Scottish

Yeah, I use a figure of 8 as you can put a half decent lock on it without faffing about with back ups. Doesn't seem worth the time of putting a prussik below it when all you're going to do is shoot down the line anyway...

pretty sure the swivel is available in Germany already if you're desperate, may be wrong though.

Thought about this a bit more, it's total nonsense....

Would the stick not be a pain in the a**e if you're rope was running over a branch or that? Can't imagine it having a very long life...

I reckon I could rope walk faster than that if I was willing to put in as much effort as him.

Ok. The reason I favour the lockjack is because you can pull slack out of the top

You can pull slack through the top of a sj too, I've not done this with a lj so it may differ in execution, but there's no question it works.

Not even looking at the type C's in this weather. I just chuck a big pinch or two of salt in my juice bottle, add a little extra sugar, sorted.

Only one downside the mouth piece does tend to get saw dust stuck to as its wet.

Yup, always spit the first mouth full...

Don't use it very often, but I have one with 1.5-2L water pouch, and enough space for a sandwich, some chocolate, fags... I only use it if I'm not expecting to be on the ground, so may as well stick something to eat in there.

Showa 310's are alright.

Have you talked with many local guys about it? There are a fair few guys in Fife who are always popping up wanting to make some boards.

I'm surprised by the response, very positive! I'd have told him he was past it, the moneys **** and your body will hate you. Surely there're too many tree surgeons kicking about as it is, we don't need to start encouraging people to get into it do we?!

It is good fun though, the best tree surgeons I know are all 40+ but they're good because they've been at it 20+ years. The best climbers I know are all much younger, much fitter and victims of far fewer aches.

and the moral of this thread is, WE dont charge enough

This.

I feel your pain, wore one for 3 days and never again. It just hurt everything, back, hips, balls. Nothing was spared. Not having a bridge was irritating too.

Not bad, a bit baggy, not particularly hard wearing either I'd say.

The cambium saver point is interesting as well . How would you go about getting one down without dropping it?

Throwing line in a chalk bag, clip one end to cambium saver, throw the bag with throwing line inside over a fork. If you get a nicely positioned fork it can also be a big help in getting cambium savers out. I have an old 8oz throwing bag in the chalk bag to aid gravity.

This throwing bag on your rope/harness stuff is whack. As far as I can tell it must be for people who have a hard time getting up the tree in the first place? I don't find myself spending a great deal of time throwing my rope over my head, certainly not enough to warrant putting weights on my harness.

Anybody used the husqvarna glasses?

House would be raging right now.

Heard it fluffs up alot? I use caving rope for my access line, some french stuff, 10mm, so a bit skinny, but beautiful in the hand, little bit bouncy, but hard wearing, it seems. £1 a meter. Yes.

Is that a grappling hook?

I didn't have fun with Velocity, was too thin and too hard i thought. Wouldn't hold properly, and went through the SJ like sh*t off a shovel. Maybe just takes getting used to, but after an hour or so of not enjoying it I went back to my Tachyon.

I retract this statement. I tried velocity gain last week, just playing, and it was ace. Works with the spiderjack so much better than tachyon. I was perhaps slightly scared by it last time... a new clutch and it's good.

Using an 11mm rope daily though, I could imagine that being bad on the hands? Perhaps I'm just being a girl, again, but grabbing skinny ropes...

Link works for me. Tree motion gets comfier? Don't believe it!

As far as type A's are concerned stretch air kevlar extremes are the best. No ifs, no buts. Super comfy, you get plenty of stretch, and with the front of the legs being covered in some wild kevlar stuff, with even more on the knees they don't come tougher.

Awesome saw.

Rock climbing and caving. I use the same ascent system in caves as I do tree work, so that's awesome. Been to -1000m, getting back to the surface was a b***h! Cave more than I climb nowadays, but the climbing compliments work well.

the drop tests we did on the weekend showed that the wrench is really safe. The croll and hand ascender tore the rope on a 20cm drop, the RW took a 2m drop with no problems. The footlock prussic was welded to the rope on a 70cm drop. As Ian said, a doubled rope is still a single leg of line as opposed to a double rope system that has a seperate line for backup -ie rope access.

I can definetly feel a rapid change to SRT from friends that i climb with regularly

Out of curiosity, was this on static rope designed for toothed ascenders, or tree climbing ropes designed for hitches? If the former that's shocking. Very interesting to hear about all this breaking things testing you do.