treebing
Been here much more than a while
- Location
- Detroit, Mi.
In 2008 I traveled south to Texas and did hurricane work clearing hangers and leaners along trails and back roads of Texas. During that time, I adopted SRT as my preffered climbing style and came up with the Fate Revolver out of necessity. I was forced by circumstance to climb SRT and adapt to the equipment I had on hand. Isolating limbs was a huge time eater up, i had to move fast as I was getting paid 6 dollars a tree 
. I was heavily using a ladder for access as well and so I began only climbing with my hitch on single line. The Fate revolver soon followed.
I posted the fate revolver on treebuzz two years ago.
http://www.treebuzz.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=149103&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1
This system of climbing became my preferred method of climbing as many of you know from my constant chatter about it.
There has been several important contributions to the system such as the Kong Robot by Hollenreich and FamilyTree, and The pulley and ring setup that Rich Hattier found. Tree Machine introduced me to the Conterra Scarab which I was using until recently.
Several tree buzzers now use this system of climbing some of the time when its practical, others like me use it virtually all of the time. Those who use it or have tried it, know that there are several big downsides to the system. mainly that you cannot ascend directly up the rope with the device attached. Nor can you descend easily with the system not attached. This can cause annoyances that can dampen the thrill of SRT climbing. I still found the system to be overall more efficient and practical than traditional dDRT by a long shot.
Two weeks ago on september 30th, after a particularly frustrating day in the tree I decided that I would no longer attach or detach myself from the friction device above my Hitch. What you see in the picture is one of several rope wrenches that I have utilized in the tree for the past two weeks. It is the Singing Tree Rope Wrench. It is a portable limb that gives the required friction to safely descend the rope. This one is made from one piece of Hickory. It is threaded at the bottom of the rope and rides above the hitch for the duration of the climb. During ascent it is simply pushed up the rope by the hitch below. On descent, it engages and imitates the rope passing over a limb as in ddrt, or the fate system. I like wood as a the medium as it is friendly on the rope but I will be experimenting with aluminum, stainless steel, plastic and possibly titanium. I have a feeling that this is a device with a lot of variables, like what rope is used, what hitch is being used as well as the weight and personal preference of the climber. I am excited by the fact that any crafty climbers can fabricate their own rope wrench out of a special piece of wood or the handle of a hammer. I have also made an accompanying hitch tender out of wood to eliminate even more metal from the system. This is a tool that kind of takes us back old school while still advancing us forward.
Currently I am only making them in wood for those of you that are interested. Like I said I hope to be making them with other materials soon. I will consider it an evolving experiment but this tool in its current form, does work and is fun and efficient to climb with.
. I was heavily using a ladder for access as well and so I began only climbing with my hitch on single line. The Fate revolver soon followed.I posted the fate revolver on treebuzz two years ago.
http://www.treebuzz.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=149103&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1
This system of climbing became my preferred method of climbing as many of you know from my constant chatter about it.
There has been several important contributions to the system such as the Kong Robot by Hollenreich and FamilyTree, and The pulley and ring setup that Rich Hattier found. Tree Machine introduced me to the Conterra Scarab which I was using until recently.
Several tree buzzers now use this system of climbing some of the time when its practical, others like me use it virtually all of the time. Those who use it or have tried it, know that there are several big downsides to the system. mainly that you cannot ascend directly up the rope with the device attached. Nor can you descend easily with the system not attached. This can cause annoyances that can dampen the thrill of SRT climbing. I still found the system to be overall more efficient and practical than traditional dDRT by a long shot.
Two weeks ago on september 30th, after a particularly frustrating day in the tree I decided that I would no longer attach or detach myself from the friction device above my Hitch. What you see in the picture is one of several rope wrenches that I have utilized in the tree for the past two weeks. It is the Singing Tree Rope Wrench. It is a portable limb that gives the required friction to safely descend the rope. This one is made from one piece of Hickory. It is threaded at the bottom of the rope and rides above the hitch for the duration of the climb. During ascent it is simply pushed up the rope by the hitch below. On descent, it engages and imitates the rope passing over a limb as in ddrt, or the fate system. I like wood as a the medium as it is friendly on the rope but I will be experimenting with aluminum, stainless steel, plastic and possibly titanium. I have a feeling that this is a device with a lot of variables, like what rope is used, what hitch is being used as well as the weight and personal preference of the climber. I am excited by the fact that any crafty climbers can fabricate their own rope wrench out of a special piece of wood or the handle of a hammer. I have also made an accompanying hitch tender out of wood to eliminate even more metal from the system. This is a tool that kind of takes us back old school while still advancing us forward.
Currently I am only making them in wood for those of you that are interested. Like I said I hope to be making them with other materials soon. I will consider it an evolving experiment but this tool in its current form, does work and is fun and efficient to climb with.
