skew
New member
- Location
- scenic Skew Gardens
Hello my name is skew and I am a scared climber. I started my first job climbing at 14 years old in 1979. I used a double d ring harness with no side dees. If I wanted side dees I had to use also a line man's belt and buck strap. Manilla rope with steel non locking snap. Fanno saw about four feet long and twenty pounds-used more like a machete usually. Flash forward almost 40 years(yikes!)- I've climbed thousands of trees and safely returned to the earth.
As I read posts about accidents I shudder thinking about the realities of my chosen profession. We used to be cowboys- reveling in our bravado and close calls. What I observe these days in accident reports; it's usually a newbie or some one like me that has been doing it for years. About 7 years ago I lost my best friend to a chainsaw cut. A fucking chainsaw cut! I always thought if I cut myself it would be messy and inconvenient- not fatal.
These days I do more bucket work than climb but I still am able to accomplish anything thrown my way. But I worry. I started a family at the ripe old age of 49 years and 359 days. That has now grown to two boys. I am an old man with a baby(x2!).
I worry that I will make a mental mistake or that a mechanical failure will happen and I won't make it home to see my wife and boys. I didn't used to think about it so much.
Every day I see other crews out doing stuff that is unsafe and shudder to think what could happen. I've thought about switching careers before or just hiring a climber but it doesn't really fit my business model.
I do ,however, now have an awesome sub climber that I am comfortable working with. He is a guy that understands the consequences of a lapse.
I don't know how long I'll be able to climb. Are there any 65 year olds out there? Our cousin in Hawaii still climbs at 65 - his methods are a bit scary to me.
So anyway as I read through different threads and perceive different attitudes and try to evaluate my own this is what I have determined- that I am a scared climber. My brother claims that I am addicted to the adrenalin- maybe he's right. There is surely a feeling of accomplishment that comes along with conquering your fears and getting through a dicey job safely. Back in the eighties my buddy Otis and I laughingly came up with the motto "climb scared". Kind of funny but honestly maybe if more people did climb scared they would stand a better chance of making it home at the end of the day. And by climb scared I don't mean don't do it correctly. There was a point in my career after I had been climbing for about years and the trees kept getting bigger and more difficult. I was kind of freaking out and thinking about going to lawn care. Instead I ended up breaking it down into what is was that i was scared could happen. And then taking into account each of these things that I could either control or could not. Most things I was scared of were within my control. So there for I could mitigate these factors by making whatever contingency I needed to . Then there is the scary shit like tree failure which although many times can be detected before a climb there have many times when after I got a tree on the ground and looked at it I was like"dang".
So anyhow how ho- I suppose the one wisdom I would impart to anyone bored enough to read this through- Listen to the little voice in your head. Because usually when I have had a close call it was preceded by a little input from my sub conscience. Happy New Years boys and girls- Climb Scared!
As I read posts about accidents I shudder thinking about the realities of my chosen profession. We used to be cowboys- reveling in our bravado and close calls. What I observe these days in accident reports; it's usually a newbie or some one like me that has been doing it for years. About 7 years ago I lost my best friend to a chainsaw cut. A fucking chainsaw cut! I always thought if I cut myself it would be messy and inconvenient- not fatal.
These days I do more bucket work than climb but I still am able to accomplish anything thrown my way. But I worry. I started a family at the ripe old age of 49 years and 359 days. That has now grown to two boys. I am an old man with a baby(x2!).
I worry that I will make a mental mistake or that a mechanical failure will happen and I won't make it home to see my wife and boys. I didn't used to think about it so much.
Every day I see other crews out doing stuff that is unsafe and shudder to think what could happen. I've thought about switching careers before or just hiring a climber but it doesn't really fit my business model.
I do ,however, now have an awesome sub climber that I am comfortable working with. He is a guy that understands the consequences of a lapse.
I don't know how long I'll be able to climb. Are there any 65 year olds out there? Our cousin in Hawaii still climbs at 65 - his methods are a bit scary to me.
So anyway as I read through different threads and perceive different attitudes and try to evaluate my own this is what I have determined- that I am a scared climber. My brother claims that I am addicted to the adrenalin- maybe he's right. There is surely a feeling of accomplishment that comes along with conquering your fears and getting through a dicey job safely. Back in the eighties my buddy Otis and I laughingly came up with the motto "climb scared". Kind of funny but honestly maybe if more people did climb scared they would stand a better chance of making it home at the end of the day. And by climb scared I don't mean don't do it correctly. There was a point in my career after I had been climbing for about years and the trees kept getting bigger and more difficult. I was kind of freaking out and thinking about going to lawn care. Instead I ended up breaking it down into what is was that i was scared could happen. And then taking into account each of these things that I could either control or could not. Most things I was scared of were within my control. So there for I could mitigate these factors by making whatever contingency I needed to . Then there is the scary shit like tree failure which although many times can be detected before a climb there have many times when after I got a tree on the ground and looked at it I was like"dang".
So anyhow how ho- I suppose the one wisdom I would impart to anyone bored enough to read this through- Listen to the little voice in your head. Because usually when I have had a close call it was preceded by a little input from my sub conscience. Happy New Years boys and girls- Climb Scared!
