Do you ever free climb in the canopy, disconnected from primary life support?

W

Winchman

Carpal tunnel level member
Location
Southwest Georgia
I often find myself where I want to work above my TIP once I'm up in the canopy, but I'm hesitant to disconnect from my primary life support. Setting up a higher TIP for my 2:1 moving rope system requires another climb. Sometimes there's no higher TIP available that'll give a straight drop.

I've got two good safety lanyards, so I could move about with one always around something substantial. I'm confident I'm strong enough to climb branch to branch up and down while managing the safety lanyards. Of course I'd find a place to try it out closer to the ground first.

Is this something I should just forget about doing?
 
I used to never free climb in the canopy but as time has gone on I’ve gotten increasingly comfortable with climbing untied. In dense cedars, spruces, redwood trees, sequoias, I can hardly be bothered to progress with my lanyard and climbing line. If a tree is so dense I can hardly move in any direction I’m pretty unlikely to fall out of it right? Or if I’m standing still and just need to move my climbing system or something do I really need to be tied in at all?

The older I get I’m understanding John Ball’s statistical data more and more showing that 46 and after is the most dangerous time for tree climbers. I’m so comfortable in the tree and at times (a lot of times) complacent. As I’m doing things I often think back to career disrupting or ending injuries I’ve read about here on the Buzz that occurred doing the exact thing I’m doing. I carry on because “that won’t happen to me” or I just can’t be bothered to slow down.

Don’t be like me. Always use your lanyard, bid high, slow down, and be a good example to your employees.
 
If you climb above your only connection point you expose yourself and your gear to a high factor fall if you slip. Rock climbers use dynamic ropes and active belay methods and still try hard to avoid any high factor falls, i.e. greater than one, and gear manufacturers often specify replacement of gear if such a fall is sustained. This is to say nothing of smashing into limbs below you.

If you mean placing a connection above you and then climbing up to it I thought that was a standard arborist technique?
 
Mick Dempsey said:
Yeah, lots.
Less as I get older and have less trust in my arm strength.
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LOL! Yeah me too, less often that is. I love free climbing almost as much as rope climbing.

As @levi r stated, the alternating lanyard technique is a well established way of advancing your position in a tree. If I remember your climbing system accurately, it is somewhat cumbersome. With your increased experience now, maybe you'd feel comfortable with a more streamlined system?
 
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Yep. 3 points of contact with solid knowledge of the species/age/season/strength. We are in heavy red spruce and many are perfect ladders which can be hard to isolate with drooping limbs and super dense canopies.
 
I recall advancing my base tied tip in alternation with a lanyard, but saving all the hassle by girth hitching a loop runner with appropriate biner as a new SRT tip above the crotch which is still in position - lanyard up, move girthed runner up, rinse repeat. never disconnect climb system from you or rope, just pull rope as needed. to be a stickler discounting your lanyard you can connect a 2nd loop runner as a new high tip before undoing the one you're passing to guarantee always available instant bail out
 
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I always remain attached to my ‘to the ground’ primary system. After advancing my TIP I use DLT or a long lanyard/short rope sub system. The primary system is atttached and tailed along

No where along the way am I ever free climbing. I’m not superstitious but I am
 
Tom Dunlap said:
No where along the way am I ever free climbing. I’m not superstitious but I am
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I would not presume to redefine your vocabulary but in rock climbing "free" just means you use only the rock to make progress, never intentionally weighting the rope or protection (hardware). It does not by itself imply unprotected climbing.
 
Sorry for getting the terminology wrong. I'd be disconnected from my primary life support (the ZigZag), but always have one lanyard in place while the other one is being moved, or both in place if I'm staying put.

I found a place where I could move around from limb to limb without getting very high, but it's nothing like the limb size and close spacing of the big pine canopy I was in this morning. The pine had oodles of closely spaced limbs with good places to step and places to secure a lanyard. Sooo tempting, but being seventy feet up makes me very conservative.
 
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I look at it this way - when I'm climbing I trust my system - if you're not tied in, you have no system.

