New to the tree house

[Elliott Lifton]

Hi all,

Just want to introduce myself, I am new to the Tree House. I have been climbing for almost a year now and I love it. Every day its turning into more of a passion than just a job and I am eager to learn as much as possible. So far I have been using equipment provided by my employer, which is all pretty old and beat, and I am just now prepared to begin purchasing all my own gear. I guess you could say I am looking for any input on gear...right now I have a fixed ring saddle and heavy steel spurs with the rigid climber pads. I am looking to upgrade to a harness with a floating ring and aluminum spurs. I have done some research towards the Tree Austria 3.1 harness and Climb Right aluminum spurs with the ultra light velcro pads. What do you guys think?

Cheers!

 

[MasterBlaster]

Welcome to the TreeHouse, Elliott! Are you a gearhead, or more of an old school type of climber? I'm of the latter...

 

[Elliott Lifton]

I am not much of gear head right now. I have been taught the old school way and know that you can get anything done that way. Right now I'm belt, spurs, two fliplines and a 150' 1/2" climbing line (which I use the Blakes Hitch on). I would like to start using the french prusik with micro pulley instead. Basically I am looking for more comfortable equipment with one or two gear additions to make life easier and speed things up a bit. What do you think?

 

[Burnham]

Are you located stateside or elsewhere, Elliott? Makes a difference on gear acquisition, to some degree.

Welcome.

 

[Elliott Lifton]

Thanks Burnham! I live on Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada. A lot of big tall conifers and big wide deciduous. Id say 70% of my job is in fir, cedar or spruce. But we also get into maples, poplars, alders, arbutus, oaks... I find myself swinging to adjacent trees quite often.

 

[Burnham]

I know your environment well. I am in NW Oregon, west side of the Cascades .

The spurs you suggest are fine, the pads have an especially good reputation. I preferred Bashlin's, for an aluminum spur, and used rigid pads myself for most of my climbing career. Short of Geckos or better yet CF Geckos, if money is no object, you are headed in the right direction. Some are partial to Buckingham's titanium spurs, which are also a very good choice...my current spur.

 

[MasterBlaster]

What do you think?

This is (w/o the cig, nowadays) me.

 

[Burnham]

Saddle choices these days are spectacular, and it's so hard to know what will be right for each individual's body and climbing style. You could do a whole lot worse than to look at New Tribe's line...the ProGear is a great saddle with a single central tie in. They have a new sliding bridge model that has generated some buzz, but it's not been out there very long, so I haven't heard much on it yet. Hopefully it's better than the Nickosi, their first try at a sliding bridge.

 

[Elliott Lifton]

Yup...that's old school haha. Great pic. Burnham, I know what you mean about harnesses. Kinda hard to know until you try it.

 

[NHlocal]

Welcome to the Tree House Elliott!
Great group of people here, and they're very willing to answer your questions.
Hope you plan to stick around. Ask lots of questions, a whole lot of experience here to draw from.

 

[Burnham]

Sometimes you can find old threads that can help you find things you're interested in by using the search function...and sometimes not . So don't hesitate to ask, lots of very knowlegable folks here.

 

[Elliott Lifton]

Thanks NHlocal! I plan to stick around

 

[MasterBlaster]

 

[NHlocal]

Thanks NHlocal! I plan to stick around

You're welcome Elliott, my names Randy.

 

[Elliott Lifton]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

 

[Burnham]

An example, just happened to see it being explored by a guest.

https://www.masterblasterhome.com/showthread.php?15406-CF-Gecko-s-Worth-it

 

[Elliott Lifton]

I looked them up online to see the cost...it said around $550.00usd...does that sound about right? Also I was planning on getting my equipment from wesspur. Would you guys recommend anywhere else?

 

[Burnham]

That's about right for the CF Geckos.

Wesspur is a great outfit, you won't find a better one to deal with.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Welcome, Elliot.

I'm Sean, in Olympia, WA, a little ways down from you.

Wesspur is really good to deal with.

 

[vharrison]

Welcome to The Treehouse Elliott.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Welcome Elliott, glad that you found the Treehouse. As Burnham mentioned, there is a whole lot of information on equipment that is buried in discussions, I think you can spend a lot of useful time on methods and gear by reading through older and still ongoing threads. You may want to read through at least twice. Some discussions lay dormant, but that doesn't mean that there isn't a lot of useful thoughts in them. Good luck and have fun.

I'm Jay, on the other side of the Pacific.

 

[bonner1040]

WesSpur is a great company, especially for people that live out west. The climbright spurs with the ultralight pads, I have and highly recommend. I have a review of them here:
https://www.masterblasterhome.com/s...ltralight-Spur-Pads&highlight=ultralight+spur

I am not familiar with a tree austria 3.1
http://www.wesspur.com/saddles/tree-austria-3-1.html
But it looks nice!

Oh yeah, Welcome to the Treehouse, my Name is Nick!

 

[rskybiz]

Welcome to the treehouse Elliott.

Joel in FL

 

[MasterBlaster]

I wouldn't get the CF Geckos - the 350 dollar model is just as good. No one notices that 'lil bit of extra weight.

 

[bonner1040]

A friend of mine says he prefers the $350 Geckos over the climb right ultralight pads. My CRs were $275 for everything, pads, irons, gaffs, and straps.