Spiking technique

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tongueo

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hello guys

I am pretty new to the tree pruning industry and i have always had a tough time using my spikes. It maybe due to the lack of use of spikes but i was wondering what is the best technique.


Any pointers would be amazing .

cheers

alex
 
strap em on tight and make yourself lean back a little, welcome. oh and for first timers, the pointy part goes to the inside of your foot:D
 
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  • #8
Thats excellent thanks guys.

No wonder i wasnt going up in the world!
 
Practice coming down first by using a ladder to go up. That way you won't get up there and find yourself stuck. Force yourself to let the flipline take your weight. Try not to hold onto it with too tight a death grip, or your hands will cramp.
 
Seriously a ladder? I think climbing a ladder with spikes on and tranitioning to the tree would be a hell of alot harder than just spiking up, but of course I've never tried it so I could be wrong. If you were that worried about not being able to come down then some kind of a belay would be in order I think. I'd just send someone up a little ways and then make sure they can spike down too. I've found that everyone I've seen go up has made it down sooner or later,maybe a little less skin on their knuckles but they make it.
 
:lol: I guess I was just trying to think of a less painful way of coming down that cheesegrating. You absolutely right though Squish, a ladder completely sucks while wearing spurs but it isn't hard to transition from the ladder to the tree. I started using one for teaching after I gave a friend some old spurs and he called me from his cell phone about 75' up a tree because he didn't know how to get down. Now I just make sure folks know how to get down before they go up.
 
Heh if it works it works. I only trained a couple of guys in the bush, one never climbed again after going up 15', that also helped to silence him about how easy the climbing looked. The other dude was a hanglider pilot and a natural born monkey, he took to it like a fish to water.
 
Sean, what the heck was he doing 75' up in a tree without a lifeline? :O
Anything over 15' and I'm bringing a lifeline with me.
 
Yeah, he left his rope on the ground along with his brain. In the hopes that his will live to meet his grandkids, I now do his climbing for him.
 
I'll add a few pointers...note that Willie said "lean back a little". Take that literally, as leaning back very far past vertical makes the work much harder...it tires your back and legs because we are designed to stand upright, and it tires your arms because you have to haul yourself so far upright to be able to flip your lanyard and step up.

Don't be afraid to adjust the length of your lanyard frequently. Proper adjustment allows easiest climbing position (see above reasons), and easiest flipping.

When actively spurring up or down, let a little more slack into the lanyard than you would have if you were standing on your spurs and working...keep the perfect adjustment with your hand position and allow more or less length as the situation demands...when you stop to rest or work, shorten up the lanyard so you can lean back on it and use both hands to work.

Develop the ability to draw all the slack to one side, then touch/hold yourself upright momentarily with the opposite hand while you flip/roll the lanyard up from the slack side. This will gain you the maximum advance upward with your flip.

You can ease the leg tension a new climber often experiences on spurs by keeping one knee locked and one knee jacked, or even pulled free and wiggled around in the air, then reverse to ease the other leg.

I don't know how one gets used to the sensation of gaffing out one spur...but time will provide you with that comfort. You won't fall, and you will get so you don't even notice it.

Good luck, and welcome to the TH!
 
Something about having taught baby climbers for a couple of decades, mayhaps?

Thanks for the kind words, Brian.
:D
 
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  • #20
thanks Burnham excellent information. :thumbup:
 
welcome tongueo. i was told to keep the flip line slack to the point you can put your elbow in your gut an pass your fist up an down just touching the trunk.you don't wont to stay to close to the trunk. hope that helps
 
"""then touch/hold yourself upright momentarily with the opposite hand while you flip/roll the lanyard up from the slack side. This will gain you the maximum advance upward with your flip.""""


Umm Burnham i never tried that:D:D:D
 
I'm still not good on spikes because I rarely climb in them, but I found when I was FIRST learning, it was nice to have a climbing line preset in the tree. I'd seen other's slide down a trunk a few feet and I knew that was more likely to happen on those first few days, so I took necessary precautions.

love
nick
 
Whenever possible I like to take 4 steps, flip lanyard - 4 steps, flip lanyard.

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Hey man...Beranek's Fundamentals of GTW...Buy it.read it! It well covers the spike and safety side of climbing.I'm pretty sure Bailey's has the best price.
 
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