Welcome to Strider Trees.
This video is going to be about single rope technique,
how to access the tree and move around a little bit.
It's an excerpt from a beginner sort of climbing trees 101 series
that I'm going to have available on my website here soon stridertrees.com.
And hopefully you'll find it useful if you're just getting into single
rope technique.
Does this look familiar?
This is the same kind of system we're using when the moving rope
with the moving rope set up.
And we are tied on both sides.
Now this isn't enough to have safe up and down movement in the tree
because what happens with this and I'll just demonstrate
if I'm just on the one line instead of this friction it's supporting
half my weight with the moving rope system,
it's supporting the entirety of my weight on a single line.
So if I were to sit in
this really hard and catch me, what happens is this binds really tight.
So if
I were to pull on it, either it doesn't come down
or I come down really fast and it burns up the hitch cord.
So this is where I say a single line system ends up
needing a little bit more gear.
So if this is what you started
with, this is where you're learning and this is what you've got.
Then all you need to add in order to make this a functioning
piece of kit and a functioning on a single line
is this rope wrench now is a few different tethers.
There's a few different systems that involve the rope wrench.
If you know you're going to go this route, I kind of advise.
I really like the notch fusion tether.
That's a good one.
The Re on rounds tether also works beautifully.
And that's this little
piece that goes between the rope wrench and your and your carabiner.
And what it does is it allows it's got some stiffness to it.
So when I push this up the line,
it lifts the rope wrench without interfering with the not
so when I pull down on here, this adds some friction to the whole system.
And now my weight is supported between this half and this is the other half.
So no longer having all my weight just on the hitch, it's kind of split
between these two.
And that makes this function beautifully,
even with just the one line.
So I'll go back to my setup here.
Now, when I'm hanging from this
and I release this now, it's all smooth and controlled again,
just like when I was
on the double line system.
So that's one way to
go, this is kind of your cheapest, most accessible.
It's not actually that much cheaper than buying a piece of hardware,
a piece of actual climb where they caught
some mechanical ascending device.
So I'm going to show you that next here.
I don't use hitch cords.
I climb a lot and
I find as soon as I'm in a pitchy tree, the hitch cords get difficult to use.
And so I tend to go straight to
some hardware because it's just
a little bit cleaner and simpler, easier to get off and on.
You don't have to know how to tie knots.
Once again, I'm just going to show you here the Notch RopeRunner Pro.
There's a number of other devices, and at some point
there will be videos on on all those different devices,
and you can find those on my channel or YouTube channel and.
Other places.
So this guy goes on just like that.
It's pretty straightforward.
three slick pins,
you have to make sure your rope is the correct diameter for it.
Most of your standard climbing arborists ropes
will work with most of the devices.
But it functions essentially
the same as the hitch cord.
This acts like the rope wrench.
This portion right here pinches the rope between the pulley and this plate
and adds a bunch of friction, and I'm able
to control my descent by pulling down.
It's called the bird by pulling down this little bird's beak
and it lets me down.
Just like that.
Pretty straightforward, pretty simple.
It doesn't get bothered too much by SAP.
And it works very consistently and reliably in the tree, easy
to take on, easy to take off.
This is a good way to go.
If you're going to get into more production, climbing,
more commercial climbing,
or you just really love tree climbing and want to go for the best.
It's a great way to go.
Sorry to interrupt, but if you enjoy my content in this channel
and you look at diving deeper into tree work , check out stridertrees.com.
I've got a course for the beginner who's just looking at getting into
the trees for the first time.
And I've also got a series that's more tilted towards folks
who are already doing residential tree work.
It's going to have the safety trainings and the skill trainings
starting at new hire to take someone right off the street,
make them an apprentice,
teach them the more advanced skills all the way to a foreman.
And if that's something you'd be interested in, you can leave your
email address there on the website and I'll let you guys know first thing
when that's available.
Also, you can schedule to have me come out to your job site
and be a contract climber and an instructor.
And combine that time to offer you the best value
to upgrade your skills with your crew on your job.
So you can do that.
You can schedule that on my website as well.
Strider TRANSCOM. Now back to the goods.
So the
canine observer may notice that I've changed harnesses into
what is actually my production climbing harness,
all of these, all the gear, all the equipment I'm using
can still be done from that initial rock climbing harness I was demonstrating.
But there are some big advantages of having a little more accessories.
Having these, they call them lower D rings are really great for using that lanyard.
This is that secondary lanyard that we'll use to position in the tree
and also to switch back and forth from my climb system and to move it around
in the tree while still some remaining tight end, even if I'm not tied to this.
