Cornell Outdoor Education

Tree Climbing Manual Fall 09

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CONTENTS CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................................................ 2

SECTION A1: INTRODUCTION TO TREE CLIMBING ........................................................................... 5 CORNELL OUTDOOR EDUCATION MISSION STATEMENT ................................................................................... 5 RECREATIONAL TREE CLIMBING AT COE ......................................................................................................... 5 PURPOSE OF THIS MANUAL ............................................................................................................................... 6

SECTION A2: COURSE PHILOSOPHY ........................................................................................................ 6

SECTION B1: TREE SELECTION AND ROPE PLACEMENT GUIDELINES ....................................... 7 WHERE TO LOOK FOR TREES ............................................................................................................................. 7 HOW TO CHOOSE A TREE .................................................................................................................................. 8

Location ........................................................................................................................................................ 8 Species Considerations ................................................................................................................................. 8 Judging Tree Health ..................................................................................................................................... 8

SECTION B2: GETTING THE ROPE INTO A TREE ................................................................................. 8 HOW TO CHOOSE A BRANCH FOR YOUR ROPE .................................................................................................. 8

Judging Crotch Security ............................................................................................................................... 9 Crotch Convenience ..................................................................................................................................... 9

GETTING YOU ROPE INTO THE TREE ................................................................................................................... 9 Coil Throw ................................................................................................................................................... 9 Throw Lines & Throw Weights ................................................................................................................. 10 Hand Tossing Throw Weights .................................................................................................................... 10 Big Shot Line Launcher ............................................................................................................................. 11 Sling Shots and Bows ................................................................................................................................. 12

REPOSITIONING THE THROW LINE ................................................................................................................... 12 ATTACHING YOUR CLIMBING LINE TO THE THROW LINE ............................................................................... 12

SECTION B3: IN-TREE ANCHORING OPTIONS .................................................................................... 13 FRICTION SAVERS ........................................................................................................................................... 14 WRAP-THREE-PULL-TWO ............................................................................................................................... 14 RUNNING FIGURE-EIGHT ANCHOR LINES ........................................................................................................ 14

SECTION B4: ASCENDING SYSTEMS....................................................................................................... 15 SRT VERSUS DDRT ........................................................................................................................................ 15

Minimum Gear Required ............................................................................................................................ 15 Inherent Mechanical Advantage ................................................................................................................. 15 Ascending Speed ........................................................................................................................................ 15 Force Applied to Branch ............................................................................................................................ 15 Amount of Rope that Runs Over Branch .................................................................................................... 16 Ease of Getting Multiple People into a Tree .............................................................................................. 16 Ease of Lowering........................................................................................................................................ 16 Canopy Movement ..................................................................................................................................... 16

SRT FULL CIRCLE ELEVATOR RIG .................................................................................................................. 17 Full Circle Ground Anchor ......................................................................................................................... 17 Assembling the Secured Munter Mule Tie-off ........................................................................................... 17

SRT ASCENDING ............................................................................................................................................. 18 Texas Kick.................................................................................................................................................. 18 Prusik Knot Climbing System .................................................................................................................... 20 The Frog System ........................................................................................................................................ 20 The Yo-Yo Method .................................................................................................................................... 21 Footlocking................................................................................................................................................. 22

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SECTION D2: DOUBLED ROPE TECHNIQUES .................................................................................................... 24

Blakes Hitch .............................................................................................................................................. 24 The Motion Lanyard ................................................................................................................................... 25 Moving Around the Canopy ....................................................................................................................... 26 Flip Flopping Down a Tree ........................................................................................................................ 26

SECTION B4: OTHER TREE FUN ............................................................................................................... 27

SECTION C1: BASIC TREE CLIMBING CLASS ...................................................................................... 30 GOALS ............................................................................................................................................................. 30 PRE-CLASS E-MAIL ......................................................................................................................................... 30 CLASS PROGRESSION ...................................................................................................................................... 31

Day 1: Hand-over-hand Climbing on Low Branched Trees ....................................................................... 31 Day 2: Throwing and Ascending on Full Circle (SRT) .............................................................................. 32 Day 3: Climb a Big Tree, Switch to Anchor Lines, Switch to Rappel ....................................................... 35 Day 4/5: Alternate Ascensions / Overnight ................................................................................................ 36

SECTION C2: LIMITED GEAR ALTERNATE BASIC CLASS CURRICULUMS ................................ 38 SRT CLIMBING CURRICULUM ONLY ............................................................................................................... 38 DDRT CLIMBING CURRICULUM ONLY ............................................................................................................ 38

SECTION C3: COSTA RICA TREE CLIMBING COURSE ...................................................................... 38

SECTION C4: RISK MANAGEMENT ......................................................................................................... 39 TREE CLIMBING RISKS AND MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES ................................................................................ 39 POLICIES ......................................................................................................................................................... 39 PROCEDURES ................................................................................................................................................... 39

Single Point Failure .................................................................................................................................... 39 Dealing with Single Point Failure .............................................................................................................. 39

PAPERWORK .................................................................................................................................................... 40 Medical Form ............................................................................................................................................. 40 Waivers ...................................................................................................................................................... 40 Incident Reports ......................................................................................................................................... 40 New Hires ................................................................................................................................................... 40 Basic Skills Training .................................................................................................................................. 41 Advanced Skills Training ........................................................................................................................... 41 Role of the Senior Instructor ...................................................................................................................... 41 First Aid Kits .............................................................................................................................................. 42 Minor Accidents ......................................................................................................................................... 42 Non Life-Threatening Serious Accidents ................................................................................................... 42 Life Threatening Emergencies ................................................................................................................... 42 Emergency Coordinator and Communication ............................................................................................ 42

APPENDIX A: GEAR LISTS ......................................................................................................................... 44 Gear Needed by an Individual Participant .................................................................................................. 44 Total Gear List for a Class of 8 Participants* ............................................................................................ 44

BASIC TREE CLIMBING - SRT CURRICULUM ONLY ......................................................................................... 44 Gear Needed by an Individual Participant .................................................................................................. 44 Total Gear List for a Class of 8 Participants .............................................................................................. 45 Gear Needed by an Individual Participant .................................................................................................. 45 Total Gear List for a Class of 8 Participants .............................................................................................. 45

APPENDIX B: ROPE INFORMATION ........................................................................................................ 46 ROPE CONSTRUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 46

Braid ........................................................................................................................................................... 46 Rope Fibers ................................................................................................................................................ 46 Fibrillated polyolefin .................................................................................................................................. 46 Milking ....................................................................................................................................................... 46

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ROPE CARE ..................................................................................................................................................... 47

Electricity ................................................................................................................................................... 47 Chemicals ................................................................................................................................................... 47

ROPE STRENGTH ............................................................................................................................................. 47 Safe Working Load .................................................................................................................................... 47 Diameter ..................................................................................................................................................... 47 Bend Radius ............................................................................................................................................... 48

APPENDIX C: KNOTS ................................................................................................................................... 49 SLIP KNOT BOWLINE ....................................................................................................................................... 49 PRUSIK ............................................................................................................................................................ 49

APPENDIX D: TREE IDENTIFICATION ................................................................................................... 50 ITHACA ........................................................................................................................................................... 50

Northern Red Oak - Quercus rubra ........................................................................................................... 50 Tulip Poplar Liriodendron tulipifera ....................................................................................................... 50 Sycamore Platanus occidentalis .............................................................................................................. 50 Sugar Maple Acer Saccharum ................................................................................................................. 50 American Beech Fagus grandifolia ........................................................................................................ 50 White Ash - Fraxinus americana ............................................................................................................... 50

COSTA RICA .................................................................................................................................................... 50 Fruta Dorada Virola koschnyi .................................................................................................................. 50 Ceiba Ceiba pentandra ............................................................................................................................ 50 Guacimo Colorado Guazuma ulmifolia .................................................................................................... 50 Guapinol Hymenaea courbaril ................................................................................................................ 50 Guanacaste - Enterolobium cyclocarpum ................................................................................................... 51 Higureon Ficus genus .............................................................................................................................. 51 Jabillio - Hura crepitans ............................................................................................................................. 51

APPENDIX E: TREE BIOLOGY .................................................................................................................. 52

APPENDIX F: TREE CLIMBING WAIVER ............................................................................................... 53

RECOMMENDED BOOKS ............................................................................................................................ 55

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Section A1: Introduction to Tree Climbing

Cornell Outdoor Education Mission Statement

Cornell Outdoor Education develops teamwork, leadership, and growth through outdoor experience. We do so by:

Teaching outdoor skills and judgment for lifelong recreation and fitness.

