I have not yet established a base of climbers in my area large enought to have someone to climb with all of the time. That said I am heading out solo with the canoe this morning with the intentions of climbing a young but tall cypress tree I recently located. I call the tree Junior.

News at eleven...

Well, turns out I never ended up climbing. That is not to suggest in any way, that I did not have a great outing.

I got to the creek and put my stuff in the canoe. I paddled to the tree I wanted to climb too. But when I got there the larger more magnificent tree behind Junior looked like an even better climb. So I started giving it a long and thorough inspection. Everything looked great.

My pack was unzipped and I started to put together my slingshot, but I couldn't find an important piece, the Sidewinder head. I briefly considered a hand throw. It would be difficult and I would more than likely have to try many times. That means more chances to tangle a line and more chances to damage the fragile branches and epiphytes on the tree.

I decided to skip it. I spent the rest of my time out there just nature watching. I think it is prudent for the wilderness climber to consider their actions and the impacts it will have on their surroundings. Sometimes the decision must be made to abort a climb. The trees in this swamp are so old and magnificent my default is to not climb if I think I am going to do damage to the tree.


I saw egrets, anhingas, hawks, ibis, kingfishers, ducks, pileated woodpeckers, and heard barred owls. I also saw a lot of cool fungi.

It was a very enjoyable time even though I didn't climb.

Great report, sounds like heaven. There's been more than a few times I gave up on the idea of climbing and just enjoyed being in the woods.

It does make me wonder though if it's possible to develop enough leverage with a long springy stick to throw a bag higher then you can by hand. Probably not or someone would've done it already. Worth playing around with though to see what the possibilities are.
-moss

Funny you mention that.

Oak and I fooled around with that very thing while he was over at my place one night. It was a short in tree version for tree to tree throwing.

We tried a tent pole section with just a modified hook on the end, a modified back scratcher, and a bike handlebar with an ice cream scoop attached to it (the smucker chucker).

We concluded that we could just throw it about the same distance.

I bet a longer version could be viable for tree entry. Not sure hoe accurately though. That has become an increasingly big deal for me. The less I fool around setting a line, the less damage potential for the tree.

Maybe one of these...

dude thats such a great idea, why didnt i think of that?

They seem perfect for throwing larger bags, although they are meant for distance... i dont know what kind of accuracy/power you'd get launching balls vertically. Somebody must have one laying about... give it a try!

I think it's too short. To throw vertically it requires the same awkward motion that you'd use trying to throw a ball straight up, it's rough on the shoulder. Perhaps an underhand swing would work better.

I'm thinking of a much longer slender, strong and slightly flexible stick. Think 6-7' foot fishing rod except much more rigid. It could be cut and whittled in the field as an emergency throwing device. Or carried as an extra long walking stick/swamp walking probe. One hand is the pivot point or fulcrum on the stick, the other hand/arm is the main power on the butt end of the stick. The fulcrum hand is positioned approx. 1/4 distance from the bottom of the stick. The bag is on the other end of the stick behind the thrower, the stick end with the bag is resting on the ground behind the thrower. To fire the thrower pulls down hard on the butt end, the fulcrum hand pushes up approx a couple of feet, overall it's a flicking motion like casting with a surf rod, the bag is whipped upward. That's the theory anyway. Need to build and test a prototype.
-moss

pneumatics are the wave of the future!

(reference to the aviator)

Sorry Regina, I can’t ever see pneumatics being a better choice in these settings. It would be a great debate for a new thread. Right now I want to get into telling everyone about the amazing day of climbing that I just had.

Originally Pinyata and Country girl were going to meet me at my house at 8:00am. From there we would head to the creek and meet Florida Cracker, put in the boats, and go climb some trees. A big rain storm just passed through so the water would be high and the swamp would be flooded. Not to good for hiking like when Oak was here a couple weeks ago.

When I got a call at 6:30am I knew what it was. Pinyata bagging. He was feeling a little sick and knew we would be climbing in knee deep cold water. I couldn’t blame him a bit.

Patrick showed up on time at the creek and after a brief chat about what we wanted to climb we decided to go to the big tree we had found behind Junior. It is a virgin tree and it has tons of character. It is one of the few giant cypresses I have found in this area that has twin leaders. The tree has a girth above twenty feet although I have not measured it with a tape yet. It’s just in that class of trees. One side of the base has a hollow about seven feet tall and four feet wide. Just above this the tree splits into its two main leaders. Facing the hollow, the left leader is larger and taller than the right one. Both leaders have tons of healthy settings and the tree is indeed very friendly to climb. Standing back and looking at it looks remarkably like a 100' tall wishbone, so much so that we decided to name the tree Wishbone.

