BenR

Turning into an interesting thread! The marlow with knicks sounds lovely marc! For my two cents, yes cougar is quite static. No way near as much as snakebite or escalator though. As adam said, the benefit of srt is redirects to A spread the load around the canopy and B get better rope angle which in turn provides less chance of taking a fall or swing. If I base anchor on the cougar there is still a decent amount of stretch. As has been said if it meets equivalent standards in usa/oz etc it must be fit for purpose and should pass a loler if its in good condition. I just try to be pragmatic and sensible about how I use different kit and know its limitations. For what its worth I have taken a small fall on cougar top tied in gambia with very little rope in the system and it wasnt bad at all.

thats good news mate, its bloody frustrating if you spend money on some bit of kit and it wont work properly. glad youve got it sorted.. be in touch soon

Nice rope in the hand but its too bouncy for me If kernmaster was low stretch it would be the winner. Still using cougar blue at the moment but I want to try new england escalator!

NOOOOO! Send it back and get some ascenders mate!

cougar blue is king i need to try a hitch hiker one of these days! Cant see it beating my unicender though... guess it could be cheaper! If anyone is with a HH is getting along to a rec climb would be cool to have a play and people are welcome to play on the uni.

I tailor it to the job but normally a monkey tail for retrievable top ties and one false redirect. Prussic loop or sling and a biner as the false redirect.

I know a guy in west london you might be able to do a few days street tree work with.. Limes and Planes so dead easy, you might get bored though after climbing in vienna!

Hi mate, I was in Indonesia with waldo this season. Check out the epiphytes in indonesia thread. Bcap is worth doing for learning srt access etc and good safe rigging. Acap would be cool. But i think there is an even more advanced course coming out soon.

looking forward to seeing this in action cole!

legend:thumbup:

Single line access on your rope so the splice and your spiderjack are on the non anchored side. Then advance your line with the spiderjack, Then install your ropeguide Come for an SRT climb when you get time mate Does look like a sweet way to install a RG long distance without the doubled double effect though:thumbup:

There is another way

from ABR... ABR Professional Arborist Supplies and Tree Climbing Gear TreeStuff.com Professional Arborist Supplies and Tree Climbing Gear

8 or 9 mm at a guess. the abr tether made of 8mm polycore armor prus fits nicely. you could probably squeeze bigger in there though.

Hahaha! That could explain some of the weird stuff that has been going on recently...

Some sort of estuarine starfish.. We are not sure. The mangroves are close to the sea there though. Maybe it got lost.

A few more by my friend Reza:001_smile:

Some of you might have seen the second picture in the thread and thought that's a pretty cute little fella.. Don't be tricked, they are blood thirsty monsters! I was climbing a Ficus microcarpa about halfway through the trip, I had finished the second order limbs and was starting work on the stem(s) from the 10m crown break point downwards, when out of a hollow about a foot from my face, pops a small, timid looking Tarsier. Tarsiers are endangered and have a brain equivalent to the size of one eyeball (may explain why they are endangered). They cannot move the eyeball, so they rotate the whole head. So said Tarsier looks at me and squeeks, which I thought was pretty cute and a cool experience to see one this close and even rarer in the day as they are noctural. However, it then decided to try and jump on my face! I quickly moved and as the poor thing fell the 10m to the deck, it turned it's head and looked at me as it flew past, letting out the classic cartoon scream/squeek as it fell to what I thought was it's certain death. After 10mins not being able to breathe for giggling, I finished sampling and made it down to find the little fella had disappeared. It turned out they can't reach a fatal terminal velocity from any reasonable height. I half thought about trying to catch it as it fell, thankfully I didn't as a friend studying them told me afterwards that they have 100s of tiny razor sharp teeth and they are actually quite vicious. Close escape! Didn't manage to escape getting attacked by hundreds of biting ant and getting stung by 10, 1 inch long bees however... Gotta love the rainforest!

Thanks for the replies guys.. Most of the other photos are of epiphytes on white pieces of paper next to scale bars. However, Im still waiting on some other photos from Ewan Murray and a couple of other mates from the trip. Feel free to put yours up Ewan if you are reading this. Mat, I will almost certainly be down in Exeter before long. I want to do my level 1 Irata with rig systems in okehampton.. Will give you a shout for a beer for sure. Cole, yes mate, much more entertaining that thorpe park and no way near the hassle! Ive messaged Gary about that SRT workshop day if you guys are still interested. Can bring along spare kit etc

Thanks for the support David! Yes lots of Fungi about, but being the useless twerp I am, I'm not sure how many pictures I have. I'm still going through lots of photos, so if any appear I'll be sure to put them up.

A massive thanks to Operation Wallacea, Canopy Access Limited, Ewan Murray, James Hindle, Waldo Etherington, Grant Harris and all the other people along the way who helped make this project possible. If anyone fancies sponsoring us/donating some kit for students next year let me know.. COUGH COUGH Petzl/ISC/Honeys/Jonesie/Treeworker. You will be rewarded with the Karma of knowing you are helping save the planet through research, understanding and teaching! Plus we can always promote the hell out of you to anyone who will listen

Oh, by the way, we collected some pretty cool epiphytes for botanical identification too Haha Sloth, I am very lucky to have got this gig, but its also taken a s**t ton of hard work and pestering people to get the chance. I'm very happy with the way things are going at the moment.. Just need to get some work contract climbing again now! 2 months off and its gone a bit quiet! Coming in slowly though:biggrin:

Luckily, it looks like we are going back next year to help guide university students through the process of conducting their own canopy research working alongside our team for the season:001_smile:

and some more

It wasnt all that glamorous though, We spent a large amount of time soaked to the skin all day for the first few weeks before the weather picked up