Mark B.

emr, that's Graeme and Angus McMahon who'll be doing something on demo tree on that topic. Chris and I will be doing the 3D-Rigging spiel... discussing techniques, configurations and tools to move loads in various directions during rigging operations. Regards, Mark

Working on it... I'll keep you posted.

Here you go, sorry about the wait. Prelim and Masters' Challenge scores attached... ETCC Prague Masters'.pdf ETCC Prague Prelims.pdf

Tim, the line was Sirius 16mm with a MBS of 5850 daN. As you can see in the test set-up diagram in the video, the upper line, once it had been released from the vehicle had at least 40m to run freely. In case of a failure of the rigging line, this would have been sufficient for the test mass to hit the ground before shock loading the anchor trees. So, in a nutshell, no, there was no risk of this happening for the climber in the adjacent tree. DMM will be announcing the price closer to the release date. One thing worth bearing in mind in regards to the price is this: If you look at the technical spec under this link: http://dmmindustrial.com/downloads/DMM_Impact_Block_Flyer.pdf ... you'll see that the MBS of the blocks are pretty much exactly double that of other products out there. The reason this might be interesting is that all of a sudden you can do most of your rigging with one of the S Impact Blocks, changing to L for the truly humungous bits. So instead of having to buy two conventional pulley now you could make do with one. Regards, Mark.

Just finished editing the video of the testing we did of DMM's new Impact Blocks. I think it's safe to say that in the course of the three days we took them where few other have been! Watch some of the torsional loading going on in the video... not many blocks would stand that kind of abuse. These came out of the week unscathed - not even the surface coating had been damaged! [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGX2O64Xc4I]YouTube - DMM Impact Blocks[/ame] Regards, Mark

Ouch... have I!? You betcha. Bit of a stick Ninja, that's me.

ETCC registration for climbers is now on-line at European Tree Climbing Championship Facebook link below: THE EUROPEAN TREE CLIMBING CHAMPIONSHIPS | Facebook

... or this?

Duh... that probably means registration isn't up and running yet. Try again in a couple of days. I'll check from this end... Believe it or not, other than links not working and registration not being possible, preparations are actually running pretty smoothly. Yet it does remain an event "organised" by tree guys and gals, so that means... organised chaos. But in the most friendly manner possible!

Hi Craig, too bad about the links. I'll get back to you on the hotel matter. Regards, M.

This year's edition of the European Tree Climbing Comp is drawing ever closer. It will be taking place on the 12 and 13 June in Pruhonice Park, 20km to the south of Prague. There will be on-site camping, the Czech local organisers are sorting out all sort of interesting stuff for the evenings (some of it involving fire and beer, I believe! ) It's the first time ETCC is being hosted by a eastern European country, so I'm really looking forwards to this one. If you fancy a trip over and giving a hand judging, teching – or just to watch – you can find more info under European Tree Climbing Championship or ETTC Prague - Mistrovství Evropy ve stromolezení Praha - Pr?honice. You can register as a volunteer on the websites. Regards, Mark

Hey, Rupe, where can I get hold of some of that insulting tape? It'd go really well with my sorting hat and my Nimbus 3000!

Come on, John, dying to hear who you want to save giving cash to!

In regards to LOLER inspection and failure due to wear: You can actually replace wear parts yourself, i.e. the top webbing links through the front d-rings and the rope bridge. On the newer models of the harness (the ones with the technical label integrated into the back pad) you can also replace the worn lower webbing links, which involves exchanging the leg loops. You should be able to get or order these replacement parts from your dealer. The good thing about being able to do this is that your harness can last you a really long time, if you are able to replace the worn parts only. Regards, Mark.

Yes, Marc, I agree. That's essentially my line of thought on the matter, too.