Should I get into climbing? Purely utilitarian :)

[Tiff]

Howdy! We have these 2 palms in our yard and the maintenance is ridiculous. Wondering if this type is good for climbing if we want to explore trimming ourselves. I don't have ANY experience with tree climbing but an avid rock climber. I know the technique and equipment are very different but I don't mind the heights and the challenge. Actually sounds like a lot of fun. Think they're going to be too tall for a saw. Would love some feedback from experienced climbers and, if it seems like a reasonable idea, some advice on starter gear. Been watching videos and reading up on it but would love some straight talk. Much appreciated.

 

[TreeCo]

Palms can be extremely dangerous plants to climb. It seems that while removing the lower dead fronds that a whole mass of them can come down at once and trap the climber who is lanyarded in around the trunk, resulting is suffocation. Then there is the problem of insects and bees.

I am not an experienced palm climber. I'm just repeating what I've read over the years.

 

[southsoundtree]

If they have a long skirt of dead fronds, from lack of maintenance, you need some A-game, and is not for the beginner. Yours are maintained.


IF they have been maintained, its all around A1 aid CLIMBING. Then comes the sharp tools and dismantling the heavy stuff that is stable and in place securely. Kinda like A1 protection placement, cleaning chossy rock off a new route. The gear will hold. The dislodged choss can still be a serious problem.

Two expanding bolts don't necessarily make a good anchor (partially depth, egg-shaped hole, too close together or far apart).

Two expanding bolts of the correct size, connected properly, in solid rock, installed correctly, make a bombproof anchor, when used correctly. Cutting fronds is like the former, and pruning is like the latter. You're cutting live tissue off of a living thing that you want to be healthy and long-lived.



If they have a long skirt of dead fronds, from lack of maintenance, you need some A-game, and is not for the beginner. Yours are maintained.



DO NOT go with "I'll make it look like what I see".

You have to go with "I'll make it look like what I should be seeing, but a bunch of poorly-trained trained guys do most of the work incorrectly, and quality is an exceptional thing".





I do some amount of "put on ground only" work. Sometimes you have the space to leave stuff. Sometimes, leaving stuff lay for the homeowner to clean-up shoots both of us in the foot (well, I charge accordingly for the bullet in the foot).

Sometimes, one dump run makes people say, I'd rather just go rock climbing on the weekend. I work hard during the week to make a living.

 

[cerviarborist]

Your Bismarckia Nobilis (Bismarck Palms), while not technically classed as "self-cleaning palms", are slow growing and don't require a lot of pruning in the first place. If the aesthetics of a petticoat of dead fronds and seed pods isn't offensive to you, it can provide excellent habitat to mosquito eating bats and you won't have to prune at all. Since the trunk has been kept clean though, you may find that dead fronds abscise from the trunk and fall to the ground all on their own.

If you're going to prune any fronds, don't remove any which have any green at all in them as they're still alive and contributing photosynthesis to the plant. As to "ridiculous" maintenance costs, properly outfitting yourself for rope-access tree work just to prune a couple palms can easily get into the ridiculous maintenance cost zone all by itself, not to mention the cost of maintaining specialized equipment that you're not going to use very often.

You may find that the purchase of a multi sectioned pole saw with an interchangeable lopping head might be a good alernative. Just add enough sections to reach the dead fronds with the saw, and you can switch over to the loppers to remove brachts with seeds on them all from the relative safety of the ground.

Where art and craft comes in, is knowing that if you so much as nick another frond with the saw, it will quickly decline and die. It's easy for inexperienced palm pruning personnel to unknowingly nick adjacent fronds, which in the commercial realm will necessitate a return trip to the site.

 

[TimBr]

@Tiff; Welcome to the TreeBuzz forum. I think you are going to like it here.

I'm not a pro, I'm just here to welcome you to the forum, and give my general impressions.

First, @cerviarborist is a pro with great, specific experience from within your own state, so I'd give his views a lot of weight.

The other two gentleman are also pros with great experience.

If I were you, I'd go on YouTube and look at a few of the palm frond accident videos, just so you have an idea of what hazard you might be looking at.

Having said that, if you don't care about spending money on gear that might not get used that often, I would hate to discourage you from learning to climb trees. Just study your tail off as to how to do things, and remember the mantra of always trying out new systems and equipment "low and slow".

Also, if you have access to some, I think Florida has the "Live Oak" species of tree within it. I think that would be a really fun place to learn to climb, as opposed to the Palm trees. The question is whether or not you can find some relatively close by that someone would not mind allowing you to climb. You should google some photos of the Live Oaks.

Also, for learning to climb, besides coming to the arb forums, you should visit this web site if you have not seen it yet.

http://www.climbingarborist.com/

It is the only place on the net that I know of that offers a comprehensive set of videos, and that are categorized to make it easy to focus on one area of study at a time. From the most basic things, such as how to tie the knots needed, to more complex things, such as climbing systems and rigging techniques.

My final thought is that I try to build in redundancy in my climbing systems wherever possible, as I don't want to have the failure of a single component be the cause of a fall. Being a rock climber, you probably already think this way, anyway.

Best of luck, if you decide to take up tree climbing. Keep us posted on how things go, if you do. Thanks.

Tim