Promoting environmental responsibility through personal connections to the natural world.

Empowering individuals and groups to move beyond self-imposed limitations.

Igniting a passion for experiential learning.

Enhancing initiative, self-reliance, and compassion for others.

Recreational Tree Climbing at COE Founded in 1972, Cornell Outdoor Education is one of the largest college-based outdoor programs in the

country, providing over 130 physical education courses in a wide range of disciplines, freshman wilderness orientation trips, and teamwork training on our ropes course - approximately 30,000 program days annually. However, in COEs climbing program, the 22 courses we offered on our indoor climbing wall made us feel like we should more appropriately be called CIE. We found it hard to advance our environmental stewardship mission while climbing on plastic holds next to the aerobics classes. And although good rock climbing is abundant in New York, it is locally endangered; we have to drive three and a half hours to get to a good teaching venue. This was a major reason the administration was amenable when David Katz first started advocating for a technical tree climbing class.

Programmatically, the prospects seemed good. Climbable trees are much more commonly available than climbable rocks in our area. Tree climbing is less weather dependent. Compared with the congested climbing scene at the Gunks, a placid tree climb more directly supports our environmental mission.

Unlike rock climbing, tree climbing has two direct industry outlets. Canopy research, a rapidly growing field in science, requires trained climbers to conduct research in forest canopy. Arborists are in increasing demand as our native forests are injured by imported insects and disease.

Although the team of instructors we put together for our first class had significant rope experience, we had a lot work to do before we could run a reasonable program. In particular we had the following questions to answer:

Curriculum: Of the vast number of tree climbing techniques, which ones would be appropriate for a college level recreational tree climbing program? Risk Management: Can we find procedures and policies that can safely accommodate groups of 8 to 10 students? Gear: Can we create a tree climbing program using mainly rock climbing gear? What elements of tree climbing are best taught with tree specific gear? What is the cost of that investment? Impact: Can we offer climbing classes repeatedly in the same trees without damaging them?

SECTION A

THE TREE CLIMBING PROGRAM

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We were highly motivated to add more outdoor opportunities to our climbing program, but our equipment was

limited to items we could cobble together from caving and rock climbing. If we could rely mainly on our rock gear the capital investment for our new tree program would be small. If we found good solutions to these issues, many other college programs could do the same.

With our best guesses at answers to these questions, COE ran its first tree climbing course. It filled it to capacity within the first day of PE registration. The first class was a huge endeavor, planning class progressions, developing institutionally appropriate tree climbing methods, and finding and preparing trees for students. By the end of the course the instructor team had spent about 60 hours outside of class just preparing for the course. Thats quite a lot of work when you realize that the full course length was only 30 hours. In those days we discovered some of our answers to the above questions were great and some not so great. But in the end, it was worth it. That semester saw huge advances in our rigging and teaching strategies. We now have a compendium of procedures and policies that are (relatively) safe and effective and a good idea in what order to present these skills.

Even so, there was some initial skepticism. Staff members said, Is anyone really going to want to do this? What we know now is that for some reason or other, people love being in trees. We have never offered a class which did not fill.

Purpose of this Manual This manual was primarily written to serve as a guide to new tree climbing instructors. For you this mean less

preparation time, better teaching, and less mucking about with dangerous things that dont work. Prior to teaching the first course, Dave and Keith would frequently find themselves sitting on branches thinking something like, Wow, I really hope I dont fall to the left, because the ground sure is far away. Please God, if I fall, let me fall to the right of this branch. Fortunately, we all survived our tree climbing childhood and can pass on our advice in this manual.

To date, weve taught many local and international tree climbing classes, all with excellent reviews and no climbing-related injuries. We think our methods are good enough to write down, but were always looking for ways to make our classes better and teaching styles more efficient. Climbing on your own is the best way to try out new techniques and find better tricks to get things done in the canopy. When you discover that new technique, share it with everyone and help us all improve.

This manual provides an overview of many aspects of COEs current tree climbing courses. Theres information on logistics, teaching, core curriculum guidelines, class progressions, risk management policies, suggested activities and some idea of what skills are required to teach each climbing course.

Section A2: Course Philosophy Almost all of our students come to the first class with no knowledge of rope systems. For this reason, our

classes begin with the basics. Our students are not likely to become experts in the time we have them for a local class or even in the ten days of the Costa Rica Tree Climbing class. In addition to basic skills, we also hope to teach some hazard assessment and judgment - keeping in mind the possibility that after the class is over our students might actually go out and try to do this on their own.

In their present states, our courses should be viewed as comparable to a Basic Rock Climbing class in scope. These courses both provide only a fraction of the skills required to lead a trip. They do, however, give the students the skills needed to participate in these activities with a minimal amount of supervision from a trip leader.

Many peoples perceptions of tree climbers involve men wielding a chainsaws while swinging from a rope. Students should understand that our course is in no way meant to teach them about tree trimming and this for two reasons: Firstly, COE strictly adheres to Leave No Trace policies. With the exception of our platform trees, we try to impact our climbing trees as little as possible. Secondly, and more importantly, COE doesnt have the proper gear required to teach tree removal, nor are our instructors qualified to teach it.

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Section B1: Tree Selection and Rope Placement Guidelines

Where to Look for Trees When thinking of where you may find some good trees to climb, two types of areas generally come to mind:

fields and forests. Whether you are looking for tall trees or broad trees will dictate where you should start your search. When a seedling sprouts in the forest, it will start growing into a tree as fast as it can, hoping to reach the

sunlight as fast as possible. For this reason, you will typically find tall trees with nearly vertical branches in forests. Moving around in these trees usually means going straight up. Unfortunately, you will rarely get a chance to look out over the canopy in a forest, as most forest trees will grow to the same height as those around it. Every once in a while you stumble across an emergent tree that spreads its canopy well above its surroundings. This emergent growth strategy is common place in the tropics The view from an emergents canopy is nothing less than stunning.

Fields are another place to find great trees to climb. Often you can find trees on farms that were originally used to mark property lines or to provide shade for livestock. These trees were lucky enough to grow without competition for sunlight and usually have wide, spreading canopies with nearly horizontal branches. Pasture trees can provide endless hours of entertainment through limb walking and other lateral canopy movement.

Naturally spreading trees can also be found on flood plains. Flood plains, such as those found on the inside of river bends, provide moist and rich soils for trees to grow quickly. However, frequent flooding can remove the existing understory and leave behind large trees with plenty of room to spread their canopies.

Tree on right (field) has spreading branches, due to less light competition. The trees on the left (forest) have light competition from other trees and therefore grow up higher with less spread in their canopies.

SECTION B

Recreational Tree Climbing Skills

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How to Choose a Tree

Aside from finding a tree of that will permit the desired type of climbing, care must be taken to ensure that a tree is safe to climb.

