Tree Climbing

Nelson, Christian, Davis, Josh, Stephen, Brian, Craig, David,

Leah has several really nice trees in her new yard. Mary and Nelson were pet sitting while Leah and hers were out of town. After the Camping weekend was over, Caitlin and I joined them there and picked one of the trees to climb. In the yard between the house and the barn is a nice White Oak. It took four throws to get a line over one of the limbs I liked. I rigged that rope and climbed up to set the other two. Caitlin and Nelson had their saddles on and were ready to climb by the time I got down. I got the on rope and they climbed for the next two hours.

Caitlin was content to climb up a bit then hang around playing with some inch worms from the tree. Then climb up a bit. Then down a bit. Then swing for a while. She just looked really content. Then she went all the way back to the ground and just lay there looking up at the tree. I was back up on one of the limbs by then. I asked her if she was OK. She laughed and said her legs had gone to sleep and she couldn't stand up yet.

Nelson climbed up and down at least thee times. He has gotten so strong over the past year. For one of his trips up he went most of the way pulling with just his arms scooting the magic knot up without even sitting back in the saddle most of the time. On one of the other passes up he asked me how to climb with the footlock. I showed him how to wrap it around his foot and away he went.

I climbed back up after the kids where well about their business. I played around on a big limb for a while. Then I did something I have not done much of. I pitched to another limb, rerigged and transferred to the new climbing point. That was kind of spooky after not doing it for so long. Most of the climbs over the past two years have been single pitches and even then most of them have been climbing for the kid's with me climbing only to set lines or recover gear. Having the kids there with both of the able to climb on their on let me have a little fun. That was good.

Caitlin and Nelson tied their own footloops and safety knots this time. Caitlin also asked learned the sheet bend and tied the ropes on for me to pull up just as I had done the day before for Genevieve. I plan to work them up to being able to tie the complete system over then next few months. I think they are both ready and interested in learning that now. They showed a lot today in how they could help each other getting water or gear when one was on the ground and the other up and generally being good to each other. Everybody even helped clean up and repack when we were done this time.

Days like this are good. I am going to make a big effort to get us out in the trees more often.

Leah and Johnny have moved to a lovely home on 8 acres which includes many very climbable trees. They had a house-warming party and Easter egg hunt today. There were about 9 children that climbed and One Mom. The huge white oak in the front yard is a very nice climb. It is about 100 feet to the tip top. I rigged three ropes. The longest pitch was at about 60 feet up and was straight climb with no limbs before the top of the pitch. The next tallest as about 50 feet and went through the middle of a number of smaller limbs. One of the girls made it all the way to the top of this pitch and did a good job dodging around the smaller limbs in between. The last pitch was about 45 feet up and had a nice sized limb about 30 feet up that looked good for some surfing.

I cycled the kids and the One Mom up three at a time. Nelson and Caitlin gave short demo climbs showing how the system works and what a bat-hang is. Then the other kids rotated out climbing whatever they felt good with. All of them went at least 20 feet up, even the youngest who, along with her mother and father, kept saying she was afraid of heights (I am afraid of heights, but I am going to climb a little higher). I think all of them, except the One Mom, and Miss I'm Afraid Of Heights did the Bat Hang.

As is usual when I manage a climb with the kids, I did not climb. But that's pretty well balanced with seeing how much fun they have trying something new (for most of them) and having a good time doing it. The parents all thanked me for having something out of the ordninary to occupy them.

We've climbed some, but I have not posted them because I have gotten very lazy.

The best climb was at a Boy Scout camp out where I ran about 20 scouts through a short climb. I had two ropes rigged and kept two scouts climbing. I let the climb enough to get the hang of it, usually about 15-20 feet up, and do a bat hang.

I cycled seven kids on three ropes in Vicki's tree. The youngest was William's niece, Shelbe, who is 5 years old. She said she as afraid of heights, but I convinced her to try and to climb only as much as she felt good about. She wound up climbing at least 25 feet up and having a great time.

Mary's niece, Alex, gave us a wonderful demonstration of how the safety loop knot protects us when we climb. She had climbed almost all the way to the 30-foot high limb and was waiting while I helped one of the others off rope. She stretched her hands up to make sure she could still reach the top of the Blake's hitch. She put just a bit too much pressure on the knot and promptly zoomed down the rope meeting the safety knot about 4 feet off the ground. Everyone was startled, but OK. I used the occasion to point out to all the parents and kids how the safety feature had worked just as planned.

I was able to convince Johnny, another sworn acrophobic, to climb. He managed to get about 20 feet high without any discomfort and commented a number of times about how he felt more secure than he thought he would have. Neither I nor Lauren, his daughter, could talk him into doing a Bat Hang.

We weren't able to convince Leah to climb this time, but she promised that she would climb when Mary climbed.

William climbed once with his only complaint being how the climbing really showed that the past year of married life had given him a few extra pounds which made climbing harder than he remembered from last year. Getting William to climb at all, much less with no problems, is a special thing because he has suffered from extreme vertigo on some occasions. Climbing 20 feet up a rope was a risky thing, but he took it slowly and everything came out just fine.

