another new member

[Howie65]

Hello community,

I am new in this forum and want to introduce myself a little before I start to collect new friends or even foes here.

Currently am 49 years old, male, and live approx. 50 km next to Frankfurt / Germany. Tree Climbing is a new hobby for me I've started at the beginning of 2014 and has nothing to do with my profession, which is computer science.

The interest for tree climbing was awakened because I dealt with knots and discovered the friction hitches (Prusik, Blake's, Distel, VT, etc.) and the fact, that it's possible to climb a rope just with two of them. This impressed me a lot and after some videos at YouTube I decided to give it a try.

Up to now I have seen almost all (I guess) available videos about this topic and I have the feeling that I already know some of you (e.g. "Tanglerwr", "Yoyoman", "JB Holdway", "countryboypa31", et al.) because of your publications. Thank you all for this very valuable material and the effort you have spend!

Some final words about my gear. In the meanwhile nearly every important "toy" is available, even a Hitch-Hiker I can call my own, which I ordered from Treestuff because it isn't available in Europe. Apart from this I purchased a D4, ID's, Shunt, ZigZag, GriGri, Grillion, Ascentree, Croll, Basic, Pantin, and a lot of other stuff. So you can see that I'm serious with tree climbing

Lets hope that I can bring some added value to this forum. Maybe with new ideas or critical questions.

Best regards,
Howie65

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Good to have uou aboard Howie

As you've probably figured out the Archives are chock full of good Information too

Have you read The Tree Climbers Companion? It's available in German

 

[Howie65]

Thank you for the warm welcome and your hints Tom

This book from Jeff Jepson looks interesting and is now on my wishlist. And you are right, there's even a German translation by Patricia White available

 

[Mark Chisholm]

Welcome buddy! I love the intro and your history. You're right, it does show tour commitment.

I hope we meet someday. Maybe in Germany at the Augsburg show or elsewhere.

 

[Howie65]

Welcome buddy! I love the intro and your history. You're right, it does show tour commitment.
I hope we meet someday. Maybe in Germany at the Augsburg show or elsewhere.

Hi Mark,
thank you very much for your friendly feedback.

In the meanwhile I have recognized that obviously the Crème de la Crème of Arboriculture meets here. This is like a bull's-eye for me and I feel honored to have an account for this forum.

And sure who knows maybe we have the chance to meet personally someday. I would appreciate this.
Augsburg is approx. 340km away from here and to be honest a trade show is a stressful event according to my experience. But it would be great to visit a tree climbing competition and see how the professionals doing that. Are you visiting such events in Germany sometimes (providing that they exist in Germany)?

Besides I'm looking forward to read all the Articles from you, Tom and the others. This is a great pool of information.

cu
Howie

PS: Now I know that I've seen some videos from you at YT. I like the video in which you show how a Twin Ascender can be used securely for footlock without additional prusiks above. Principle: Y Rope installation (DbRT?) and therefore mutual backup of the cams. Nice!

 

[Howie65]

But it would be great to visit a tree climbing competition and see how the professionals doing that. Are you visiting such events in Germany sometimes (providing that they exist in Germany)?

Could find out that they exist. There are the german "Baumklettermeisterschaften" organized by the "ISA Germany". They took place lastly end of May 2014 in Celle (next to Hanover, 400 km from me ). I will try to go there in 2015.

Howie

 

[Mark Chisholm]

Hi Howie,

I understand the stress thing. Well someday I hope we meet. And thanks for the comments. It's great to be appreciated. Cheers.

 

[tomthetreeman]

Welcome, Howie!

 

[Howie65]

Thank you Tom!

 

[guymayor]

I understand the stress of tradeshows too. It gets really stressful trying to keep from spending all my money!

 

[monkeylove]

Spending all the money is the easy part, explaining to the wife that you reeeealy need all this stuff is the hard part.

 

[Howie65]

Spending all the money is the easy part, explaining to the wife that you reeeealy need all this stuff is the hard part.

Exactly! Especially if she knows that all this stuff has nothing to do with your occupation.