Location

Arborists removing trees from a clients property are often required to work around phone and electrical wires. Recreational tree climbers are under no such obligation! We avoid any tree within throwing distance of utility wires. Species Considerations

Unless youre lucky enough to live near some giant redwoods or sequoias, throwing your rope over the sappy branch of a conifer probably isnt worth the effort. In our area the largest branches of such trees are brittle and not stout enough to hold your weight. Sticky tree sap is also incredibly hard to remove from a climbing rope without using nasty chemicals or hot water, both of which will reduce the lifespan of your rope. Eastern Hemlocks tend to be more pleasant to climb that White Pine, if you are still curious. There is a lot less sap, and the cute little cones make fun pictures.

Some of our favorite species to climb are Northern Red Oaks and American Beech. With its wide branches you are ensured a good place to hang around. Strong, heavy wood makes for safe climbing. Sugar Maples tend to have more v-shaped branching, which makes standing around a little tiring, but the wood is strong and in the fall the colors are great. We have a nice local stand of Tulip Poplar in Trumansburg. They are huge and really fun to climb. However, Tulip is a fast-growing species are therefore the branches are weak and generally only large crotches are to be trusted. Really large sycamores grow near the lake around Ithaca, and have fun canopies in which to swing around. Be gentle with these trees. Sycamores have very thin outer bark and the tree is easily damaged with repeated roped climbing. Ash trees are fun to climb, but also have v-shaped crotches and the branches also tend to be relatively weak.

Judging Tree Health

For obvious reasons you dont want the limb your rope is over to break. You need to make sure the tree you are climbing is healthy and will support a lot of weight. We have listed a few aspects of tree health below. Make sure you look at the big and small picture. You want to take it all in.

Look at the ground around the tree. Is the soil newly raised or cracked? The tree might be getting ready to fall over. Are there lots of branches on the ground, which may suggest dead branches in the tree? Take a look up at the canopy. Can you see many dead, leafless branches? Leafless tips of branches may indicate that the tree is unhealthy. Leaves changing color and falling prematurely is another bad sign. Finally, take a look at the trunk of the tree. Does it have wounds or fungus on it? The presence of any of these signs means you should probably look for another tree to climb.

In general your tree should:

be alive. This is easy to tell in spring, summer or fall, but harder in winter. not have large dead sections of wood in the canopy that could fall on you. not have poison ivy or other nasty things on the tree (snakes, spikes, ants, bees, wasps nests). not have a huge pile of dead branches near the base of the tree. not have raised of cracked soil around the roots. root fungus. This can be tricky, but big mushrooms on the base are a tell-tale sign. not be leaning like the tower of Pisa. not have a scar or cavity in the trunk. Think Greek columns not Swiss cheese. have strong unions between the main stems

It is important to note that most of the time the first ascent tends to be the most dangerous part of the climbing

process. This is especially true in the tropics where getting the rope where you want it in the canopy can be a very difficult process. It is always the best to isolate a safe crotch from the ground, even if it means not climbing that day, week or month. Climbing on weak branches is extremely dangerous.

Another hazard for the subsequent climbers is the risk of the falling branches. If the first climber reaches the canopy and sees hazard branches, these branches need to be removed before the following climbers can continue. Notify your ground people and tell them to go to a safe place, and remove the hazard branches if you are qualified to do so.

Section B2: Getting the Rope into a Tree

How to Choose a Branch for Your Rope Once youve found your ideal tree, its time to figure out which branch you want to put your climbing rope

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over. There are two main aspects of a rope placement to consider: security and convenience.

Judging Crotch Security

It is close to impossible to estimate the actual strength of a single crotch in a tree, however it is generally assumed the a safe crotch will hold more than 5000lbs. Wood strength, tree health, season, leverage and branch diameter are all important factors in estimating what the branch will hold. While working as an arborist David has watched incredible loads placed on single crotches of hardwood trees. That said, David has also accidentally snapped canopy-level branches off redwood trees from 200 feet from the ground merely by stepping on them. Caution is recommended.

Any branch you chose to support you should be capable of holding well over the highest forces that you can create. We use the Rule of Thigh: All branches used for life support should be larger than your thigh. If you need a tape measure to see if a branch passes the test, its too small. For the first ascent you want to make sure that the rope is as close to the main trunk as possible. Bouncing around on a rope placed 12 feet out on a limb can create dangerously high bending forces near the trunk. Once you are in the tree and can inspect the crotches more closely, you may chose to place an ascending line farther from the trunk to minimize bark scaling by subsequent climbers. Additionally, the crotch that joins your branch and tree should be a healthy and strong one. The angle that the branch makes with the trunk is not as important as judging if the limb is strongly joined to the tree. One way you can judge this is to look at the stem bark ridge. Between a branch and the trunk of the tree, or between co-dominant stems (what we sometimes call a main split or first large crotch) there is an area where the bark of the branch connects with the bark of the tree. In a crotch with a strong union there will be a ridge of bark that sticks up where the two meet. If the spot where the bark joins turns down, including bark inside the union, the union will be weak. In the northeast soggy wet crotches with other seedlings sprouting in them are also suspect.

It is even harder to estimate the strength of a crotch that your rope is over if you cannot see the crotch from the ground. Our advice is to pull your throw line back down and find a new crotch or tree. Remember, if the limb you are ascending on brakes, the consequences for you will be serious. Twice Mark has ascended on branches he couldnt see. The first time it turned out to be a soggy dead limb about the circumference of his arm. The second time he emerged from the understory to see that the rope did not run over a branch at all. Rather, it ran through a single carabiner attached to a branch by a lone crusty sling draped in lichens and damp earthy green rain forest schmutz. It was a rig Dave had left in the jungle a couple years ago and had forgotten about! If for some reason you find yourself doubting the strength of a crotch you are about to climb on, listen to your intuition and find another place to put the rope. If for some reason you are compelled to climb using that crotch you can gain a measure of confidence in it by tying off one end of the rope and bouncing around on the other, preferably with your co-instructor bouncing along with you. This system stresses the trees and therefore should only be used in a research environment and never in fragile forests. Crotch Convenience

The crotch that you aim for should be high in the tree. Spending extra time on the ground to select a convenient crotch is usually more time efficient than settling for the first crotch you hit and repositioning the rope once you get into the tree. Placing your rope high in the canopy allows access to most of the tree without repositioning the rope. Sometimes you will have to use a branch low in the tree, either because your rope isnt long enough to make it high into the canopy or because you dont have the means to get a rope any higher. In this case, using the lowest branch of the tree should be avoided at all costs. Because there arent any limbs below it to stand on, using the lowest crotch in a tree generally involves hanging in your harness for a long time while you try to get the rope over the next highest crotch. If at all possible, make sure youll have a branch to stand on once you get into the tree.

Getting you rope into the tree Coil Throw

The simplest method to get your rope into a tree is by throwing a tightly wound coil of rope over a crotch. If you do not tie your coil with a knot or hitch, the rope will unravel after going over the crotch. Although the rope must be recoiled for every attempt, using this type of coil will prevent the rope from getting knotted or snagged in the tree. A good coil should have an amount of rope in it about equal to the distance the target crotch is from you. Start the coil using the common technique of wrapping the rope around your hand and elbow, or bring the rope together in a series of small bunches. (If you do not allow the rope to rotate, the bunches will naturally form little figure eights.) Make the coil tight by wrapping the rope horizontally, gathering the bunch of coils together. To finish the coil, pass a bight of rope through the coils for use as a hand hold. The bight through the coils is not tied off in any way. When the coil is tossed, the bight will slide back out and the bunches will unravel.

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Throw Lines & Throw Weights

For any crotch higher than about 20 feet, youll need to use a throw bag and throw line. The throw bag (also called a throw weight) is generally a vinyl pouch filled with lead shot, featuring a small metal ring onto which the light and slippery throw line is attached.

