRT System

For what it is worth, Graeme McMahon wrote an article for the Australian ArborAge on the topic of "Tree Rescue or Not Tree Rescue" last month. The pdf tree rescue document on our website is directly from the magazine, and is an exert of the tree rescue rationale Graeme wrote years ago. There will be a text version on the website soon.

For as long as I can remember, we've installed extra lines on jobs where a rescue system cannot be safely setup in a reasonable time. i.e. trees over 200ft, thick understory etc. It is not often, but it forms part of recovery and emergency plans for some jobs. Everyone seems to have their own opinion on it. Here is mine. Hot debate has run on this exact issue for as long as I can remember. Its been difficult to discuss, especially if you represent small business. Training Providers and Large companies can take the moral high ground, and squash wholesome debate on the grounds of safety. Sadly, much of industry is affected by the emotional arguments put forward by those on the moral high ground. Firstly you should identify whether you think it is reasonable for you have someone competent enough to perform a rescue, follow you around to each job, just in case. For most jobs that would be as logical as suggesting an ambulance should follow you around on the roads, just in case you have a car accident. The point Paul makes about the competency of "trained rescue climbers" is valid: The rescue climbing ticket MUST be of an operational standard. Too often in practice, this seems to not be the case. If the climber cannot perform a rescue under reasonable circumstances, they are NOT a rescue climber. The increased pay they receive, and the illusion of safety hasn't actually improved the likelihood of you surviving your accident. Don't let statistics fool you either - how many deaths in this industry are people disconnecting, and falling out of the tree? Importantly, how many deaths could have been prevented had a rescue climber been on the ground? What if the same effort was put into learner climbers gaining good skills, rather than receiving a ticket and being deemed operationally competent. There is a lot of money in offering a low standard ticket, training providers around the world are cashing in on this demand. As in industry we seem caught under the illusion that these tickets and training are improving safety. Often climbers that are inadequate to make daily climbers, are the ones that are going to perform the rescue. How can they be called rescue climbers? Ambulance officers don't just get a first aid ticket.... Oh I could go on, and on, and on. Its all been said before. You've gotta do what feels safe for you. If you don't feel safe at work, something is wrong. I encourage you to look past the illusion of safety a rescue ticket provides, be unemotional and factual. Don't get caught up in theoretical situations. Deal in facts.

You give me too much material to work with. I hope they put full fat milk in your soy mochachino. In the sense that a gri-gri is a mechanical friction device, yes they're similar. The analogue control Joe mentioned, over your decent speed is not as intuitive at first which makes them very different. When the tail of the rope leaves a gri-gri, it tends to not pull slack through the device. It needs to be manually tended. The SJ almost self tends. At least that is what I understand...

I think so. The one over the main road? Or do you mean the video of folding the whole row of Eucs onto themselves at dawn, and then craning off? I don't wanna derail the thread, talk to you on the email?

Oh yeh! I keep forgetting to do that. I'm stuck in a backlog of video at the moment in preparation for Sydney, but I might put together a 'folding tree montage'. We've done a few now, some with explosives.

pfft! I just hadn't had a big enough audience - I'm waiting for ISA Sydney Glad to see your here too Joe, your amongst good company.

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.

Generally there is no set wage for contract climbers, it is very much to your interpretation of what you are worth. Freelance contract climbing tends to attract higher hourly rates, although it is highly competitive. Plenty of companies around the capital cities looking for safe, reliable and competent climbers.

Yep, its all about knowing what tensions will leave your load in equilibrium.

I don't understand the point your making?

Doh. Can't edit my post. Adjusted some things. It still puts out some crazy numbers under certain conditions. If I get some time over the next little while I'll put some formula restraints on. All real world situations should work no problem, odd systems like 500l89r89b, 500l90r45b etc. Won't throw errors like its supposed to... yet. Opposing Pendulums RC1.1

Hrm. No its the way the program deals with the inputs. The program forces itself to use two ropes. In reality when you input 90degrees, you should be told all the weight is on one rope. However the program can only do as its told, and so it treats the second rope as a pole, rather than a rope. I left the option open to enter ANY value, however it is confusing to allow users to enter non-standard parameters. I'll adjust some stuff.

Wowzers! A lot of work went into that! rofl. Finally, robotic beings rule the world.