Ben90

Haha, that's both brilliant and tragic.

Oh well, one man's ignorance is another man's income

When you stay a bit later than normal on a friday to finish a week-long job on a big estate, you drive the landy around the grounds one last time to pick up the kit that seems to have strewn itself about over days gone by, you forget to bungee down that extra-long ladder you rarely bring out, it catches a branch, up-ends itself, and falls out of the trailer through a greenhouse, then after you've picked up the millionth shard of glass, measure up a surviving pane so you can buy more to fix it next week, and finally leave, the radial strut on the land rover snaps and the back wheel digs into the wheel arch, you have to call a recovery vehicle, the driver of which isn't at all happy to carry you and ALL of your kit home on a friday evening, and you don't get home until half past 8 when you made plans with your other half to be home at 5.

If this sounds specific, it's because it happened to me just last week.

Awkward job. I remember seeing an old american rigging video at college where they set up a tyrolean traverse/zipline for the brash, any excuse to try something that cool

Love the Hi-flex jacket, I got myself a barely secondhand one off eBay for £40, bargain (those who have seen the RRP will understand)

2 words: Ratchet strap.

Nice. Has anyone seen that video on youtube that shows the aftermath of a small maple (i think) being struck by lightning? It literally explodes into a million pieces and there's hardly even a stump left. One of those million pieces ends up embedded in the side of someone's house!

edit: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6PJdAee7qY]I've found it.[/ame]

Our LA is doing fairly well at replacing felled trees and even planting new ones where ever there is space Just last year a big sycamore split in half at a junction and had to be removed, within a year it has been replaced by a nice big Tulip tree that is doing great. They've also removed a mature beech in a public park that had a large cavity, the stump is still there, i'm eager to see what they replace it with.

Tree work is by far the most glamorous and sexy job in the world. It will get you girls.

Fact.

Type 'arborist' into Wikipedia, that's the first thing I did!

Halloween's coming up. 'Nuff said.

Thanks, I genuinely don't have a good picture yet, I didn't take many while climbing at college (being too busy climbing), I've done a few good jobs at work but I never take my camera, but I do have a few of me felling some douglas firs at longleat, again for college. Gotta start somewhere I suppose.

Hurrah! It's the one season I can work while wearing Hi-Flex oven trousers without spontaneously combusting a nut.

Beautiful view. Just as well the fly-tipped TV doesn't work because I wouldn't be watching it anyway.

Combined is right, many features look exactly the same as the Butterfly, but aren't the leg-loops rigid?

I didn't want to be the first to say it, but he's right, you should probably start taking Lefty Palmer for the one-handed dance around the ballroom from now on.

Yeah that's a hazard beam alright. Despite being open to fungus and significantly weaker, the branch shouldn't die back at all because of the direction of the split, very few vascular bundles are actually broken. It could've been caused by the epic snowfall in febuary, or indeed, ash being ash and over-reaching for light.

Good idea, thanks guys.

EDIT: Haha, that's quite a size difference Mick! I'm glad I'm converting early on.

Hmm. The slack does make it a bit inefficient. I tried the VT on its own but the Knut termination is the only thing that makes it bind properly. I wonder if i could add another coil and keep the knut termination, without it being too hard to pull through...

I think I've fixed it. I was tinkering with the knot by my computer (as you do) and I think I wasn't finishing it correctly, it binds really nicely now and here's a picture to verify/criticise.

I guess the one way to test it is to go for a climb and practice my ascent as well. Luckily I've only been on a blake's for the one year I was using the college's kit (Yep, I'm a new kid converting early) Anyway, certainly one way to spend a sunny sunday afternoon!

Hey there. I also started out with a blake's at college but was told about VTs and other closed-eye friction knots and just had to convert. I've got hold of a ocean polyester eye-to-eye cord and a pulley and tried the distel and VT, but it has a strange reluctance to bind when i want it to.

Is this just a characteristic of the friction rope or one of those things that will always happen with friction knots like these? I've tried a few variants, such as knut finishes but all have the same problem.