mikepage
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Everything posted by mikepage
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Made a little mistake yesterday and knicked my climbing line with the chainsaw. It was below my hitch in the slack of the line but still It just so happen to be dead center of my long line. Now I know that I should cut the thing down and get myself a new long line, but it really doesn't look that bad. But better safe than sorry.
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I dig it.
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My first saddle was a weaver, 8 pounds of leather. I bet the thing will never wear out. I got somthing else 'cause I lost so much weight climbing I couldn't make the saddle tight enough. I added shoulder straps when I almost slid out of it one day. Then I got a petzl sequoia. I hardly notice it's there.
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Hanging from a harness in the store is crap, sort of. It has some uses but you gotta climb in somthing to know if your gonna like it. I borrowed saddles from other climbers and then got a cheap hundred dollar weaver saddle. nothing speacial, a little heavy, durable as heck, and fairly comfortable. I also started with a very basic technique which I think every beginner should do. just 1 harness, 1 rope, 1 carabiner. once I had been climbing for a while, I had a much better Idea of the gear I wanted. ended up with the petzl sequoia and a crapload of other stuff.
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I'm always suprised how touchy people get on the topic of religion. some seem to immediatly get angry as soon as the subject arises. I wonder if it's like how realy homophobic people are actually gay. how many closet christians are out there ? I am not a christian nor a closet christian. But I share many of the same beleifs as should any good person. don't lie, be kind, treat others like you bla bla bla...But lets face it, if you were born to a different family, you'd probably be in a different religion. you could easily be jewish or whatever. don't matter anyway they were all based on the same book based on the same stories passed down thru oral tradition for thousands of years. ever play whisper down the lane?
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In Pennsylvania, or at least with the couple of tree company's I've worked with, we mostly enter the tree using a 40 ft extention ladder.(12.19 meters, standard is retarded) Then make our way up either climbing the tree, or setting the line with a pole and climbing the rope. My buddy who is an arborist in colorado said his company doesn't even have ladders on their trucks. And at last years TCIA confrence in Conneticut, some of the guys laughed and were calling us cave men for still doing that way. But I gotta say we've done it both ways side by side, ladders and poles vs throwlines, and the ladders and poles are on average much faster. Not all the time, and some trees that I have climbed didn't even have branches for 70ft, so you pretty much have to throw a line. How do you guys enter trees ?
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If a bowline is good enough to rig large peices of wood, why is it not good enough as a termination knot. easy to tie and untie, even one handed. and I've never had it slip off a rope thimble.
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I don't think I would buy any chainsaw from a costco, not if their like the ones here in the U.S. A lot of the time the are not the real thing. cheaper parts on the inside.
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Is there such a thing as a friction hitch that will work on a single line without binding up? or is that why the rope wrench was invented?
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I don't know about this English humor. Hows this one : Why doesn't Santa Claus have any childeren ? 'cause he only "comes" once a year and it's down a chimney !
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you saying it would burn it more or less than a michaocan ?
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their not all big, I climb my share of bradford pears that plague our neighborhoods, and we don't always have two climbers in the tree, just when it calls for it. I'm just saying that when the tree is big, it's easier and faster to have 2 guys in the tree, one cutting and one setting straps. plus it's fun. riding the crane and rapelling for a few hours.
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It is much faster in the size trees we are in. one guy stays close to the stem and just makes cuts while the other sets straps, gets out of the tree, and then after the limb has reached the landing zone and been untied I'll ride the crane back and set more straps.
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Anyone out there use a bee line to tie their climbing hitch. well I use one and I'll tell ya, I just can't seem to destroy the thing. when doing crane jobs we will usually have one guy cutting and one guy just rides the crane and sets the straps. after setting the straps the object is to get out of the tree fast so the other guy can make his cuts. I've made dozens of full throttle rapells on this rope and it still looks pretty darn good. so good I'm wondering how much abuse it could actually take. has anyone ever burned thru one? are there better rope out there?
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Does anyone here have experience with vertical speed lines ? I've been watching some video's on it and it seems like once your left with a spar, you set up a zip line going straight down and then chunk off pieces. the line allows them to drop down to the ground but not go any further from the trunk then the line will let you. I'm not sure what this acheives other than a lot of extra time setting up the rig. why not just rig it off a block ? I must be missing somthing. any thoughts ?
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you do realize I'm the U.S. right? unfortunately the homeowners killed one of the sycamores my company takes care of by raising the soil level in their yard, but this thing was massive. upwords of 150 feet tall and more so in width. still a 15foot hollow stump there you could probably fit a dozen people in.
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If your chainsaw is as sharp as it should be, not even chaps are gonna stop it. but wire core lanyards will withstand a lot and they will protect you from little cuts that would tear right thru rope. safety gear is great, paying attension is better.
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you would be excited if you saw these trees, they are ancient. one of them you can rapell down inside. are the sycamores in your area nothing special?
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Platanus occidentallis, american sycamore. I tried to uplaod the pics but my computer won't seem to allow it.
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Before I got my first saddle I would use this to climb, or some variation. It's not very comfortable so you you'll wanna climb the tree more and not be sitting in the harness so much. good for emergancies, and great for the minimalist who is hiking and climbing. with a knot to hold you and your hitch tied with the tail, the rope is all you need and you will be light and silent.
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I love this knot. in drop testing the rope will break before the knot will slip. I use it when double tying, somtimes as my main hitch. somthing all new climbers should know as it can be tied with the tail of your rope. learn the basics first, the step up to the fancy stuff if you want.
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I've found that it typically is easy to untie except after real heavy loading. but there are much better knots out there so I don't end up using it much anymore. I suppose joining 2 ropes with it is ok but it takes more time tying and untying, why not use a butterfly hitch. load it as much as you want and it unties like a bowline. The fig.8 is good as a combination knot like in the truckers hitch which is basically a sliped fig.8 and a clove hitch.
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I use the clove hitch daily for attaching tools or a climbing line to a throw line. sometimes when rigging off a few small pieces on the same line I'll tie clove hitches on the first two before terminating with a running bowline onthe last one. another great use is if you have to make an emergency rapell on a single line lets say 100 feet and you only have 50 feet of rope you can make the loops of the clove hitch on the main part of the line, wrap the tail around your anchor and thru the loops. keeping tension on the rope holds the knot. when you get down, flick the rope and it will come back to you and you can do it again to get the rest of the way down. rightly refered to as the suicide knot.
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I got to climb a sweet sycamore today. with a two hundred foot rope I almost had to retie twice to get down. I have some great pics but I can't seem to attach them.