Patrick gladly accepted the task of firing the line into the tree. He was successful on his first shot. He didn’t get what he was aiming for, but he got something we could climb on. We discussed our options for the climb and decided that I should do the lead climb. I decided on a limb cinch rather than a ground tie to reduce the load on the branch above. The plan was for me to go up SRT and then tie in DRT with a second rope. F.C. could then remove the cinch on the first rope and use it to DRT into the tree. We stuck to the plan.

During the rigging process we started hearing a weird kind of barking in the swamp. F.C. and I scanned around in the reflections caused by the foot deep black water trying to find the source of the noise. Finally we spotted three otters standing up on thier hind legs in the shallow water about forty feet away. They were checking us out real hard. Each one would let out a few of those weird sounding barks and then swim around a little before standing up and staring at us again. They were so curious about us. Eventually they got bored with us and we watched their oily bodies fluidly swim away weaving through the cypress knees.

I started to make my way up to the 70’ setting we had achieved. At about fifty feet I saw a good branch in the other leaded and threw myself a setting there. I transferred over to the second rope, swung over to the other leader, and signaled to Cracker that he could get started. I kept a close eye on every thing he did as he is still very much a new climber. He did real well tying his knots and I was very impressed to see how fluidly his DRT climbing has become. I pitched up my leader and then traversed back over to the big leader so I could closely observe F.C as he gained a new pitch and transferred to it. He did very well indeed.

The view surrounding us was truly magical. Above us clouds drifted passed in the cool breeze. The magic part was when you looked down. The entire forest floor being covered by a mirror like sheet of black water reflected the sky above. It was like having the sky both above and below you. I was able to get emergent in the tree and at that point could see for miles in every direction as well. Wishbone is a truly remarkable tree and on the first climb quickly became my favorite trees to climb in this swamp.

After a nice amount of chill time in the top of the tree we decided to head down. I had tried to explain to F.C. why I went through great lengths to keep my rope out of the water during the climb. Not only must I avoid my down rope tangling on debris in the water, but I also hate when all that water gets squeegee’d on me as I descend. I came out dry. F.C. ended up with quite a lap full of water. He was on a 200’ rope though so I had an easier time keeping mine dry.

We packed everything up and paddled off to explore a bit before calling it a day. Along the way we stirred up a roost of about seven wild turkeys. They were all way up in the trees because the ground is flooded. It was amazing to see those huge birds in flight as they crashed through the canopy away from us. We got to see this several times as we seemed to follow them along through the flooded forest. We also scared up flocks of wood ducks along the way. Those always startle me pretty good as the instant blast of wing flaps takes over the surrounding silence.

Afterwards we hit a local barbecue joint and enjoyed a good meal as we debriefed. There were no negative issues to discuss, only positive ones. It was one of the best days in the swamp I have had and I can’t wait to get back out there again soon My only regret iis that neither of us had a camera. I get the feeling that if we did none of those awesome wildlife encounters would have happened. I did take some video a last week that I will put up tonight so that you can at least see the tree.

Great climb report. You and the Cracker have been putting up some good climbs it would seem.

I am in Bocas town for the evening and on the computer for the first time in more than a week. If I don't get back here for another week all of you have a happy holiday!

A glimpse of the tree. No scale though. It's hard to tell how huge it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j0NLv-X ... re=channel

Thanks, I'd been wondering what this swamp looks like. Lovely.

Sounds like a great climb. The swamp water reflecting the sky while in-tree, that must have been pretty incredible.

Great video, thanks Hunab. Was that the Barred Owl perched up in the right side leader at the beginning? Thought I heard it calling a couple times in the background later. Great to see those Ibis walking on the cypress trunk, even a long-legged water bird is trying to stay up out of the swamp. Magical place.
-moss

FloridaCracker and I went back out there Sunday. We climbed "Junior" which was renamed "Nasty" during the climb. This was FC's first time on what I refer to as a "Class 2" climb. He could not get to the ground with one pitch. I don't know a good term for when you can not go directly to the ground. In scuba diving they refer to dives where the diver can not directly ascend as "technical dives" That would be a good term for us to use also, but a lot of people already call any tree climb with a rope a "technical tree climbing" So I am calling a climb where you end up without enough rope to get to the ground a "Class 2" climb. Anyhoo...

I just found that FC posted a short video from the climb.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQQc2pLqMbI&feature=sub


To the tune of "On a boat"...

"I'm on a rope, everybody look at me"
"a woven highway to the top of a big ol tree!"
"You can't touch me cause I'm high up in the canopy!"
"ANSI standards mean nothing to a Rogue, nope!"

"Tree Time forever cause I'm hanging on a %*&@! ROPE!"

'I never thought I'd be on a rope."

Nice video guys!

It's good to finally see the spread of limbs in that tree.....it's definitely uncommon for that area.

Looking forward to climbing it!

I like the "Class 2 climb" concept.

Good to see the video from the swamp.
-moss