When did you first hear?

I saw a prototype RW made from wood at the NATCC in Savannah 5 or 6 years ago. That was the first time I saw/heard of that particular style of SRT working in the tree. SRT Access, though, was something I had done with the triple prussic system when I was a kid back in the 70's. Not for working, just for getting to the first limbs so we could free climb the rest of the tree.
 
A little bump here:)
Year 2000 while I took a ArborMaster Canada training course, Dwayne supplied a Mars Bar setup to climb SRT on a big American elm. Was like riding a manual elevator.
I learnt the DR Blakes from day one and never tried SRT.
Thanks to my BigShot and double ring friction savers easily installed and recovered from the ground, I've got pretty good at isolating the best TIP.
Yes in my avatar pic there's a ring on ring friction saver up there.
 
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In 2007 or 2008 I saw Bingham compete in the master's challenge at the Charolette Competition on an F8-revolver system. I remember seeing House Tain doing a lot of head scratching before allowing him to use it in the comp. I was so green at the time though so I didn't really understand the implications.

I've only just adopted SRT for myself this year but I was away from the industry during the most crucial years of the system's development.
 
Saw some guys srt up big firs with basal anchors back in the day, 2008 roughly, but I learned and got good at climbing on a Blake's. In the last few years it started seeming like just about every new climber and his dog was srt with all the bells and whistles and I was put off because of all the gadgetry and dinking around to get set up for a climb when you could just as "easily" start grunting you're way up the tree and atleast get some actual work done. I've come to realize that it's really about using the right "tool" (technique) for the job. A lot of guys are stuck in a ddrt box and a lot of them are stuck in an srt box. I think being proficient with both is where my climbing goals are at these days.
 
Personally I did use it back in 2003, did not know it was not used in tree care, honestly thought I was innovative. I used two had ascenders and an basal anchor. As far as being properly trained that came in 2010 when a co-worker introduced me to the rope wrench and have been using that and recently started with the HAAS. YES, took awhile but glad to be done with bike inter tubes for chest harness and footlocking with the RW.
 
Tom Dunlap said:
I'm trying to get a better understanding of the timeline for how SRT has been exposed in our profession.

Can you tell me two things?

When did you first hear about SRT in arborculture?

When did you first climb on SRT in trees?

Even just the year or make a guess.

Thanks!
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Ive been doing SRT before I even knew it had a name? Its commonly used in rock climbing for years! And since I started rock climbing 40 years ago Ive used it ever since. I started to use it in trees 38 years ago just for fun when the weather was no good for an ascent on a face. Of course we didn't have rope wrenches and such, but we had Jumars and cam locks/ hitches and stuff.
 
tennarbor said:
Oh, and Tom I am way behind the game as far as srt goes. I had a friend of mine who was big into rock climbing. He would do tree work on his own and save just enough money to go eat vienna sausages for a couple months and climb El Cap or something.

I never worked with him but he always talked about using his rock climbing gear to do trees. He always climbed srt because thats all he knew. Rigging limbs by himself, descending to untie the limb and climb back up again. I always thought he was crazy and he is a little but know that I know a little more about it, I still wouldn't want to work like that but I understand that using his ascenders made those redundant climbs a little less exerting.

So, I would say that although I had heard of it (probably around 2006), I didn't really think of climbing srt to work a tree until 2010.
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I started out the same way! lol, I even used a Petzl rock climbing saddle when I killed my first tree! Thats so funny!
 
Tom Dunlap said:
I'm trying to get a better understanding of the timeline for how SRT has been exposed in our profession.

Can you tell me two things?

When did you first hear about SRT in arborculture?

When did you first climb on SRT in trees?

Even just the year or make a guess.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Funny you should ask! To be totally honest, I never used a moving rope system ever in a tree? Except for rigging. I always used a stationary system from day 1. Still do. In fact, I’d need to practice double moving rope system to feel comfy with it. Call me weird, just never used it.
 
Tom Dunlap said:
@Stephen Moore

How did you come to tree climbing?

What sort of system or multicender did you start on

Tree climbing has come easy to big wall and aid climbers
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Yes I already had saw time felling on Vancouver Island. I did many years of Solo aiding big walls and general rock climbing with groups. The two just fell together. I moved to the Shuswap in 91’ the only work I could find was in a shake mill on an Indian reserve. The found out I was good with a power saw and sent me to Blue River with a loader and 3 guys. We fell shake wood for months cutting, splitting and trucking cedar to the mill. Then I started heli logging it out of the hills here, very dangerous work. I won’t go into details.
For personal reasons I ended my relationship with the idiot that ran the operation because of serious safety concerns that would never be addressed.
We started a lawn maintenance business, surprisingly good money with very small capital input. That ran for 6 years or so. During that time I did removals on the weekends, which morphed into Danger Tree Service. The skills I learned solo aiding and mountaineering made an easy transition. Because of that, I have an extremely healthy respect for gravity. I treat my gear with utmost respect. No one stands on my rope!
Anyway the beginning of Danger was 12-13 years ago. We have saturated our local market and can’t really grow beyond what we are today. We are Ma and Pa operation with, to this day, no insurance claims and no WCB claims at all. My competitors can’t boast the same and they are world champion timber sports competitors.
That said, I like this website because of the knowledge that is available. I continue to learn every day I do this work. Every time I add a new gizmo I need to learn all over again. This site is invaluable.
Thanks to all that post here in a meaningful way.
 
I had heard mention of srt about 10 years ago, but no one around me uses srt, no one I have ever worked with, nothing. Come to think of it, there might have been one guy, but he was really slow. I didn't really pay attention to how he got things done so slowly. Since I have been on treebuzz, I have realised I have been living in a bubble of non-progression. I have been studying srt for the last month or so added srt accent a couple weeks ago, and did my first full srt climb last week with a oval vt. It was the removal of a big silver maple with high tension power lines on one side and a nice sugar maple on the other. 75 percent had to be roped down, lots of limb walks. I was in the tree for about 5 hours. I can't wait to do more srt! The oval vt worked great, but the hitch cord I used was really not right for the task, so I went back to Ddrt the next day. How did I do this terrible Ddrt so long? I will certainly still use Ddrt for some applications, but for me, the advantages of srt are very clear. I have some more proper srt positioning equipment arriving tomorrow and I'm off. I am more excited to climb now than I have been since near the beginning of my career 16 years ago. The new things I have been learning since reaching out to the internet tree climbers brother/sisterhood has revitalized my love for this work.
 
2009 for accessing trees in the Seattle area. SRT up, DdRT once in the canopy. I think I started dabbling with it in a tree after watching Kevin’s f8revolver setup. Started being a dedicated SRT climber in 2013.
 
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