A buddy and I were climbing a nice tree a few days ago. He was anchored off on the crotch of a branch, and I had my rope cinched a little farther out on the same branch. As we descended, he touched ground first while I was still about 8 ft off the ground and the thought came to mind to have him grab my down rope and give it a little pull to initiate a swing. It was like a rope swing for grownups, and just as fun as I remember them as a child. Just wondering if others have done this, and if so what is your rigging..?

Thanks!

Jaden

Note the Aussie swingers are on two lines, essentially a V support. This is good because they can control the exact path of the swing between other trees. Impact into trees on swings really sux.

I've set up V swings using two DRT systems set high. I put a pull back line on the system, haul them back and let them go. It helps to have the pullback line redirected through a Grigri or something like that to capture progress, then switch them on to a release system to let them fly.

Too bad about the burnt Eucalyptus regnans forest in the video, that's the same forest described in Richard Preston's "The Wild Trees". The tallest remaining deciduous trees are now in Tasmania.
-AJ

When I first started climbing, Hunabku put me on my first tree-to-tree traverse in his back yard. I was probably 20 feet off the ground between trees that were ~60 feet apart, with one setting at ~30 feet and the other at ~50 feet. He grabbed my down rope, pulled me as far as he could, and turned me loose. At the time, it had a pretty high pucker factor, but it was still a lot of fun.
I prefer a swing with two anchor points for the same reason Moss mentions, but one thing I've really come to enjoy is swinging out from a tree on a rappel and flying down the rope, trying to touch the ground before swinging back into the tree. You can thank Hunabku for that one, too.

Thanks for the ideas. A cold front came in and took our 90 degree weather to low 50s with rain, so I'll get out and give it a shot once the weather clears up.

On a somewhat related note, how far out on a branch is still considered a safe attachment point? I understand this varies greatly from tree to tree, different wood types etc...but generally are you just playing it by ear or is there some principles you follow?

Until I can inspect limbs up close I always hang a rope as close to the limb/branch/trunk union as is possible.

For weaker or brittle wood species I raise the bar on limb thickness as well.

For example, a super weak wood like eastern cottonwood, go bigger, keep close to the trunk unions, same for white pine and high tuliptree limbs.

For white oak, honey locust, a few others, it's tough as nails, however, until you inspect a limb up close, can see the top as well as the bottom of it, you don't really know how strong it is further out on the limb.

Throw red and black oak into the mix then you have super strong wood on species that have a tendency to trunk heart rot and internal limb rot, especially in more mature trees.

I guess all that is a way of saying you have to get to know your local species, for every new tree be very conservative until you can inspect in the crown to see what you can't always detect from the ground.

A few years ago a climber fell because he had stood on a red oak limb on a limb walk pretty far out from the trunk and decided it was strong enough to hang a rope on, it was not. Had a subtle structural flaw, limb strength could not be determined by diameter alone.

As always, a logical chain of assessments and procedures to be safe. In that fall the climber didn't fully commit their weight to the new tie-in until AFTER they'd detached from their previous tie-in. Huge mistake, the limb broke, they were only tied in to that limb. When switching to a new tie-in while in a tree, always stay tied in to the old one as you slack it and fully load and test the new tie-in. Many of you already know that, some may not.
-AJ

So I didn't give you any principles for how far out you can put a rope on a limb. I don't think there are any beyond be conservative, test before fully committing, get to know the characteristics of your local tree species, learn how to inspect/assess for structural flaws due to disease, wind, lightning or other causes.
-AJ

And one more comment... if you're out in the woods it' really productive to examine fresh limb breaks/drops on trees. You'll see some big diameter stuff that you can imagine looked perfectly fine more or less on the outside but when it failed revealed some serious problems inside the limb. The more you look at these the more you'll learn about recognizing these hazards from the outside before they fail.
-AJ

Thanks for the helpful information on those species, Moss. I'm going to need to learn more about those yankee trees before I move up to the Great White North next month. Cracker don't know nothin about nothin unless it's in a swamp.

Plus you're used to climbing hollow swamp tubes with branches sprouting out of the top, we don't have any trees up here that remain standing when they get that hollow. However I can take you to some nice healthy and tall white pine guaranteed not hollow.
-AJ

Thanks Moss for the great info!

The weather has cleared up but homework has increased, hoping to get out this weekend and give it all a shot. I'll be sure to let y'all know how it goes