Climbing with chaps

evo said:
I wore them for many years, on ground or aloft, as everyone else I worked with. Saw pants are much better, but chaps aren’t too cumbersome and even offer benefit of extra padding
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I've worn my chaps while climbing a few times. They were OK, but as suggested above they do get caught on stuff. Not horribly, but at the nuisance level. Partly because of the trees I was climbing. I've been up some boxelders that would have been horrible with chaps. Pants, though, might be pretty comfortable. Especially for the padding and warmth in the winter.

A related question is eye protection. I have a full face mesh shield on my helmet that is a real nuisance when it's flipped up. Catches on everything. Wearing it down when I climb cuts my vision pretty severely, especially in the low light at this time of year (Wisconsin--sunset about 4 pm). I wear glasses that give minimal protection, but often not enough. Suggestions?
 
evo said:
I wore them for many years, on ground or aloft, as everyone else I worked with. Saw pants are much better, but chaps aren’t too cumbersome and even offer benefit of extra padding
Click to expand...

I agree with this. It was policy to wear chaps ANY time you were working where I started at and learned tree work, "that way even if you are only grabbing a saw for one cut, you are always ready". That said, the chance of cutting your leg while climbing is probably very low, but the chaps I wore at that time didn't feel like any sort of hazard to me, as some people here seem to feel. I switched to chainsaw pants years ago, they are lightyears better and are what I'm wearing from the moment I get on a jobsite to the moment I leave, weather working on the ground or climbing.
 
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dmonn said:
....

A related question is eye protection. I have a full face mesh shield on my helmet that is a real nuisance when it's flipped up. Catches on everything. Wearing it down when I climb cuts my vision pretty severely, especially in the low light at this time of year (Wisconsin--sunset about 4 pm). I wear glasses that give minimal protection, but often not enough. Suggestions?
Click to expand...
Prescription safety glasses. I told an employee who needed them I'd buy them for him...he decided to buy them himself because he'd use them at his shop at home too. If I recall, he said he paid $150. He called around several places and ended up buying them at his regular optometrist office (who has a reputation for being more expensive - but they were over $100 cheaper than the discount places in town!)
 
getting snagged every so often is barely a con and just part of tree work. Just wear them, they're not helping you any in the truck. I used chaps for years in the tree for years.
 
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