To all new climbers or ones who are thinking about learning to climb. Find a mentor. I can't stress this enough. Having a person on site while you are climbing, who can answer your questions, point out specific traps to watch for, introduce "tricks of the trade" is absolutely invaluable. And not all of us have the money or the opportunity to go to one of the "schools". The mentor should be a tree climber, meaning a production worker. Knowing how to climb is important; knowing how to use the saws in the tree while you are climbing is equally so.
I am fortunate in that I have a live-in mentor and so every time I am up a tree, which isn't often, I have someone who can answer a question on the spot. There are so many situations that come up that books or lectures simply cannot address every single one or the variations on a theme that present themselves.
Even better is to be able to spend time with that person up the tree with you. You can only learn so much from reading about it; at some time you have to go up the tree and feel it.
A point that I have been told, but was illustrated to me, was the other day when I had a lesson on the Lockjack. (I call all my climbs "lessons" because I am not proficient enough to be called a "climber".) On the way down, near the ground, I sampled a "free swing" that might occur spontaneously within a canopy. The first thing I noticed right off the bat is the tendency to want to "grab" something. This can be fatal in the fact if you grab your hitch, whichever kind you use, you can end in a free fall to the ground.
From years of riding horses, my body knows that tensing up and "grabbing the reins" in a bad situation makes things a whole lot worse. So muscle memory went with the "controlled, isolated grip". (Anyone who rides knows what I am talking about.)
What this illustrated to me, though, was the fact that you can be told over and over again NOT to grab, but your body is going to WANT to until you TEACH it not to. How do you do that? Practice and experience. Put yourself in practice situations where you have control and teach your body to automatically respond safely.
Sylvia
I am fortunate in that I have a live-in mentor and so every time I am up a tree, which isn't often, I have someone who can answer a question on the spot. There are so many situations that come up that books or lectures simply cannot address every single one or the variations on a theme that present themselves.
Even better is to be able to spend time with that person up the tree with you. You can only learn so much from reading about it; at some time you have to go up the tree and feel it.
A point that I have been told, but was illustrated to me, was the other day when I had a lesson on the Lockjack. (I call all my climbs "lessons" because I am not proficient enough to be called a "climber".) On the way down, near the ground, I sampled a "free swing" that might occur spontaneously within a canopy. The first thing I noticed right off the bat is the tendency to want to "grab" something. This can be fatal in the fact if you grab your hitch, whichever kind you use, you can end in a free fall to the ground.
From years of riding horses, my body knows that tensing up and "grabbing the reins" in a bad situation makes things a whole lot worse. So muscle memory went with the "controlled, isolated grip". (Anyone who rides knows what I am talking about.)
What this illustrated to me, though, was the fact that you can be told over and over again NOT to grab, but your body is going to WANT to until you TEACH it not to. How do you do that? Practice and experience. Put yourself in practice situations where you have control and teach your body to automatically respond safely.
Sylvia