Throw bags commonly range in weight from 8oz to 20oz. The weight used for a given application is affected by tree height, bark properties, throwing ability, and the type of throw line used. A lighter bag can be thrown higher, but is less likely to glide back down. A very heavy bag might always return, but you might not be able to launch it over the highest trees. COE currently uses 14oz weights.

There are three primary models of throw lines: Zing-It, Fling-It, and Slick Line. Zing-It and Fling-It are practically equivalent. Both are sold in 1.75mm and 2.2mm diameters and are made of essentially the same material. (Technically, Zing-It is made of Dyneema and Fling-It is made of Spectra, both of which are high performance polyethylene). Zing-It and Fling-It are incredibly strong, with breaking strengths between 400 and 600 pounds, depending on diameter. Slick Line is an inexpensive alternative to Spectra throw lines. Made of 1/8 braided polyethylene, Slick Line is only about half the price (and strength) of Zing-It. COE currently uses 180 foot lengths of 2.2mm Zing-it line.

There are a lot of types of small diameter nylon cord available that could be used as a throw line, but we dont recommend using them. Nylon fibers create much more friction than Spectra fibers do when running over bark- often enough to prevent your throw weight from returning to the ground. Accessory cord and parachute cord also have relatively loose weaves compared to the tight braids of throw lines. However, nylon cord does have its use in tree climbing. At a fraction of the cost of throw lines, parachute cord can be bought in bulk to leave in trees after they have been climbed. This allows you to easily gain access to your favorite trees without having to throw for the good crotch again. The practice of pre-rigging trees saves a lot of time while running a course, or returning to a favorite tree for a recreational climb.

Whichever throw line you choose, take care to store it properly to prevent kinks and knots. Throw lines should always be flaked in some type of stuff sack or bucket. If you put your throw line on the ground it will become tangled in the undergrowth and debris. Also, dont try to coil your throw line. (Or if you are one of those experiential learners, coil it once. After you spend an hour trying to untangle it, youll never do it again.) Storing your line in a bucket will ensure that it is always ready for use and will pay out (for the most part) without tangling. There are many throw line bags or mugs commercially available for neatly storing a throwing kit on your harness. Remember to secure the other end of the throw line to your bucket. We tie the one end through a hole in the bottom of our line buckets. Securing the end of the line helps prevent knots from forming, and also makes sure that the line wont get away from you with a very long toss.

Hand Tossing Throw Weights

Hand tossing throw weights into trees is the most common way to gain access to the canopy. Start by attaching your line to the weights ring with a secure knot that will be easy to remove. A bowline works well for this purpose. A knotted loop large enough to fit over the weight can also be attached to the ring using a girth hitch. Any knot can be used to create this loop (overhand, figure 8, bowline), as it will not have to be untied.

Now pass a bight of throw line through the ring. This allows you to hold onto the bight with one hand, and the standing end with the other hand. If desired, you can pass another bight back through the ring to provide a finger loop for each hand. Adjust your grip on the line to allow the weight to be suspended equally by both hands and to hang at shin level.

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With your back to the crotch youre aiming for, tilt your head straight back until you can see your target. If

looking back that far hurts your neck, your probably too far from the tree. Initially, it can help to have someone tell you if your shoulders are lined up with the tree. With your arms extended, swiftly swing the weight from between your legs, up and backwards over your head. Release the line with both hands at once so the weight travels in the desired direction. Once you get good at this, try facing the target crotch with the throw line bucket in front of you. Students generally find this harder, but the best throwers in the world toss this way.

Often you will miss your target on the first try, but still get the weight over an undesirable branch. Rather than pulling it back over the branch, its better to lower the weight and untie it from the throw line. Retrieving a throw line can go from effortless to impossible if the throw bag wraps around a branch or gets jammed in a crotch. The saying an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, certainly applies here.

In a tree with highly textured bark or when using a nylon throw line, weights can get suspended in the canopy solely by the friction of the line on the bark. In these situations you will have to coax the weight back to you. You might even have to promise to take it to dinner and buy it flowers. Retrieving the weight requires plucking the throw line like a bowstring. The goal of plucking is to momentarily give the line enough tension to make the bag bounce up, then immediately release all tension so the bag has as little resistance as possible on the downward portion of its bounce.

It is a skill that requires some practice to develop. If you pluck too softly, the bag doesnt move at all. If you pluck too hard or dont release all the tension afterwards, youll usually see the weight move up rather than down. In tricky situations, downward progress of the weight can be as little as an inch at a time, if at all. Using Zing-It or Fling-It will eliminate the need to pluck the line in all but the most challenging of trees.

If you cannot coax the bag down by bowstringing try again.

And again. Then give your co-instructor a try at it. Once everyone and their dog has had a crack at it, you might end up having to pull the throw bag back over the limb. Be cautious and go slowly. If you pull the bag back to fast it might flip around the branch from which it is suspended. (Its a conservation of momentum thing. Think of a pendulum whose string is getting pulled. As the pendulum gets shorter the swinging get pretty wild.) If the bag gets caught up in the canopy you can put a little extra tension on the line by adding a carabiner with which to pull. (Try tying a munter hitch in the throw line a knot will just get impossibly tight around the carabiner.) As you become more frustrated and yank ever harder on the throw line, watch out that the bag doesnt suddenly come loose and fly out of the tree. Guess what direction it will be headed? Correct! Right at you! Almost a pound of lead going that fast hurts when it smacks into your little toe. (Can you hear the voice of experience?) If you must pull hard, you can gain a measure of safety by redirecting your pull around the trunk of an adjacent tree. But remember, the throw line is relatively expensive - you dont want to break it. Also, dont go crazy pulling hard on an irretrievably stuck throw bag; Keith still carries the scar on his hand from the recoil of a broken line.

Big Shot Line Launcher

If you have your eye on a really tall tree or a tree that requires accurate line placement, the Big Shot is your solution. Essentially a

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sling shot atop an 8 foot pruning pole, the Big Shot will easily and accurately send a throw bag over 100 feet high. Even for smaller trees the Bigshot offers a distinct advantage. It tosses the bag with a very flat trajectory compared to what you can generally achieve by hand tossing. This is particularly good when the tree is congested with branches. You can blast the throw bag through the brush and over the perfect crotch.

The Big Shot can be used with the same throw weights and throw lines used for hand tossing, although the bullet shaped throw bags fit better into the Bigshot pouch. While a version is available that collapses into 4 foot sections, the Big Shot is still bulky and awkward to carry- especially for those trees buried deep in the forest. We generally reserve the big shot for times when it is required or when time is limited. In Costa Rica, weve avoided carrying the pruning poles, and harvested some local bamboo poles and tied the launching head to the bamboo poles.

The Bigshot is a great big time saver, but it can also give you a great big injury. When launching, always wear eye protection and a helmet. The rubber slings break after a while (were on our third in as many years), and when they do they could potentially recoil in you face. The throw bag also may recoil if the throw line gets tangled. Place the throw bag in the Bigshot pouch so that the center of gravity of the bag is in the center of the pouch. It is essential to have your throw line stacked in an open bucket or bag made for this purpose. Throw line stacked on the ground will invariably pick up sticks, twigs and leaves. The bucket should be placed in front of the Bigshot to prevent you from getting tangled in the rapidly moving line.

Sling Shots and Bows

Many people have come up with methods to set lines using hunting bows or wrist braced sling shots. Due to the lack of a commercially available product, the best of these inventions have most likely not proven to be reliable or user friendly enough to market. Sling shots and bows work optimally in conjunction

with lightweight fishing line on an open face real, as the weight of traditional throw line compared to the weight of the projectile severely affects range and accuracy. New Tribe, a company dedicated mainly to outfitting recreational tree climbers, sells blunt tip arrows and a reel mount for compound bows so you can experiment with your own systems.

