Your least favourite tree to climb, and why.

JTSpear said:
colorado blue spruce. The needles might as well be thorns and trying to wriggle up through the branches is next to impossible. Also, the limbs are so perpendicular to the stem that you have to strip the thing bare to get it into the chipper...
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Those things shatter into a million pieces when they hit the ground on really cold days too. Endless clean up.
 
Honey locust, Black Jack, and Hackberry
Honey Locust well 4 or more inch thorns. Black Jack makes pin oak seem like cake as far as hanging up, Hackberry alligator hide bark rips your arms to pieces
 
I've been pruning trees at a large shopping complex and am just about done with the job. The last stretch here has been 50 Live Oaks that are probably between 15 and 20 years old and max dbh at 12 inches. They are like giant green toilet brushes and have beat me to a pulp! They have ascended to the top of the shit tree list. Now mature Live Oaks are a completely different story, although I have been in some of those that are pretty crappy too.
 
We have 3 devil trees....Manchaneel a very very poisonous tree that gets massive and is found on the beach....great protection against erosion but that tree will fuck you up....makes PI seems saintlike...get that dust in your eye and you will be temporarily blinded....get it on you skin and you will blister and be leper like in a day...raw as fuck....poison tree is next up...he is the mirror of Manchaneel also gets big and broad....lastly the breadfruit a staple food here in the caribbean from old days..damn tree sap flows like lava down a mountain during a valcano eruption...it will stop a hitch working in a few minutes after attacking...leaves are like big pieces of sandpaper and itch...we have another nasty fella...the good ole rubber tree, ficus elastica which is the same as the breadfruit...it hates your rope and hitches...makes pines look like a beautiful model....thankfully I avoid these like a plague....
 
They do and I do Swing, but these small ones are beating the crap out of me. 5 years ago I went through some coronary issues, had to have some stents installed to open up the pipes. As a result I spent about 18 months on Plavix blood thinner which makes your skin paper thin it seems. As a result just touching it with the pins from trees like Live and Water Oaks make you bleed for at least 10 minutes. I usually carry a heavy duty paper wipe to blot blood with. It is truly a PITA! Day was where I wouldn't bleed at all unless it was big enough for stitches. The take away here is take care of yourself, get good control of chloresterol, eat healthy, and get good rest. I would say exercise, but that would be silly of me.
 
swingdude said:
We have 3 devil trees....Manchaneel a very very poisonous tree that gets massive and is found on the beach....great protection against erosion but that tree will fuck you up....makes PI seems saintlike...get that dust in your eye and you will be temporarily blinded....get it on you skin and you will blister and be leper like in a day...raw as fuck....poison tree is next up...he is the mirror of Manchaneel also gets big and broad....lastly the breadfruit a staple food here in the caribbean from old days..damn tree sap flows like lava down a mountain during a valcano eruption...it will stop a hitch working in a few minutes after attacking...leaves are like big pieces of sandpaper and itch...we have another nasty fella...the good ole rubber tree, ficus elastica which is the same as the breadfruit...it hates your rope and hitches...makes pines look like a beautiful model....thankfully I avoid these like a plague....
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I had Manchaneel sap drop on my arm when I was on vacation down there. Nastiest blister I ever had. Brutal.
 
oldoakman said:
They do and I do Swing, but these small ones are beating the crap out of me. 5 years ago I went through some coronary issues, had to have some stents installed to open up the pipes. As a result I spent about 18 months on Plavix blood thinner which makes your skin paper thin it seems. As a result just touching it with the pins from trees like Live and Water Oaks make you bleed for at least 10 minutes. I usually carry a heavy duty paper wipe to blot blood with. It is truly a PITA! Day was where I wouldn't bleed at all unless it was big enough for stitches. The take away here is take care of yourself, get good control of chloresterol, eat healthy, and get good rest. I would say exercise, but that would be silly of me.
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Damn Oak, we have some rough barked trees here...last couple of weeks I been reducing neems...ripping my hands to shreds...they were so soreonly now healing up...hate gloves...Glad to hear your health has improved...I get good sleep...climb like a mofo but eat what I like...never had a fat stomach in my life...lately I been noticing a rise...have to start back running....since these two last kids were born I have avoided running at all cost...prefer to love them up and play with them...at 49 energy levels are waning...love the couch at night..awe well need to rid this midsection...folks tell me what midsection...but I feel it...still have some damn great sex though...a little midsection must make ya foop better....lol
 
Sounds like they would tear me up for sure. All is good health wise. I don't know too many guys my age that still climb and even fewer my size. In fact most people my age have handicap placards on their dash boards and ride the electric carts in Walmart. I have an aunt that will be 102 in November, is sharp as a tack and as ornery as a copperhead.
 
oldoakman said:
Sounds like they would tear me up for sure. All is good health wise. I don't know too many guys my age that still climb and even fewer my size. In fact most people my age have handicap placards on their dash boards and ride the electric carts in Walmart. I have an aunt that will be 102 in November, is sharp as a tack and as ornery as a copperhead.
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That"s awesome oakman. Taking care of health from an earlier age is everything. My great grandmother was 109.
 
Drewtree said:
My least favourite tree to climb is Elaeagnus angustifolia, thorns as long as your finger that give you a nasty rash when they jab you. Thankfully they don't get very large though. Or Ailanthus altissima.. AKA Tree of heaven, Ghetto Palm, Stink wood, or my go to.. Tree of HELL. Brittle unpredictable wood, fast growing and weak. Have had more unexpected limb failures in this species than all the others combined.
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hahaha, my contract work in NYC consisted mostly of "Tree of Heaven" removals :loco: it's one of those trees that amazes me how much it will take for how brittle it can be
 
i skimmed through the thread, saw pin oak, black locust, honey locust, osage orange, white pine all pop up a few times, 6 months ago i would have agreed but gawd damn if i wouldn't go running back to those trees after having to deal with some of the shit out here in Cali.
Monterey Pine- covered in epicormic pine cones, everything snags everything
Monterey Cypress- same but extra thick and weak wooded with loooong branches that have all the weight at the end
Silk Oak- seemingly decent tree till you cut it, then it's worse than poison ivy
Live Oak- nice tree, fun climb but thick like a bush, leaves like an American Holly and have a Sycamore like dust all over them.
Palms- nuff said
Redwood- can vary greatly from tree to tree but can have all down sloping limbs so very hard to set lines and branches can be unpredictably super brittle. dusty bark if ur cutting thru it during the dry season.
Sequoia- same and the twigs have barb like structures all over them leading up to the scales
Stone Pine- sappy like white pine but not as weak. crown is jam packed with a mesh of criss crossing branches. the wood is where it gets it's name.
grass is always greener i suppose...
 
Pfanner man said:
hahaha, my contract work in NYC consisted mostly of "Tree of Heaven" removals :loco: it's one of those trees that amazes me how much it will take for how brittle it can be
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Tree of heaven is the tree I tore my rotator cuff in. They make for some fun removals, the branch structure is very unique.
 
Maybe I missed it, but it seems that nobody has mentioned the frustration of climbing "trees" grown as hedges.

Since moving to Seattle, I've been introduced to Leyland Cypress hedges and - best of all - English Laurel hedges that have to be climbed and then "walked" across the top because there is no other way to reach the center. Awesome. Love it. It's even more fun when they are full of Blackberry with inch-thick canes and cat-claw thorns. Ahhhh. Makes me happy just thinking about them... with a can of gasoline and a match. Haha.
 
Tulip polpar, first tree I ever climbed. Slid 30 feet down it on a gaff out. Scared the hell out of me. And willow oak, little spurs are more frustrating than painful.
 
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