Ohio Chapter TCC winners.... well sort of

[rich_h]

Thanks to John Montgomery and the city of Troy, Ohio the chapter had an excellent site to hold the 2006 TCC. The trees were beautiful with many, many possible choices for set up, the facilities were fantastic, and Tommy Williams, Sean Stevens and the large staff of volunteers put in a ton of work to get everything set up smoothly. The only problem is that someone forgot to pay off the weatherman.

The rain started around 6:15 and lasted until ... well... the second the last climber exited the work climb of coarse. The climbers took a vote in the morning and opted to hold the event despite the rain (once the judges assured us that the trees would be safe to climb) and there can be no doubt that the climbers were put through a much tougher day than they would have had normally. To everyones credit there was never once a complaint about the conditions and the overall mood was one of good cheer. The climbers helped each other through the events and yells of encouragement easily outnumbered the groans of frustration. CHEERS TO ALL THE COMPETITORS FOR GUTTING IT OUT.

Due to the conditions it was decided (again voted on by the climbers) to hold the Master Climb at a future date. This was decided before any scores were given out. Unfortunately due to a paperwork malfunction (two different sets of work climb score sheets) it took awhile to get the the results. I want to thank the competitors for their patience and the judges and volunteers for their hard work to make sure the results came back correctly.

Anyway the top three men moving on to the Master Climb are:

Jay Butcher - Madison Tree (Cincinnati)
Josh Jump - Madison Tree (Cincinnati)
Jose Fernandez- Ahlum and Arbor (Columbus)

The top woman competitor who will be representing Ohio for the second year in a row is:

Jen Roberts - Independent Tree (Cleveland)

Congrats to all involved. Individual event placing will be posted as soon as the score sheets all dry out.

 

[roachy]

Wow Rich you really get around!

 

[rich_h]

Here are the results and scores from the OTCC. Notice that if Jen Roberts had competed with the men (and received no points for foot lock and belayed speed climb) she still would have taken 7th place. Way to go Jen. (and heads up for those at international)

Congrats to all of the competitors for a great competition.

OH YEAH I ALMOST FORGOT

The masters climb will be taking place on June 24th at the same park that the preliminarys were held at in Troy. (200 Adams Street, Troy Ohio). We encourage everyone to come down and root on the Jay, Josh, Jose, and Jen. Good lord anyone else whose name starts with a "j" want to climb. Hint: Pete you may want to change your name to Jim or Jorge or something.

 

[rich_h]

Re: Ohio Chapter TCC

The rescheduled Master Climb took place today with Jay Butcher (Madison Tree-Cincinnati) completing the tree with his usual skill and innovative techniques and once again took the top spot. This is the third time that Jay will represent the Ohio Chapter at International.

Second Place went to Jose Fernandez (Ahlum and Arbor, Inc.-Columbus) who had a beautifully smooth climb and will certainly be a force to deal with in next years comp.

Third Place went to Josh Jump (Madison Tree-Cincinnati) who had a great climb as well.



Just a couple thoughts on the overall master climb:

All three climbers used anchored pulleys to work off of. This allowed for quick set up and retrievability and certainly seems to be the method of choice for working the tree.

We saw the use of a lockjack twin and a modified achor bridge for climbing set ups. Both of these systems allowed the climbers to climb slack free and definitely saved time.

No one used a standard foot lock to enter the tree. With the pulley set up from the ground for each climber it seems that running up hand over hand (with lockjack and modded anchor bridge) or having the ground tech tend slack seemed to benefit the climbers because of the ability to start working from the ground up.

I don't know if these techniques are a sign of things to come, but it looked today like DdRT off an anchored pulley is getting as efficient if not more efficient than SRT for working a tree.