Before pulling your main climbing rope up, you first need to pull up a heavier cord as the fishing line will not be strong enough to pull the rope over a branch. Hand tossing and the Bigshot are sufficient for all current COE course offerings.

Repositioning the Throw Line When you successfully place your throw line over the desired branch, the line will usually run over

neighboring branches too. Frequently it is necessary to isolate the rope over a single branch or just get the throw line off of a suspect branch. When repositioning throw lines, it can be helpful to have an extra throw line and weight.

Repositioning the throw line can be as simple as pulling the throw bag back over a branch. This method is used often when the throw bag goes over the desired branch and a smaller branch behind it. Isolating the larger branch will avoid damage to the smaller branch and provide a safer climb, as breaking a supporting branch can suddenly introduce a dangerous amount of slack into the system. Branches can easily be deselected from either end of the line by attaching the throw weight to the appropriate side of the throw line.

Sometimes when you pull a weight back over branch it will get caught in a crotch. If the bag is no longer hanging, you probably wont be able to get the bag back in either direction. You can avoid this situation by tying a second throw line to the weight. There is often another loop on the throw bag put there for this purpose. With a line on both sides of the bag you can pull in two different directions. If the bag wont go over a limb you can pull the bag back to the ground with the other line, untie it, retrieve the line and try throwing for a different position.

Attaching Your Climbing Line to the Throw Line There are many possible ways to tie your climbing line to you throw line. All of the methods use some sort of

streamlined strategy that allows the lines to be joined without a bulky knot. Most depend on some variant of a half, clove, or friction hitch. We used these methods for years and they work perfectly wellmost of the time. All it takes, however, is that one time when you spend all day throwing for the perfect crotch only to have your friction hitch subsequently stripped off the climbing rope like insulation off a wire and you will curse the hitch methods for all eternity. These days we use a method that is common on ropes courses. We take a hot nail and melt a hole through the rope about one inch from the end. We then tie a short length of parachute cord through the hole and shrink wrap or duct tape the whole lot of it together with just a bit of the parachute cord sticking out. We have found this type of connection to be very strong and reliable. We no longer hear the depressing sound of our rope and throw line cascading to the

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ground on either side of the tree!

To pull up your climbing line, untie the throw bag and put it in your line bucket. Resist the urge to toss it on the ground! We have lost more gear this way than we care to admit. Tie your throw line to the loop of parachute cord (the haul loop) with a bowline and start pulling.

As the rope goes up it will get heavier and heavier until the climbing line hits the crotch. At this point the friction will probably increase even more as your climbing line drags over the crotch.

Hold on tightly and pull hard. The line will probably come along over the branch. If it doesnt, try walking backwards away from the trunk of the tree to change the angle of pull. This is particularly effective if you can walk uphill. Alternately, you can munter-hitch a carabiner to the throw line to use as a handhold for more tension. Grab the spine of the carabineer and the throw line in one hand and pull hard (not too hard,

remember. Snapped lines will recoil right at you), then slide the munter-hitch up higher up the throw line. As the throw line comes down, stack it carefully back in your throw line bucket.

If the rope is really stuck, try lowering your rope and tying it onto the other side of the throw line. Sometimes the geometry of the crotch creates a barrier in one direction and not the other. Heres a general flow of events for getting your rope into the tree:

1. Identify potential hazards (tree health, power lines, etc) 2. Pick a good crotch, high enough to give access to tree,

branches bigger than ones thigh. 3. Shoot your throw line over a desired crotch. 4. Untie your weight 5. Tie the throw line to the haul loop with a bowline. 6. Pull the throw line and simultaneously stuff the throw line back in the bucket.

Section B3: In-Tree Anchoring Options Once you have a throw line in the tree its time to consider your options for anchoring the line and eventually

anchoring your students in the tree. Anchoring is a very well developed science in the rock climbing world. There are complex issues of equalization, redundancy, angles and forces and so on. Tree climbing has some of these concerns in common, but there are three significant differences. First, the points we attach ourselves to the tree are generally very strong and reliable. There are plenty of opportunities to select an idea point, and no necessity to make the best of a non-ideal placement. Second, because we are not falling dynamically on our anchor points, the expected forces are lower. And lastly, the points to which we attach ourselves are smooth, round and relatively soft. It is very unlikely that a sling will abrade through as can happen on a sharp rock in a cliff setting. For this reason, basket hitches, which you almost never see in the rock climbing world, are perfectly acceptable in the tree climbing world.

However, this does mean that single point failure is a more common consideration. Before you get too worried, realize that single point failure occurs commonly in all climbing settings. You rock climb with one rope, one carabiner linking your one belay device to your one harness. In tree climbing you are also probably climbing on one crotch or one sling around that crotch. Two ways we deal with the serious consequences of single point failure are overbuilding the anchors and establishing protocols to double check the security of key points. If we over build our anchors, we are less likely to ever approach the breaking strength of the attachment. If we double check the entire climbing system every time anyone makes a transition, we are likely to catch errors before they become accidents.

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Friction Savers COE uses three anchoring systems for the tops of trees. The first, called a

friction saver is commonly used in the tree care industry to prevent damage to the trees cambium and to your ropes. It consists of durable doubled and stitched nylon webbing with aluminum and steel rings. Both type of ring are sufficiently strong. Aluminum wears more rapidly, but dissipates heat more efficiently, which is important when lowering on the friction saver with a high load, as in the case of a rescue with two people on the main ascension line. Friction Savers can also be wrapped around a stem for use as a false crotch where no natural crotch exists over which to run a line. We use Buckingham friction savers in the 48 and 72 inch lengths. (You will need a friction saver that is longer around than the limb to which you are anchoring.) Interestingly, though it seems impossible, especially to rock climbers who dont think in these terms, you can install the friction saver in a tree entirely from the ground with nothing but a throw bag and weight.

Wrap-Three-Pull-Two The second type of attachment we sometimes use is

the wrap-three-pull-two (W3P2) webbing anchor. As the name suggests, we take a long piece of 1 inch tubular nylon webbing, wrap it three times around the crotch and tie it with a water knot. (Remember that a water knot should have at least 3 inch tails.) We then pull out two of the wraps, tightening the third against the crotch, and add two locking carabiners with their gates opposite and opposed. One could also use three non-locking carabiners opposite and opposed to each other, but there are so few times we use a non-locking carabiner, it just makes sense to leave them home and use the locking ones.

We use W3P2 for a rope anchor anywhere there is a chance our pre-rigged trees will be raided and the gear stolen. Two carabiners and a long sling are a lot cheaper than a manufactured friction saver!

Although this method is not redundant, the likelihood of the sling severing while on a round limb is small. The strength of the rig is roughly four times the static breaking strength of the webbing. If the water knot is tied to be inside the third loop, we estimate the strength to be upwards of 5,000 lbs.

Running Figure-Eight Anchor lines Lastly, we frequently run into the need for a

system to anchor a bunch of participants in the tree temporarily, as they transfer between climbing and rappelling, for example, or sit around on the deck of our platform tree. If your students dont need to move very far, you can employ a running figure eight in the middle of a 40 foot chunk of climbing line. The running eight is installed in a high crotch and the two lengths that extend below are available to students to transfer their ascenders to when they reach the tree top. For additional piece of mind, we tie a figure eight on a bight and clip it back to the participants harness while they are on these lines.

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Section B4: Ascending Systems

Once you have your rope in the tree you have a multitude of options for climbing it. The options can be broadly grouped into two strategies, Single Rope Technique (SRT) and Doubled Rope Technique (DdRT). At a basic level, single rope technique is comparable to climbing up a single rope as high school kids do in gym class. Imagine a draped rope with both ends of the ground and the middle in the tree. Tie one side of the rope to the ground and climb up the other side.

