Climbing is something I enjoy doing when I’m not shooting, wanting to explore a new place or as an alternative to going to the gym. If you’re like me, you do NOT want to look at the same four walls all the time. So sometimes I go climbing just to get out of my space, get some fresh air and see something new and different.
Climbing is extremely fun, challenging, exciting, and also pretty dangerous. A lot of the dangers of climbing can be overcome with the proper gear.
HARNESS / SADDLES
The first thing you’re going to need is a harness or saddle. I have both a tree climbing harness and a rock climbing one. A rock climbing harness is light weight, flexible, and doesn’t have a lot of gear loops on it. It’s best used for when you are grabbing onto a mountain side, rock face, indoor rock climbing, or anything else where using your hands and feet to do the act of pulling yourself up. For rock climbing, the harness is basically a seatbelt. It’s there for you, snuggle on your waist and legs just in case you slip or fall.
A tree climbing harness (or tree saddle) is a little different. When tree climbing, you are sitting in the harness, almost like being carried up in it. Tree harness’s are much more comfortable. Because you are mostly sitting in it, they typically have much more padding, adjustable straps, and more gear loops. You still use your hands and feet when tree climbing BUT, you are still in a seated position most of the time. Your arms do most of the work, unless you’re using a foot ascender, which we will cover in a minute.
ROPES
Now that you have your harness, you need something to keep you locked onto that rock ledge or big tree. That’s right, you need a rope. The ropes I like to use are dynamic ropes. Meaning they have some stretch or give to them. Static ropes will work just fine but, if you were to slip or fall, the static rope has no give to it. It would be a much more abrupt stop and there would also be more risk of a line snap. If you’re searching for which rope is right for you, most places you can order from give good descriptions of the rope and its features. I personally like the “dry core” ropes. Ropes come in all different colors and diameters. The color you’re seeing is the outside sheath of the rope. The interior of the rope is made of strands of fibers. “Dry core” rope means that the interior fibers and the outside sheath have a water repellant treatment them. These ropes are just a little more expensive then non dry or dry ropes. But I like to climb waterfalls so I use the dry core.
THROW BALL / LINE
Now you need some way to get your rope up into that beautiful tree. A throw ball and some throw line should do the trick. Here I’d say do whatever you’re most comfortable with. I use a 10-14oz throw ball with a 1.75mm throw line. You swing, chuck, throw, launch your throw ball (tied to your throw line) up into a big stable branch or over whatever your climbing. The throw ball will come down the other side, untie the throw ball and tie your climbing rope to your throw line. Then you simply pull your climbing rope back toward you using your throw line. Once you have your climbing rope over your branch, you can secure it to the tree trunk for climbing.
ASCENDER / DESCENDER / GRIGRI
So what do you connect your rope to your harness with? There are several options for this too. If you are wanting to hike up somewhere and simply repel down, you could use a figure 8 descender. Please note that a figure 8 is a manual tool, and YOU are in full control of your decent. If you let go of your rope, you will fall.
If you want to have a slow and safe decent, you would need an auto braking device. The most common of these is a grigri. With a grigri you can repel down and fully let go of everything and it will hold you in place. A grigri can also be used in climbing for both rock and tree. In tree climbing, the grigri is directly connected to your harness, it IS your seatbelt.
CARABINER
One thing you should never be without, a handful of carabiners. The carabiner can be used for loads of things. Mainly, connecting all your gear together. Like connecting your grigri to your harness. Or connecting a pulley to a hand ascender. Whenever I climb, I always bring more than I think I will need. In my opinion you can’t have enough.
RAD / SRT
To have a safe tree climbing session, you need your harness, rope and a hand ascender. These are the basics to creating a RAD system. RAD stands for Rapid Ascent / Decent. SRT is another term you might hear and that stands for Single Rope Technique. Tree climbing is often SRT using a RAD system.
A RAD system is a hand ascender, a pulley, and your grigri. After you put your rope through the grigri and attach it to your harness, you can then clip your hand ascender onto the rope, (about a foot above the grigri). Next you’ll need a small pulley to clip onto the hand ascender, which you will feed your slack line through. With one hand on your hand ascender and the other on your slack line (pulled through the pulley on your hand ascender) you can pull yourself up safely and the grigri will lock you into place.
You can add a foot loop to the hand ascender, it acts like a step for when you’re pulling yourself up. Now you’re at the top of the tree and you’ve eaten your sandwich, taken some photos or whatever you’re wanting to do up there… how do you get down? You never NEVER mess with your grigri once you’ve started climbing. That is your safety. DO NOT UNCLIP IT FROM YOU HARNESS until you are safely on the ground. To get down safely, simply take off your pulley, foot loop, and hand ascender (clip them to your harness). Now you are just dangling, free to come on down! You’d gently pull back on the grigri handle and you’ll begin to slide smoothly down your rope. If you go too fast you can just let go and the grigri will do its auto braking magic and you’ll come to a safe stop and be just fine.
Once you’re all the way back on the ground you can unclip your grigri, pack up your gear and go show someone the awesome photos you just took. All while having your favorite beer. Or maybe some tacos.
If you want to know the ACTUAL gear I use to climb and stay safe, here are some links to what I use.
Hope to see you out there!
GEAR I ACTUALLY USE
HARNESS-
Black Diamond: https://amzn.to/3F3jlb1
Petzl: https://amzn.to/31wPSZk
ROPE-
Beal: https://amzn.to/31yR7aB
THROW BALL / LINE-
NOTCH: https://amzn.to/3zxzi8r
ASCENDER / GRIGRI-
HAND ASCENDER: https://amzn.to/3eWv4O2
GRIGRI: https://amzn.to/3f0ZLS9
CARABINERS-
https://amzn.to/31DXvNS (I would recommend at least 4)
PULLEY-
Petzl: https://amzn.to/3t5DfQr
FOOT LOOP-
Petzl: https://amzn.to/3zMu5K9
HELMET-
BLACK DIAMOND: https://amzn.to/3qX1gGM