New to Madrones…

[Zebco Kid]

Hello All,

I’m a recreational climber. I just moved to Ashland, Oregon. All of my experience climbing is with Oaks, Redwoods, and Eucalyptus. On the mountain where I live, there are Madrones. Can anyone with experience tell me about climbing these beauties? Anything to be concerned about?

Thank you.

David

 

[southsoundtree]

Strong and fun.

Slick bark!

 

[Zebco Kid]

Southsoundtree,

Thank you. One local arborist who is going to take down a tree that is leaning on my home here echoed your thought about them bark. He said, “slick when wet. You won’t be doing any limb walking!”

 

[southsoundtree]

You have to have good skills to limb walk them.

Definitely not ideal when wet.

A lot of people have no/ minimal practice climbing wet trees (or rocks).

 

[chiselbit]

Beware the sharp stubbies

 

[27RMT0N]

In the spring the bark can easily damaged by ropes or standing and twisting your foot in a crotch. They can be very strong, but with the angles they often grow, you can introduce a huge amount of leverage by getting on them. Small deadwood stubs are stronger than you think and can sometimes make throwline or rope manipulating a struggle when setting lines from the ground. Utilize multiple crotches when necessary to make strong high lines, use big overhead firs and then then a natural-crotch redirect into the madrone to get into big leaning ones.

 

[Zebco Kid]

27RMTON,

That is fantastic. Thank you. I’ll treat them well in the spring. Always actually!

DG

 

[evo]

Very strong and very fragile trees. I highly recommend avoiding rec climbing in one as others have said they are easily damaged.
Very sharp stubs that can and do impale flesh deeply.
They are also very brittle when overloaded. Not a lot of fiber tearing when they break, they just shear.
I’ve heard them called kinky eucalyptus and the few eucs I’ve worked in agree

 

[Zebco Kid]

Evo. I really appreciate your caution and concern for the health of the trees.

Kindly,

David

 

[Brando CalPankian]

No moving rope, and base tie can even damage the cambium. Really fun climbs. Nice structure to them. One of the trees I miss most climbing in the pnw.

 

[Serf Life]

Noticed they have worse wound closure than others, blackened dieback running back on the underside of cuts or tears. Similar to manzanita but maybe less extreme. I’ve never climbed one past the bottom branches, but have seen even minimal scratches persist (some from our dog…).

 

[davidwyby]

I was gonna say…brittle.

 

[Matias]

Yea, I wouldn't necessarily rec climb them with that thin skin they have. I have noticed the same as serf life, that even light scratches seem to persist for a long time. maybe if you find one in a park that has had kids all over it already, but even then... I know thst I have seen some good sized oaks in the Wonderland trail system, I think on the white rabbit trail. I haven't been up there in 10 years or so, so I could be remembering it wrong.

 

[evo]

Adding to this conversation, around here madrones are easily infected with numerous different cankers. Many of the larger trees are doomed to a slow death. Not the species as they still sprout readily but I fear that the big ole ones are a thing of the past.
I’ve heard theories that it’s a endophytic issue that presents with damage as slight at bird feet damaging the bark.
I typically avoid working on them as much as possible and when I do, it’s the most minimal amount of climbing and maneuvering.
100% do not advocate for rec climbing in them.

Some of the photos are from an effort to beat back the canker by excising and flaming. It was experimental and seemed to help a little but didn’t work

 

[southsoundtree]

When you say brittle, can you say in what way?

 

[evo]

When you say brittle, can you say in what way?

Lack of flexibility before breaking, lack of fiber bending, and wood fibers shear before becoming stringy. Strong ass trees but when they do let go it’s sudden

 

[Matias]

Lack of flexibility before breaking, lack of fiber bending, and wood fibers shear before becoming stringy. Strong ass trees but when they do let go it’s sudden

when I say brittle in general about trees, I mean exactly this. It's one of my least favorite traits.

 

[southsoundtree]

when I say brittle in general about trees, I mean exactly this. It's one of my least favorite traits.

I wonder if they are more brittle in drier climates.

 

[Matias]

I wonder if they are more brittle in drier climates.

I had never considered that possibility, but we do seem to have a lot of trees that get brittle around here...

 

[27RMT0N]

They are interesting trees for sure in that in many ways they are very tough, frequently growing in extreme locations and angles, often quite large, but also easily damaged and fragile in some ways. Strangely enough some of the larger healthier ones I know of are actually a row that's been hacked back for the power lines....

I do try and take a light touch on them and most people here have a particular respect and affinity for them, so we don't remove them often. I try to limit work in them to just hazard reduction work, pruning them back form houses or removing large deadwood around houses. Otherwise I generally tell people to leave them alone.