Doubled rope technique is comparable to hauling yourself up a rope using a 2:1 pulley system. Imagine again a draped rope in a tree. Tie one side of the rope to you and pull down on the other side. Climbing hardware, friction knots, and accessories are added in real SRT and DdRT systems to provide certain levels of safety.

SRT versus DdRT So which technique is better? SRT and DdRT both have their advantages and disadvantages, and each has its

shining moments. Almost every tree climbing school in the country teaches DdRT. However, we start with single rope technique. To understand why this is, we need to know more about both techniques.

Minimum Gear Required DdRT uses significantly less gear.

However, for a university program with a rock climbing program, your initial gear expense might not be as large if you chose to use SRT. SRT utilizes gear already present in any rock climbers cache: a rope, slings, carabiners and ascenders (or prusiks). While a static rope is preferred, a dynamic rope will also get the job done. At a minimum, DdRT requires an arborist rope to utilize rope-on-rope friction hitches. However, once you invest in an arborist rope, most DdRT systems only require one additional steel D-link. All arborist ropes will work with prusiks, and many are specifically designed to withstand the abuse of toothed ascenders - making them compatible with SRT techniques.

Inherent Mechanical Advantage SRT doesnt provide any mechanical

advantage for upward movement, while DdRT provides a nominal 2:1 advantage. However, this does not mean that DdRT is always easier. Many people have some difficulty getting the idea of the hip thrusting and foot-locking techniques often used in DdRT, although adding a foot loop makes this method trivial. SRT techniques are generally more strenuous, especially for overweight or top heavy people. However, of the many SRT climbing methods, some are easier than others. We have found that using the Frog Style ascending method anyone can handle SRT. Ascending Speed

Because of mechanical advantage, DdRT is generally slower than SRT. But just as people find one method easier than the other, ascension speed will depend on technique and strength. Force Applied to Branch

A simple analysis of the physics of each system will show that SRT nominally applies twice the climbers weight to the branch, while DdRT doesnt provide any force multiplication. Keith says, If I ever trusted my life to a

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branch small enough to require DdRT, youd find someone right next to me holding a gun to my head forcing me to do so. The difference in branch loading is interesting to know, but you should never come close to using a branch small enough for it to matter. Amount of Rope that Runs Over Branch

In SRT, the only rope movement over the supporting branch is caused by rope stretch, which is less than a foot or two with static rope. In DdRT, the rope moves with you. If you climb 50 feet, the rope runs 50 feet. In this way there is much more potential for DdRT to damage the tree. This is a especially concern for the institutional setting as we tend to operate in the same trees over and over again. To reduce damage to the tree, any rope that will abrade the tree should be used in conjunction with a false crotch or cambium saving type of device. Ease of Getting Multiple People into a Tree An SRT system is like an escalator. As soon as one person is up a little ways, another may get on. A DdRT system is then more like an elevator with a one person capacity. Once someone gets off the DdRT at the top, like an elevator the rope must be sent down to the ground floor to pick up another person. For this reason, getting multiple people into a canopy via DdRT is impractical unless each person has his own rope and crotch. With ten students this starts to spread the class out of a large area, a situation whose safety is more difficult to manage. Ease of Lowering There are a number of circumstances where you might want to be able to get your student back down to the ground in a hurry. A student can get scared, exhausted, or their equipment may jam or fail. If a student is knocked silly by falling gear or water bottle, it is imperative that we be able to put them on the ground immediately. We have had more than one instance of insect attacks while ascending in tropical trees.

Lowering yourself on a DdRT system is trivial. Lowering someone else on their doubled rope system requires that you get within reach of him or her in order to tend to his Blakes Hitch. This can take time. In the SRT system a student lowering themselves is a complicated process. Generally it involves a multi-step changeover to rappel, definitely not something that a new student will master in a basic class, or will be able to perform while exhausted, scared, or while being stung by 100 bees. On the face of it, lowering someone else on their SRT system also seems complicated and impractical. However, we use a SRT rope configuration called the Full Circle which allows an instructor to put a student on the ground in seconds. In a basic class where students have only basic skills, this rig is essential for safety. Canopy Movement Doubled rope technique is the best method for canopy movement, hands down. The ease of lateral movement provided by using a Blakes Hitch is vastly superior to the clunky methods required when using ascenders and belay devices.

Heres how the SRT/DdRT comparison stacks up in our circumstances:

Attribute Doubled Rope Technique Single Rope Technique Gear Specialized for tree Available from Rock How strenuous? Easiest with foot power assist Manageable with Frog System Speed Slower Faster Tree Impact Potentially High Probably Low Multiple people? Hard to Manage Easier to Manage Lowering an injured person? Slower Faster Lateral Movement in Tree Superb Terrible

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For an organization like ours, using rock climbing gear reduced our initial investment. Being able to move a

lot of people up into a tree in a small amount of time, using the same trees again and again with minimal impact, and being able to get an injured or scared climber back to the ground very rapidly all argued strongly for the use of Single Rope Technique.

After running two or three courses this way we realized that although people liked to be able to get into a big tree, the very next thing they wanted to do was to move around. Doubled Rope Technique is vastly superior for this, so in the end we compromised. To get into trees we teach SRT. Once people are familiar with harnesses, ropes, knots, anchors and height, we introduce Doubled Rope Technique.

The bottom line: If you have rock gear, the quickest and cheapest way to start tree climbing is SRT. If you do not have rock gear, you might consider starting from scratch with DdRT, especially if you have some durable trees or want to invest in some friction savers. If you want to provide a good overview of all the techniques used in recreational tree climbing, you will probably end up teaching aspects of both.

SRT Full Circle Elevator Rig

The Full Circle Rig is a SRT rope geometry we use for our main ascension line. It is a standard length (60meter) static climbing rope tied in a circle with a Flemish Bend. The loop of rope is tied to a ground anchor with a secured munter mule knot. We place the Flemish bend just above the secured munter mule knot. If a student ascending needs to come back down, we merely untie the mule portion of the secured munter mule and lower the participant on the munter hitch.

The Full Circle gives us several important advantages. First, it is a lowerable system. This has proven valuable on numerous occasions when students became exhausted, scared, had gear failure, or were attacked by insects. Compared to the complicated pick off or cut away type rescues of a hanging climber the advantages are obvious. Its quick, easy, cheap, safe and anyone can do it. The Full Circle rig also eliminates the chance of lowering someone off the end of the rope, as there is no end of the rope off which to be lowered. Finally, it maximizes the height you can safely ascend with a single rope. If we had to retain 1/3 of the length of the rope on the ground for a traditional lowerable single rope rig, we would not be able to reach the tops of the trees in New York with our standard length climbing lines.

Full Circle Ground Anchor

The Full Circle rig requires a ground anchor for the secured munter mule. We wrap a 20 foot length of

webbing around the base of the same or an adjacent tree and tie the ends together with a figure eight on a bight. When the system is weighted the multiple wraps tighten on the base of the tree. Flat webbing helps spread the pressure on the tree cambium. If the tree is very large, we use 40 foot pieces of static climbing rope for the same purpose. (This is solely because we happen to have those lengths available to us from the rock climbing program. We could as easily tie two 20 ft pieces of webbing in the same way.) One often sees girth hitch-like tie-offs to make a ground anchor, because they very effectively grabbing the base of the tree. Although the forces we are likely to encounter are small, we avoid using this system as it needlessly amplifies the force on the anchor line. Also, as students bounce on the ascending line, the motion is occasionally transmitted down the rope to the hitch. If the girth hitch is tied rope on rope is can cause abrasion.

