Amazing Eastern white pine

mattwisconsin

mattwisconsin

Location
Milwaukee, WI
I just wanted to share this tree that I finally got to climb. My final tie in point [for descent] was about 20 feet from the top and I had about 2 feet of my 120 foot rope under my hitch when my feet were on the ground.

This was really my first pleasure climb and it was really nice to be in such a complex system.. It felt like a mini redwood.
 

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Nothing quite like scrambling to the top and swaying in the breeze.

When I was a kid we used to have one in our neighborhood that had a huge limb about 15 feet off the ground that drooped just a little. It was also a very, very long limb.

We'd climb up to the limb then slid out on our bellies, backwards, forcing the limb to droop even more. Then we'd slide off the end of it.

It would stop just about 6 feet off the ground and we'd slide right on off and let it fly back up. Fun days!

I've got 8 or nine Pinus strobus in my dooryard that we climb. All of them are in the 80-90 foot category.

I've got some test footage from my digi-cam I'll have to post of one of my climbs.

Glad you are loving the pines!
 
Wow, this is a lot of love for the pines. Dont get me wrong, they look great when they are mature, but im not a big fan of climbing them. Rarely can you footlock into them, sappy, the wood is so brittle. And, after a storm, they seem to be the main species I take off houses....
 
I like them a lot despite their faults, i.e. sap and whatnot. Supposedly they are a natural decongestant which is always a nice bonus at this time of year. Besides, they are our giants.
 
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This was a very wild tree up in northern Wisconsin. It was probably 5' ABH diameter. The sap wasn't bad until the top, but it really messed my rope up.

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You guys probably know how much I like the big whites. The wild ones generally have less pitch than the ones that have been trimmed. If the tree has had a lot of breakouts from weather there's going to be more pitch. The tall wild ones in sheltered groves have very little crown damage. Also depends on the time of year, new cones in late August run sap like a faucet, in late fall, winter and early spring the pitch is firm and not an issue.

If you use a sleeve type cambium saver you'll keep the pitch off your rope, I have a mini-sleeve on my lanyard, all it takes is for your hitch to jam once from sap and you don't want to struggle with that again.
-moss
 
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This was really my first pleasure climb and it was really nice to be in such a complex system.. It felt like a mini redwood.

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Excellent tree, glad to see another white pine appreciator. My friends and I call certain areas in a conifer crown "rooms", the kind of places you can comfortably hang out on fat branches, shoot the breeze and enjoy some quality canopy time.
-moss
 
My favorite tree. The needles are soft so when mowing around them, no prickles. Up here we are pushing their climate range and their needles all droop and hang. A great look. Is this the local genetic stock or climate? In other words do you have droopy needled white pines in thier home range?
 
I call them mother natures stimmulas plan. When work gets slow in winter I just wait for all the snow load damage calls to come in. This year we had above averadge snow fall and the extra storm damage work relly helped me out financialy.
 
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My favorite tree. The needles are soft so when mowing around them, no prickles. Up here we are pushing their climate range and their needles all droop and hang. A great look. Is this the local genetic stock or climate? In other words do you have droopy needled white pines in thier home range?

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The needles droop when it gets really cold.


Tecnu works really well for removing the sap from your skin.
 
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My favorite tree. The needles are soft so when mowing around them, no prickles. Up here we are pushing their climate range and their needles all droop and hang. A great look. Is this the local genetic stock or climate? In other words do you have droopy needled white pines in thier home range?

[/ QUOTE ]

Ours are pretty healthy in the appropriate, natural places. They are terrible in urban areas with our extensive use of road salt though.
 
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This was a very wild tree up in northern Wisconsin. It was probably 5' ABH diameter. The sap wasn't bad until the top, but it really messed my rope up.

[/ QUOTE ]

You guys probably know how much I like the big whites. The wild ones generally have less pitch than the ones that have been trimmed. If the tree has had a lot of breakouts from weather there's going to be more pitch. The tall wild ones in sheltered groves have very little crown damage. Also depends on the time of year, new cones in late August run sap like a faucet, in late fall, winter and early spring the pitch is firm and not an issue.

If you use a sleeve type cambium saver you'll keep the pitch off your rope, I have a mini-sleeve on my lanyard, all it takes is for your hitch to jam once from sap and you don't want to struggle with that again.
-moss

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Normally I use a sleeve, but I used the A.L.T. to get up this one. I purchased some sleeve material for my lanyard and working end of my rope for the future. I was able to free climb the tree; It was so complex with close branching, I probably only had to body thrust about 10' of the 70' I climbed.

Nice to see another appreciator of the strobus!
 
fun to climb when we were kids we would climb the 100 footers on a windy day and hang on no ropes or saddles just God on our side...now I'm going to climb a 90 footer this weekend to evaluate the hack job that has been done in the past to this giant. might need to remove for safety purposes if so i use a hand saw to brush it out and then block it down with a chain saw lots and lots of pitch need to wear a long sleeve shirt old gloves rope saver or just turn the job down.....fun times are here



pray for a good crop hoeing
 
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