If you'll notice this is actually the same friction
as the same double rope setup that I built for myself
and with the moving rope system. VIDEO So I actually have
a moving rope system on me right now as my lanyard.
And, of course, lots of other hooks for hanging.
I've got my hand saw. None of that stuff is necessary.
I just want you to see this is what I wear on the daily when I'm climbing
and how it interacts with my gear .
Because if you do a lot of tree climbing, it's important
to know that things are going to interact well, OK?
Rope is set.
We've got our base anchor.
Now it's time to get up in the tree.
So the first challenge of getting up in the tree, the access is the ascension.
Now I can actually get up into this tree without any more hardware
than what I have here.
So again, if you're on a super budget and that's what you want to do,
this is how you would do that.
Now I've got this little chest ascender that allows me to clip in right here,
and that means that this will stay at the same point on my chest as I go up.
That's really convenient for foot locking because if I'm going to foot lock,
it makes it so I don't really have to tend my slack.
It'll actually just fall through and my chest device
or my ascending device will come up with me.
And now I can disconnect and work.
Now you may not have a just the ascender.
So the way you deal with that in this situation,
if you're going to foot lock and work your way up,
I literally just as I stand up, I slide my device up with my hand.
And I can work my way right up the tree with that.
No problem.
That's the basic way to get up.
That's the easiest, cheapest, most accessible.
That same method works with the rope wrench that I showed you.
And the hitch cord
and these other devices, you can do the same thing with any of those,
and none of this extra gear is necessary. But.
It can be really helpful.
So if you find you're doing a lot of climbing.
Or, you know, you're going to want to.
Or maybe you've got an older person
with your party and you guys are going to go do a rec climb that maneuver,
I showed you right there has left me even a little bit winded.
And I do this all day, every day.
I made it look, trust me.
I made it look a lot easier than what it ends up actually being.
This little device is called a foot ascender.
This one is made by CT.
Climbing technologies.
It's got a little locking mechanism so that when the rope is in the ascender,
it locks in.
This is my preferred device.
It doesn't kick out easy.
You have to intentionally open it up to get the rope out.
That makes for a very simple, very intuitive way
to add some leg power to what we're doing.
So now, instead of having to foot lock like I was shown before,
I can stand up on my one leg and go straight up,
slide my leg up, stand up,
slap my leg up, stand up,
fight my leg up, stand up.
And when I'm ready to move around or if I want to come down, I just unhook.
The road from my foot
and I can come down. Now.
I think this is somewhere around $100 for that piece.
Little device there.
I almost always add in this third piece of kit,
and this is called the Haas knee ascender.
Getting up and down tall trees with just one leg.
It's kind of a doozy.
It's exhausting.
If I integrate this piece
into the whole system
now here I'm going to show you what I use day in and day out.
I'll clip that to my chest here because I've got it.
Once again, you don't need it.
Makes things easier.
Clip my foot in that one.
Actually, I'll go with the knee first.
Clip the knee ascender into that.
Clip the foot ascender below it
now, all I'm going to do is walk up the line
as you see if I lift my right leg, this bungee pulls the ascender up
and then I can step in the foot loop.
And my right foot
as I get more rope below me.
We'll go up the rope on the other side,
and then I'm essentially just walking up the rope.
Now this is kind of become the most efficient way
to get in and out of a tree on a single line.
It's all being done with my legs.
My hands are just pulling me and keeping me upright,
and my feet are doing all the hard work.
Once I'm up here in place,
I just unclip my feet.
Clipped my knee.
I usually tuck this out of the way here somewhere.
And now I'm free to work.
If I want to adjust my position in the tree.
Or unclip myself, just say,
let's just say I want to work myself around the backside of the tree.
I want to move my rope around the back side of the tree.
What I can do is
use my lanyard to tie in.
I slacked up my system.
I could even take my system off.
Let's say, pass it up and over a branch
and I can clip back in down here.
And now I can work my way on the other side of this branch.
I think maybe I want to
go up.
I want to duck underneath this to access that other side of the tree over there.
So I'll just log that up and over.
Clipped myself back in.
Now I'm double tied
and I can get some weight back in my climb system.
Double check, it seems good.
Take off my lanyard.
And now I can bring some slack down
to use my legs again.
Clip in right here.
sit in, advance the leg, sit in the harness.
Advance the leg, sit in the harness.
I'm going to take that foot off now.
And here I am on the other side of the tree,
still a nice direct line, I can play around over here.
I can work my way out on the branch.
It's pretty simple, pretty straightforward and it works beautifully.