Assembling the Secured Munter Mule Tie-off

For security and redundancys sake, we add two carabiners to the figure eight on a bight on our ground anchor. We then locate the Flemish Bend joining the ends of the rope. We position this just above the ground anchor and tie a munter hitch. The munter hitch functions which ever way the rope runs. When the rope direction changes the hitch inverts through the carabiners. (It is still the same hitch, merely flipped

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over.)

Cinch up the rope so the Flemish bend is close to the ground anchor, then pull upward to flip the munter hitch to the orientation it would have in lowering the climber. (As the system was tightened it would probably suck in some slack and invert anyhow, so its a good idea to set it that way to begin with.)

Tie off the munter hitch with a mule knot. The mule knot is essentially a slip knot tied around the rope. It is this slippery character that makes it useful; one can untie the mule knot merely by grasping the brake side of the rope and pulling. If we used an overhand on a bight, for example, untying it would involve being very careful one had a hold of the correct strand as one unthreaded the other.

The mule knot is also slightly tricky. It is very stable in the correct orientation, and not very stable at all in the incorrect orientation. Be sure you learn which is correct!

For extra security, we finish the tie-off with an overhand backup and clip the end back to the main line with a locking carabiner. Make sure that the lead instructor examines this vital tie off before anyone begins to ascend.

SRT Ascending The crux of all technical tree climbing is

learning to climb the rope safely. There are probably 100 different ways one can do so. On Rope has a nice tabulated side by side comparison of the most popular methods in caving and rock climbing. The basic safety principles all revolve around two ideas: the rope grab and resting. You need a way to grab the rope and you need a safe way to rest. A harness is essential for the resting aspect, but there are a few different methods for creating a rope grab.

Arborists use friction hitches (Blakes, Taughtline, Distel, Schwabisch, etc.) that provide rope-on-rope friction. Mountaineers, big-wall rock climbers and cavers generally use toothed-cam mechanical ascenders. The most basic system simply involves a seat harness, and some loops of accessory cord tied with prusik knots. The fanciest systems employed by cavers who need to climb out of 300m deep pits involve many mechanical ascenders, various pulleys, a chest harness and elastic cords. In our tree climbing courses at COE we rely mainly on the Texas Kick system for SRT. If our participants find this mode challenging, we switch to the Frog System. On our alternate ascensions day we introduce other SRT climbing methods before we switch to DdRT and practice the Blakes Hitch split tail system. Texas Kick The Texas Kick is a simple system and robust rope climbing system, easy to learn, accessible for most students, and easy to transition on and off of. When used with the full circle elevator, it is substantially safer than climbing a mountaineering-style fixed line. The Texas Kick uses:

Three webbing slings (two short, one long) Two ascenders A sit harness

Ascending slings

We join our ascenders to our harnesses with 1 inch wide tubular webbing tied into a loop with a water knot. They are used solely for this purpose. We made all these ascension slings yellow as an easy way for students to identify them. Rotate the sling so the water knot is close to the top of the loop and girth hitch it through a lower hole in the ascender. Girth hitch the other end through the leg loops and waist loop of your harness if using the rock climbing style, or through your tie in point on an arborist style harness. Girth hitching adds strain to the webbing, but being

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stationary in this case the girth hitch doesnt abrade. And, really, it is just too darn convenient not to use for this purpose. These slings should never experience much more than body weight loading, so the additional strain should be inconsequential.

The length of the ascending sling to the upper ascender is important. Too short and the system will be inefficient, limiting the student to short steps (or a short throw, as we call each upward stroke of the ascenders). Too long and the upper ascender will go out of reach. The length of ascension sling to the lower ascender is not as critical. It acts as a backup connection to your harness in case the upper ascender should come off the rope.

We find that 80 inches tied into a loop 36 inches long is a good length for the ascending slings when used in conjunction with a rock climbing style harness. Tall people will be able to use the sling without modifications. Tying an overhand or two in the sling will shorten it up for shorter people. When estimating the appropriate length, remember that when you sit down in your harness, the waist loop with bulge upward a few inches. We find that a good length ascension sling puts the ascender at about chin height while you are standing on the ground and about forehead height when you are hanging on the rope.

Foot Sling The third sling is also a piece of 1 inch tubular webbing. We use 10 foot

lengths that we borrow from the rock climbing program. A more convenient length would be 96 inches. When doubled, the foot slings should measure about 40 inches. The foot sling is girth hitched to the lower ascender. If the participant steps into the sling and holds the girth hitched ascender up, their elbow should be at about a 90 degree bend.

Putting It All together

Before ascending the Full Circle, double-check the ground anchor, the full circle tie-off, harness, water knots, and girth hitches. Try using the ABCs list for reminders of all the components:

ABCDEFGH Safety Check for Ascending A Ascenders: Is the webbing tied correctly together, to your harness, and to your ascenders? B Belay Device: Do you have one with you to get back down? C Carabiners: Do you have at least two locking carabiners to use for anchoring and rappelling? D Doubled Back: Is your harness doubled back? E Eight Knot: Is the figure eight knot joining the ropes tied correctly? F Full Circle: Is the full circle tied off correctly? (secured munter mule) GH Got Helmet: Do you have your helmet on?

To start climbing up the rope attach both ascenders to the

climbing rope. The upper ascender will only link the rope and your harness. The lower ascender joins the rope to your harness and also has a hanging foot loop. Pull as much slack through you ascenders as possible. (It will help for you to do this for a first time ascending student.) Sit down in your harness, and let your upper ascender take your weight. Then slide the lower ascender up as high as is comfortable. Then stand up in the sling attached to the lower ascender. This will release the weight on the top ascender, allowing you to slide it up the rope. As soon as the upper ascender reaches its limit, sit back down. New students tend to linger in the stand up portion of the kick, tiring out their arms prematurely. Repeat the sit-stand process and you will inch your way up the rope. The rhythm is Stand, Shove, Sit.

Sometimes when a climber is close to the ground, the lower ascender wont pull up smoothly on the rope. It is helpful to put tension on the rope until your student is about 20 feet off the ground. After that point, there is enough weight hanging below the lower ascender for it to feed properly. Alternatively you can attach weight (often called a pig) to help hold the rope down.

When you are teaching students at first to climb the rope, coaching is essential. Encourage them to use their

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legs as much as possible. Make sure they get their legs under their butt instead of out in front of them as they stand up. They can put both feet in the slings if they want. Tell them to face the soles of their shoes together; it will be easier to stand and also makes them look like a frog. Double plus.

It is not necessary to tie backup figure eight knots below you as you climb, a practice known as tying in short. Both ascenders are not likely to come off a vertical rope in a dry environment. However, one should never climb above the point where your ascenders connected to the rope. A fall of this type onto ascenders is dangerous. The ascender cam will bite into the rope and rip off the sheath.

Prusik Knot Climbing System If you do not have ascenders, or if you are on a tight budget, you can build the same Texas Kick system with two prusik loops. The upper connection to the rope is tied with a standard length prusik loop and attaches directly to

your harness with a locking carabiner. The lower attachment for your feet is tied with a longer length of accessory cord. When the prusik knot is tied in the open orientation two ends are available. One goes to your harness, the other to your foot.

This system is one of the cheapest ways of climbing a rope. All that is needed is about 25 feet of accessory cord and a couple carabiners. We introduce it to our students on the day we teach alternative ascension method. If the prusik knots become very tight they will be difficult to advance. Pushing on the bridge of the prusik will loosen it enough to continue on.

One should always take precautions against falling onto the prusik. Unlike other friction knot systems, the prusik is not likely to slip on the rope under high load. Rather, the utility cord will snap near the knot and leave you with no connection to the rope.

