MarkH

I would say that making sure you know all your kit is in order, your knots are holding, everything is checked and you're prepared for work by the time you leave the floor (and certainly before you reach 6ft) - sets you up to work with a good mind set at any height. Getting up 100ft and wondering if you should have actually replaced that prussik is not a good place to be. Being prepared in advance of work will really calm anyone down, for example - climbing a 200 for the first time? Get some notes down on SRT and figure out the do's and donts rather than winging it for sure! It'll eliminate the 'is that supposed to do that?' mentality

The aluminum ones have an adjustable shank on them which is cool if you don't know your exact size and can't try the carbons on. Velcro top and leather bottom for me, rad spikes

Working out here in canada I've got my gear covered in cedar, pine, spruce and fir sap. I asked one of my team mates what a good remover was. They told me just give it a good coating of margarine (to which I laughed and thought he was messing me about being new on the teams) and wash it off with water. But I tried it after a few others telling me the same thing. Worked a treat. I'd buy a separate tub mind if you use it in your cooking too : )

Good skills Giorgio! Bravo!

Yeah I did, one of my team mates dropped out on the tuesday before and I got his spot. I'd never even been to a climbing comp let alone compete! In at the deep end, best way to learn, had a blast though. That fir is a top climb, we had a great day on it. Although we did get fined by park rangers for 'dangerous and disorderly conduct' in public. $100 each! I'll come say hi in Seattle at the next comp mate, get a big gang together and go film some big stuff! We've got some plans in the pipelines.

One of the lads I work with used to be a heli logger and he was telling me about the tough working conditions, and once he had his lunch robbed by a bear. wonder if that was on the risk assessment?

Looks like a top job bud! Glorious weather for it. Did I spy a bit of footlocking from Agassiz in the intro too?

If you are going to be using spikes, you'll need the longest gaffs you can get 'cause it'll be like spiking a sponge!

Thanks all! Atree are you out here working or for play?

Not quite tree related but I thought I'd share some experiences with everyone. Myself, Jacob, Jason and Tiger from our Canada day tree climb went out to the Chief in Squamish and found this gully between second and third peak, thought it would be pretty fun to rig up a line traverse/zipline across it, so we had a go! Views were brilliant and even though the weather was a bit rubbish we still had a top day out. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhLUkuLtIwY&feature=plcp]Playing In The Rain - YouTube[/ame] Cheers!

Had a rummage and found the blurb about the helmet, vizir is compatible with 2011 vertex and alveo helmets onwards. Anything before that and it won't retro fit it, sorry bud, new lid for you! (this is where one of the shops comes in makes you a cracking deal on a new lid with vizir etc....)

I've had one for just under a year now mate and it's brilliant. I just got so angry with safety glasses steaming up but this is ace. If i'm doing reductions or going through dense treework/hedges then I won't bother with a mesh visor at all as the vizir is great on it's own. I won't go back to specs now. I'm in a vertex vent 2011 with MSA sordin ear muffs/mesh visor and it fits under them no problem. There should be two small holes in the helmet just in front of where your ears are under it, this is where the vizir screws in. I've not used a stein one so can't comment on the comparison!

I think I remember one of our kiwi brethren mentioned somebody epoxy resin'd a pantin to one of their spikes?

If you've got time and money you could wait until the Pfanner helmet comes out eventually Kind of like a hi vis robocop lid. There was a thread a while back about it. I'm on team Vertex Vent though, great lid, and the petzl vizir is better than the kask top gun eye pro in my opinion.

Looks like a fun job, smash and run! And you don't even get in trouble for it either :thumb up:

Thanks for the feedback all, been watching other peoples videos for ages and decided to get stuck in too! Sadly didn't have enough rope to setup a flatters/silkyfox zip line out of this tree though

Looks like a phenomenal trip, just the kind of stuff that'll get the Explore boys psyched for their expedition! Thanks for sharing

Thanks Drew, a good step towards everyone being on the same page when it comes to anchor systems.

We just had Canada day here and a few of my Canadian colleagues had been eyeing up this tree for a while, they thought it was the perfect opportunity to go climb it seeing as we had a long weekend. Thought I'd share it and hopefully it'll entertain some people! Also I just want to mention one topic that will no doubt get brought up on this thread. Helmets are hugely important for any kind of climbing activity - sadly there was some confusion during gear packing and mine got left behind, however, I couldn't miss the opportunity to climb this tree, so I went without. Which was a shame but we just took extra care and lots of communication about peoples actions in the tree. Right, point over! Wear lids! Mark

I flew with British airways to NYC first and they have a 2 pieces of luggage up to 23kg each policy so I managed to get away without paying extra there as all my climbing kit weighs 22kg (phew!) The trip over to Vancouver though I nearly had to pay excess but the scales were playing up so managed to wangle it I'd check with the airlines you're thinking of flying with, see what the baggage allowance is. Excess could be quite expensive.....but then again I'm struggling to find someone to buy a pair of stihl hiflex/pfanner stretch airs from over here so don't assume you can pick up good kit as easy.

I'm currently in Canada and I'm really glad I brought all my kit from home, full climbing kit, boots and trousers. It's hard to get hold of 'fancy European gear' (genuinely what my boss said about the contents of my kit bag) over here, and when you do it's really expensive. I figured buying clothes on the cheap when I got somewhere was cheaper than buying new kit. I've not made it to AUS or NZ yet but I imagine you can get hold of what we can back home, but looking at the responses earlier seems expensive. Have a good one!

Alright bud, I was in a similar position to you but I have a few less tickets, I've been working in England for the last year as a climber. My plan was always to move abroad with work to gain experience. So I worked my socks off, never turned down a day or overtime, climbed every tree when others couldn't be bothered etc. I've personally never been in a relaxed learning environment, it's always been keep up with the team, work hard, ask if you don't know and that's how I learnt. I'm still learning too! The only relaxed atmosphere I can think of is recreational climbing with friends. Like treequip said you might have to put learning second to working, but if you concentrate you can learn a lot this way as well. Most business scenarios will always be about completing work rather than easing you into a role. Be honest about your abilities when emailing/talking to companies, if you don't then you'll soon get found out. Anyway, I've just joined one of the large outfits in Vancouver as a climber and I'm a full time worker here. Like George A said Canada is an awesome place, but everything is bigger here so have your head sorted for new challenges. Rent isn't too bad, food/drink is more expensive, pay will always be dependent on how good you are. If you come to Canada be prepared to work hard out here, and get wet on steep hills! (in fact, wherever you go be prepared to work hard!) Good luck to you pal. P.s it's not always just big tree work, people have hedges here too

Only one thing left to do...... Good skills!

I can't take credit for this as I saw it on a YouTube vid, but if you wear braces apparently you can use an accessory krab clipped through your braces onto hitch climber/wrench to help advance the system. Admittedly I've not tried it but the idea is there!

Thanks for the feedback guys. It's amazing how easy it is to forget about embassies! Good shout. I'd usually imagine that an employer would have me covered as I'd be working for them under their insurance. But I need to show immigration that I have my health covered to the point of being sent home which is fine for sports/holidays but wasn't entirely sure about how it worked with me as a worker. I'm not going to a set job otherwise it'd be easier. I might work for one company for a few months before moving to another part to get as much experience as possible. (obviously I'll agree a time period that suits them, not just do one when I feel like it!)