You gonna climb on that!!!

R

Ron

Location
Chattanooga
I've often wondered how strong limbs really are so I decided to do some informal testing for myself by actually climbing on some very small limbs to see if I could get an idea of limb strength. Of course small is relative, small to me, may be more like medium to you.

Many of you have more climbing skills and time than I do, but as a healthy reminder and to any newbies that might read this, climbing on small limbs is dangerous.

In the video, you will see I am constantly backed up in case the small limb I'm on should break. I used a rather unique RADS backup method so that may be of some interest as well.

The limb turned out to be 1.75" in diameter - and would I climb on it again without a backup - No!

Let me make it very clear that I am not encouraging anyone to climb on small limbs, nor am I in any way implying it is safe, nor do the tests (four altogether) or this video prove anything. The only purpose was to get some idea of how strong small limbs are. There are many variables, and safe is only a concept in the mind.

So having said that, here is a brutally edited video of one climb on a small limb.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03Tt9GnWUG8
 
I've broken a couple... on bounce tests fortunately... it still hurt like hell.

Bottom line for myself, if it's a limb and not a crotch, I want it to be big... like >4" big. If it's a crotch I'll go to about 2" on reliable species like pine or hickory. I don't go smaller than that although I have before while suffering a momentary lapse of judgment. I've gone 3" and even 2" on limbs (vs. crotch) but ever since Kristian fell I quit doing it.

My worst potential error came when my groundie pointed out that I was about to ascend on a DEAD 2" crotch once. The adjacent limbs had lots of foliage and I didn't catch on even though I had to make like, 8 throws before I got it. It would've probably been ok but screw 'probably'... not worth it.

On pines I generally capture 2 consecutive live limbs.

Species matters, crotch versus limb matters, live versus dead matters... plus all the stuff other people will undoubtedly point out.

Cool rig BTW.

One nice thing about footlocking, you can be fairly gentle going up if you need to.
 
Thanks Tom,
That was excerpts from about 40 min worth of video and it does take a lot of editing time to get it down to something reasonable.

BTW, one part that's in the original that I debated and debated on whether to take out or not was your Gator Aide bottle top trick you showed me when you were here. Bet you thought I'd forgotten.

I had the throwline over the limb, but out a ways from the crotch, and I could see the little twigs, etc. that would snag the rope. So I set up the Dunlap Gator Aide bottle top trick, and guess what - it worked perfectly!

I'll have to post that section.

[ QUOTE ]
Blinky: ...Species matters, crotch versus limb
matters, live versus dead matters... plus all the stuff other people will undoubtedly point out...

[/ QUOTE ]
Absolutely. All that makes a difference. Really, my goal was to find a small limb, cinched at the crotch, climb on it and if it didn't break, then a limb twice that size should provide a significant safety margin.

Of course even that is a guideline only - not a rule, and as a guideline, it's just for that species, on a live limb, on that particular tree.

One thing I'm gonna start a post about is limb walking - I believe some 'stuff' is going on that isn't necessarily obvious. The reason I mention this here is that there are some one-to-one similarities in limb ties, i.e. vs crotch ties, and limb walking. I think it will make for some interesting discussions.

Now if I can just free up some time to develop the post.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Hmmmm, Gator Aide bottle top trick. Would like to hear more about that, or is it top secret info.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'll try to get that posted today.
 
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