NOTE: It is fairly common practice for rock climber to ascend with only one prusik joining the harness to the rope. If you are ascending this way, with the second prusik only for your foot and not connected to your harness, make sure to tie backup knots every eight feet on the rope below you. (You can use a clove hitch which you can advance without untying, or you can use two figure eight on a bight knots and switch them out.) The Frog System

If you have a weak or overweight participant who has difficulty with the Texas Kick, we recommend trying the Frog Style climbing scheme. The Frog system, named for the frog like motion of this method, uses both hands and feet

for the upward motion. For people who are top-heavy this system saves a lot of energy because it holds their upper body close to the rope, reducing strain on the abdominal muscles. The Frog system uses:

One handled ascender One non-handled ascender Two or three slings Two carabiners (or a steel link) Chest harness

The ascender without a handle (a Petzl Croll or

Basic) is attached as low as possible to your seat harness. The lower it is attached, the longer the stroke and more efficient the technique will be. The lower ascender is also attached to a chest harness. As you stand up, the chest harness will hold the lower ascender in the correct

orientation and drag it up the rope. To get the tension just right an adjustable chest harness is highly desirable. You can

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rig up a chest harness with webbing, but we recommend a commercial adjustable one intended for this purpose. A non-adjustable home made chest harness will either be too loose while you are hanging on rope, or painfully tight when you are not.

The second ascender is placed on the rope above the chest ascender. It is also attached to the harness by a length of webbing. The length of this webbing is not critical, but should be long enough for you to stretch your arms up to their full length (about 30 inches). If you join your chest ascender and upper ascender with the same link to you harness, you should do so with a steel link. (Aluminum carabiners are susceptible to cross loading when more than two points are joined.) Alternately, you can girth hitch your upper ascender as you do with the Texas Kick. The upper ascender also should have one or two foot loops long enough to reach from your feet to just above the chest ascender. It is essential for this method to have a small amount of tension on the rope below the climber. This will help the rope feed smoothly through the chest ascender. A small weight (it can be anything, really some rope, or a backpack) can be tied to the end of the ascending rope just above the ground. This weight is often referred to as a pig, hence the expression, Every frog needs a pig.

To ascend the rope, install both ascenders. Reach up with both arms and legs and pull/step down. As you go upward the chest ascender should capture the slack. As with a Texas Kick, dont linger at the top of the stroke. Just sit right back down the in the harness. The rhythm is Everything up, everything down. This system is very efficient, but is a little difficult to detach when another climber is on the same rope below. Compared to the Texas kick, which gives the user about 15 inches of flexibility between the rope and the person, the Frog System supplies almost none. If you have a student who is using this system, be careful in how you plan to land them in the tree after they have reached the top. It is a good idea to either wait until the person using the Frog has detached themselves from the elevator before sending up the second student, or send the Frog person up last. The Yo-Yo Method

Every once in a while well introduce the Yo-Yo method, mainly as a novelty, as it is gear intensive and can only be used by one person at a time. You are most likely to use it on your own while rigging a shorter tree for class.

The Yo-Yo system uses:

One Petzl auto locking belay device called a GriGri One handled ascender Two carabineers One micro pulley One 60 inch sling

Attach the GriGri to your climbing line

and to your harness with a carabineer through your tie-in points. This keeps the Grigri as low as possible on the harness, the throw longer, and the efficiency better. Attach your handled ascender above your Grigri. The upper ascender should have a 60 inch foot loop girth hitched through one of the ascender attachment points. We regard the Grigri as a sufficiently reliable connection to the rope, but if you want you can also join the upper ascender to your harness. (Before you object, recall that you are making the same assumption anytime you are belayed by this device!)

To the other attachment point add a carabiner and micro pulley. Redirect the brake strand from the Grigri up through the micro pulley. It might take a moment to arrange all the components so they are properly aligned.

At first glance the Yo-Yo Method seems to have a 2:1 mechanical advantage. However, in practice the 2:1 aspect is only active when capturing slack. The lift is accomplished with pressure on the upper ascender and foot loops, just as in the Frog System. The slack is then captured with the Grigri. Because the Grigri reverses the direction of the ascending rope, it is ergonomically convenient to redirect it back down by a micro pulley on your upper ascender.

To ascend, put one hand on the downstream side of the rope, one hand on the upper ascender, and one foot in

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the foot sling. Raise these three points, and then pull/step down with all three points. The rhythm is the same as the Frog, Everything up, everything down.

A distinct advantage to this system is its reversibility. To retreat, one only has to remove the upper ascender and lower away on the Grigri. (David once escaped a swarm of bees by this very mechanism.) A distinct disadvantage is that as you advance the upper ascender, you need to pick up all the rope hanging below you. This is inconsequential on a short climb, but after 100 feet, it gets laborious.

. Footlocking In SRT or DdRT the simplest way to grab the rope is with your own two feet! Footlocking, as this is called, is a bit of an art-form. Some students require a lot of practice while others pick it up immediately. In essence, you using the friction of rope wrapped around your feet to substitute for a mechanical ascender or friction knot.

Allow the rope to run down the outside of either foot, then scoop the rope up with your other foot and bring it under the first. With the heel of the second foot, press the rope against the top of your first. (Plastic arches on running shoes make this technique almost impossible because the rope slides easily on plastic. Rubber soled boots are better.) This method should give you enough purchase on the rope to stand up without your feet skidding down the rope, and is quick and easy to reset.

Practice this technique by hanging a rope from a tree, and grabbing both strands of the rope as high as you can reach. Pick up your weight off the ground, and use your feet like scissors to grab the weight and transfer your from your hands to your feet. This is called unsecured foot locking. Be careful not to get higher than a few feet off the ground!

A similar method uses a prusik (or two ascenders back to back) to provide a way of resting on the rope. This system, called secured foot-locking is one of the simplest rope climbing systems. It generally wins the fastest rope climbing systems in the tree competitions, however we tend not use it in an institutional setting. You can also employ this method in various other contexts in place of an ascender.

SRT Descending

The main technique we use to go down in SRT mode is rappelling. It is arguably the most dangerous thing we do in tree climbing. Rappelling happens at the end of the day when we are sometimes tired, late, or hurrying to escape a lightning storm. Unlike ascending, we start already high off the ground. For these reasons, we have detailed protocols for getting down.

Rappelling is accomplished with a tube style belay/rappel device. We use this in preference to a figure eight style descender because the descending line cannot invert into a girth hitch if it should happen to rub up against the tree. A bight of rope is pinched into the tube and along with the belay devices keeper loop, clipped to a locking carabiner of the belay loop of

the climbers harness. Because the rappel device is attached this way, the orientation of the brake side is directly

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downward between the climbers legs, not off to the side on the hip as your uncle learned in the Boy Scouts (and as we still see all too often). Once all the safety protocols have been executed (see below), the rappeller leans back against the rope and slowly allows slack to slide through the device.

There are several key elements of safety to consider. First, it is crucial to determine the correct side of the Full Circle Rope to use. Make sure to put the rappel device on the side opposite that tied to the ground anchor. Next, install the rappel device and pull all the stretch out of the rope confirming that the other side of the rope tightens against the ground anchor. If you do not pull out this slack, rope stretch will carry you down a few disconcerting feet before it comes tight. Before you disconnect yourself from your anchor in the tree, slack off on your ascenders and weight the rappel device. If something is rigged incorrectly and comes apart, you are still attached to you anchor line.

Once you have established that you are correctly attached to the rope, there are two remaining issues we need to guard against: First, the rappel might become jammed. Check that all dangling ropes, hair, jewelry, and helmet chin straps are secured away from the rappel device. (If, despite our best efforts to prevent it, the rappel becomes jammed, you can always release the secured munter mule and lower the participant to the ground.) Second, the climber may lose control of their brake hand. To guard against this, call to the ground instructor and request a Firemans Belay. By putting pressure on the downstream side of the rope a groun