Climbing ice with a good belayer - we're good - climbing trees with a TIP and lanyard(s) - we're good - moving all over a 5/12 pitch roof cleaning eves with no tie-in - not so good, in fact it feels bare nekidness. Just me tho (I remember the great wooden shake kick out story).
 
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Webfoot said:
I would not presume to redefine your vocabulary but in rock climbing "free" just means you use only the rock to make progress, never intentionally weighting the rope or protection (hardware). It does not by itself imply unprotected climbing.
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There is some universal language use in rope access

At other times it’s expected that the reader understand context

BTW…do you know the etymology of DdRT?
 
Tom Dunlap said:
There is some universal language use in rope access

At other times it’s expected that the reader understand context
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I would like to learn what is universal. Rock climbing jargon is weird and I don't imagine much of that being used in industry. I think I got your meaning in context; did I?

Tom Dunlap said:
BTW…do you know the etymology of DdRT?
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Doubled Rope Technique, an alternate and more specific name for Double Rope Technique; use of Moving Rope System (MRS)?
 
DSMc said:
LOL! Yeah me too, less often that is. I love free climbing almost as much as rope climbing.

As @levi r stated, the alternating lanyard technique is a well established way of advancing your position in a tree. If I remember your climbing system accurately, it is somewhat cumbersome. With your increased experience now, maybe you'd feel comfortable with a more streamlined system?
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I’ll qualify my free climbing, both in the past and now.

Back in the day (90s) at the firm I worked for the lead climber would often just lock his hands behind a small trunk and spike up for access, so naturally I copied, there was more than a bit of bullshit machismo attached to this practice of course.
We didn’t have flip lines for some reason or other, we just used both ends of the rope.
I don’t do this now.
Once you reached a certain height, common sense pushed you to rope in, I’d never purposefully move around the tree untethered, though I will sometimes untie and reset my rope (without setting my flip line) if my situation is secure.

As for the conifer thing, that’s different, a hairy spruce or fir is a ladder, much easier to free climb it, ensuring you don’t get forced away from the trunk, resting occasionally by tying in.
Again, I tie in more and more as the years go by.


I climb with a lifeline and flip lin, is that cumbersome? I dunno, seems fairly minimalist to me.

I am 61 in December, so I’m unlikely to adapt to new techniques.
In all honesty, for the sort of work I mainly do, dismantles and repollards I don’t struggle (for the moment)

I’d be interested in what you propose though.
 
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While I was climbing yesterday I stopped and sat on a limb with my lanyard around a higher limb. Perfectly safe and comfortable. Out of curiousity I eased the ZigZag so there was no tension on my harness. As I was taking my hand off the ZZ, the weight of the rope below me pulled it tight again. I realized then that the ZZ could instantly move up and out of reach if disconnected from my harness.
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I should have known that, but I'd never let the primary life support go slack or even thought about disconnecting it up high.
 
Winchman said:
While I was climbing yesterday I stopped and sat on a limb with my lanyard around a higher limb. Perfectly safe and comfortable. Out of curiousity I eased the ZigZag so there was no tension on my harness. As I was taking my hand off the ZZ, the weight of the rope below me pulled it tight again. I realized then that the ZZ could instantly move up and out of reach if disconnected from my harness.
View attachment 96161
I should have known that, but I'd never let the primary life support go slack or even thought about disconnecting it up high.
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It’s called ‘self tending’ some people like it, I don’t.
Its why I don’t use ZZ that often.
 
Mick Dempsey said:
... I climb with a lifeline and flip lin, is that cumbersome? I dunno, seems fairly minimalist to me...
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So sorry, Mick. I see my mistake after rereading my post. I should have emphasized that the second paragraph was directed at the OP, not you.

I rarely talk about my early years of commercial tree work because they were so out of touch with today's refined techniques and regulations. Hard to believe, but I was working as a climber well before OSHA came into existence let alone the 'standards' that we work by today.

In our company we never spurred when pruning, only removals. Line setting was not the art it is today and could be a lengthy process. It was not uncommon to saddle up, tie your climbing line on and climb the tree to set your work-positioning tie-in-point. We called ourselves 'tree climbers' for a reason.
 
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