I got to climb three times. Once to untangle a carabiner on a tree saver, once while the kids climbed to show them I could, and then while Johnny climbed to keep him company. All of these were the one pitch up with no transfers.

We got the gear up just before dark. Everyone agreed it had been a very good day of climbing.

I fell behind recording climbs for the year. Most of them were in our yard or Vicki's yard with the usual crew around. We have added a few new kids to the group over the year. William's friend, Tommy, climbed with us a few times at Vicki's. We have been joined by new friend's Leah, Johnny, Blaine, and Lauren. The kids (Blaine and Lauren) have climbed, but we haven't gotten their parents, Leah and Johnny up the rope yet.

Caitlin loves to bat hang.

Caitlin takes a break during a climb. Her face in this picture reminds me of Faye Beth's daughter, Melanie, when she was young.

Lauren, Johnny and Leah's daughter, is a high-energy child who really likes climbing.

Cailtin and Lauren get started up the ropes while Nelson gets too close to the road.
The oak tree they are climbing is the one we climb most frequently because it's in our front yard. The trunk is about 36 inches in diameter at the base, it is at least 75 feet tall, and the first limb is about 30 feet up.

Caitlin, Nelson, Ywain, Mark, Mike, Vicki, and Me. In the tree.

Climbed on the first limb which is about 60 ft up. I am so out of shape that's all I could do.

I burned a lot of energy on throw attempts trying to snag that limb or one of the limbs above it. Nelson, Ywain, and Timothy were with me. Everyone took a turn on the rope once it was rigged.

No repeat of the finger-smash maneuver.

This tree is at least 75 feet tall and about 36 inches in diameter at the base.

The kids and Mary have made one pitch climbs up to the first limbs at 20 and 30 feet. I have made 2- and 3-pitch climbs in this tree now.

Front yard climbs in the maple.

Pecan tree climbs at Timothy's. Got Mary on a rope in the pecan tree this time.

Another climb with Genevieve and the girl scouts in (different) oak near the lake. This time I got to do my first traverse to another tree. Since I had some experience, Genevieve let me transition to a rope she had prepared in a nearby tree. I climbed to near the anchor of the pitch she had rigged in the main tree and hooked into the rope from the other tree. I play in between the two trees for a bit and then switched back to the main tree to finish the climb with Caitlin.

Caitlin climbed high up to a 30ft anchor touched and did bat hang. She swung around for a bit and descended like she had been climbing forever. Julie, Genevieve's assistant, praised her for having such control over her descent.

I learned a lesson about paying close attention and communicating with the ground crew. Julie was managing the ropes to control the descent of the girls as they came down. I thought she had the rope for one of girls close by who was ready to go down. The girl was trying to reach her Blake;s to descend and I talked to her to tell her how to stretch up to get her fingers over the top of it. When nothing happened I told her to give it a little bounce to get it started. She did and zipped all the way down to the safety-stop knot. It turned out that Julie did not have the girl's rope after all. I am fortunate that Julie and Genevieve were so careful with the safeties and that the young girl was not really shaken up by the quick descent. Lessons learned: don't mess with inexperienced climbers unless specifically directed by the climb leader and be certain any ground crew are fully aware of any moves I am making.

Watching the kids do front yard climbs in the maple.

Timothy found a huge pine tree for us to climb. This tree is over 3 feet in diameter at the base and is easily 100 feet tall. Timothy, Mary, and I head out for the tree with a 4-wheeler to get us and the gear through the woods to the tree. We're all set, we're pumped for the climb. On the way into the woods while we are carefully negotiating the 4-wheeler among a close group of trees my hand gets between the cargo rack and a tree. The tip of the ring finger of my left hand literally explodes. Climb cancelled, trip to ER instead. I wouldn't be able to take a firm grip with that hand until late September.

Lesson learned: Be sure body parts are not positioned to be bumper guards for your vehicles. My mistake was to take a grip in the cargo rack on the outer-most part of the frame instead of on one of the inner bars.

Front yard Climbs in the silver maple with Caitlin and Nelson.

Front yard Climbs in the silver maple with Caitlin, Nelson, and some of the neighbor kids, Christian and Brittany.

Climbs in the pecan tree in Timothy's yard.

These were all one-pitch climbs that mostly were kid's sessions or showing others a little about climbing.

Also in attendance was Larry from North Carolina.

White Oak, Tonya. Several pitches up and down.

White Oak, new tree on back of property. First pitch was about 30 feet. 2nd pitch took be on a little swing around the tree and about 10 more feet up. I rested there a bit and cut a small dead limb out. The 3rd pitch was another 10-15 feet to a crotch where I stopped and enjoyed the view being pretty much whipped from the day's instructional climbs and this one.

Genevieve danced in an oak up the hill. Larry climbed another oak nearby.

Also in attendance was Larry from North Carolina.

White Oak, Tonya. Several pitches up and down during instruction in technique and safety.

Silver maple, one pitch 20 feet to anchor, climbed and descended 3-4 times.

Repeated this climb 4-5 times during May and June.

White Oak, One pitch, ropes already rigged by guides, Caitlin and I made it about 15 feet up.

Along with us were Genevieve Summers, her assistant Julie, and a half dozen girls scouts with their dads.