insuring a fun climb?

overpaidmuniguy

overpaidmuniguy

Location
Cleveland, OH
I was planning on putting together a tree climb in an area metropark until acutally discussing logistics with a park official. Apparently the wavier thing is a bit outdated. To climb in their park one needs $1,000,000 liability insurance, money for the ranger who needs to be present, etc...

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?
 
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I was planning on putting together a tree climb in an area metropark until acutally discussing logistics with a park official. Apparently the wavier thing is a bit outdated. To climb in their park one needs $1,000,000 liability insurance, money for the ranger who needs to be present, etc...

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

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What I've done is ally with an existing community group that's doing outdoor activities in the park. Their insurer added a rider to the existing policy to cover tree climbing. It's too expensive to buy one-off coverage for the event. You can buy insurance to cover running these kinds of activities on a regular basis but you're looking at least 2 grand a year.

If you're going to do it just a couple of times a year best to start building alliances/relationships with groups already doing outdoor activities.
-moss
 
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...money for the ranger who needs to be present

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Relationship building is required with city hall on this one, a park ranger is going to be no help in a tree climbing activity. Total waste of city resources. You need to show that you're competent running a climb and that you're fully prepared to do rescue and provide correct response for emergency situations. Keep talking to people until you find an advocate on the city hall side of things. It's a gradual process to educate the powers that be and get them on your side.

We notify the local park rangers before an upcoming climb. They like that, they don't have to be there but they know what's going on in the park. They'll do a couple drive-bys or stop and chat for a few minutes. After a few climbs everyone realizes how safe it is. They have bigger problems to deal with.
-moss
 
Our fun climbs back in the 70's and 80's consisted of 2 or 3 climbers going out to the woods and finding a tree that looked like it would be a blast to climb. never was there a thought given towards asking permission, or getting waivers. Let alone insurance issues.

Boy it sure has come a long ways. Indeed, and for the most part waivers will still get us a tree to climb in my neck of the woods. Though for how much longer I can't say.
 
Its really kind of sad isn't it?
tongue.gif
one aspect of our culture that's going down the wrong path.
 
Nice thoughts on building for the future, probably end up with more people attending the climbs too.

I tried the go ahead and climb strategy with my wife and got off easy with a written warning, oh well.

Hey John, not that I forgot you, I was just hoping I could get this together without the inside angle. But, if you're still offering...

Cleveland Metroparks
Bedford Reservation
Sunday, September 27
area west of Overlook Drive
woods access from bridle trail

huge Cucumber magnolia
even bigger Tuliptree

That's what I had in mind, no lack of trees a lot bigger than what we usually work around. Certainly not the usual landscape most folks think of when they think of Cleveland.

Later on,
Ryan
 
So I'm climbing this tree over at Lakeside, which is a gated community with tons of great old trees. You got to pay like $15 per person just to get in to this place, the community is out of sight, not really my scene at all, but hey, I'm visiting my parents there for the weekend so what else is there to do right? I mean this tree is great, it had to be climbed, you know what I mean?.......

With me so far?

OK, so anyway, I'm sneaking out to go climb this thing around 7 am on a saturday morning, figure I will get a early morning masters challenge type of climb in before the wife wakes up, I can be in and out before she even knows I'm gone. Good plan right?

So here I am, got my line all set with an adjustable false crotch, about 10 min in to my setup, and this lady security guard starts walking over to me and I can tell right away that she is giving off a bitch vibe. My line is set, and I'm just snapping my caribiner closed when she asks me what I'm doing.

"I'm going to climb this tree"

That's not allowed - says the bitch

"why not?"

You could fall and get hurt - she says

"Well I'm glad you are concerned about my safety, but just so you know, I have done this before (I had on my Ohio TCC shirt on by the way) and I won't get hurt" And I start to head up the tree cause the clock is ticking right, I mean this is a practice masters challenge after all, I only have 30 minutes....

She grabs her radio to call in reinforcement troops.

You need to come on down now -

"Listen, here's what I'm going to do......I'm going to climb this tree, I'm not going to hurt myself, I'm not going to hurt the tree, I'm not going to hurt others, and I'm certainly not going to hurt you. So go ahead and call the police and YOU explain to them why you are wasting their time and how they should arrest me for doing something that isn't illegal, in the meantime while you are waiting for them to show up you can watch and learn about this so next time you won't shoot off your mouth about something you know nothing about"

What's your name - she replies

I point to my helmet where my name is clearly written on the front and back in plain writing. Then start hauling tail up the tree. She seems to be scribbling down something in a notebook and chatting into the radio. Soon another authority type shows up in the parking lot and they two seem to have a chat as I go about my business.

By now I'm closing in on my 30 minute imposed time limit for my little masters challenge and I'm ready to bail out of the tree and get everything out.

So I'm over time by about 8 minutes, but hey, it was a good climb. Right by Lake Erie on a real nice summer Saturday morning. All the while I can feel the evil eye of the bitch, and wondering where the police are.

I'm bagging up my stuff and getting ready to load up my wagon and head out. No police but one pretty pissed off security lady.

-----------------------------------

My point is that I already checked with the Lakeside association to see if I needed a permit or if this type of activity was illegal here. I gave them my credentials and let 'em know what the deal was. They asked around, and said it was cool, I didn't need a permit or anything like that. So I knew in advance I was cleared for take off.

The security guard was going off half cocked, so I could call her bluff.

It never hurts to do your homework before you go to some of these places, especially since the best trees always seem to be in rather public places which is cool because there is a built in safety factor with people around.

Since I am a 100% rec climber only, I have a lot of experience here, and have found that if you find a great tree in a nice park on a busy day, you will get plenty of spectators that love to watch you do your thing. If you have a group of guys climbing with you all the better. Just ask any of the guys around here that climb the monster Oak over at Woodlands park, they know exactly what I mean.

So in closing....

FIGHT THE POWER!!!

ha ha ha......

Thank you for letting me sound off, I now step down from the soap box.
 
Different kinds of fun climbs:

1. Organized climb where you load up a tree with a bunch of first-time climbers. This is often in a cleaned out tree in a park with permission and maybe insurance arrangements or at least waivers signed by the beginner climbers.

2. Get-together with experienced climbers, anywhere anytime, not likely to be insured, no point in it.

3. Two or three climbers head out to the woods to find an excellent tree (thumbs up)

For the second category, usual strategy is don't climb where a vehicle containing an officer of the law can roll up to within walking distance of the tree.

For the third strategy it is highly unlikely to actually run into anyone in the woods at the tree.
-moss
 
Number three... that's the way we always did it in the past. No headaches.

In recent years though more organized climbs began happening and likewise drawing more people, and more planning, waivers, insurance,,, more headaches.

Small groups are the way to go.
 
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