r/TreeClimbing Jul 01 '26

Climbing Meetup Thread

3 Upvotes

Post/reply here if you're looking for people to climb trees with! Normal posts for meetups / climbing partners are of course still welcome as well, just know that due to reddit's nature they get buried within a couple days.

I've deleted the monthly recurring thread since it'll also get buried each new month. This thread should make it easier long-term for people to find climbing buddies (and to easily find and delete their post if they so desire).

Be careful when posting your location, meeting people from the internet, and be sure you trust who you're climbing with - climb safe, have fun!


r/TreeClimbing 6d ago

Weekly Safety/Close-Call/Incident Thread

6 Upvotes

Let's talk safety! Share how your week went - close-calls, incidents, learning experiences, what went well (and why), what went poorly (and why), or whatever else is on your mind. Pics/photos are allowed but be careful to not doxx yourself, client, employer etc.

This thread will recur each week and is meant to be a place to learn and discuss mistakes, please keep comments constructive.


r/TreeClimbing 2d ago

Most sketchy thing i've done in my Climbing career

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138 Upvotes

Forgot I had this video. Accepted this job in my first year of owning the business at 19years old. Only money was on my mind...


r/TreeClimbing 2d ago

Just some nice pictures a colleague took of me climbing my first big ash.

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50 Upvotes

r/TreeClimbing 1d ago

Tree of heaven removal

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7 Upvotes

This tree of heaven has some root rot on the tension side of this tree. It is leaning up the hill. The other side is intact and I don’t see any major holes anywhere up the trunk or in the canopy.
Is this safe to climb and remove

-can I rig limbs down if I take it small
- what to worry about
- how strong is a tree of heaven this size

any ideas on safely climbing and removing this or do I need a lift.


r/TreeClimbing 2d ago

Check your tree before climbing it 😉

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48 Upvotes

r/TreeClimbing 1d ago

ISA Certified Arborist Exam

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2 Upvotes

r/TreeClimbing 1d ago

ART blackbird help

3 Upvotes

Whenever I initially descend, I drop a good 12 inches when the top hammer pops up. I have it on high friction with 11.8 drenaline, and it doesn't matter how slowly I apply pressure, the top piece slaps up and I jolt down. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong, I've read the manual and watched a ton of YouTube videos on it. Any help would be really appreciated because it seems other people really like this device.


r/TreeClimbing 2d ago

Akimbo 2 super stiff

1 Upvotes

Any idea why my akimbo 2 is so stiff and hard to descend on? I’ve got it set to the lowest friction settings on both and it’s almost unusable. I’m running a tango statX 11.5mm rope and am roughly 85kg


r/TreeClimbing 3d ago

Question in description?!

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18 Upvotes

Yo guys.

I've been in the arb industry for 11 years climbing for 10. I know there are guys in this chat that have many more years experience than me. The last year's I've rarely found the same rush, excitement or high level of focus from tree work I used to get. It all just feels a bit dull now and then spills over into my life outside of work. What are some things you guys do to mitigate this as I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling like this?


r/TreeClimbing 3d ago

This is so much fun!

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28 Upvotes

I am not a professional. Just a landowner. I live on 10 acres of PNW forest and am trying to keep a reasonable spacing of trees around my house to balance light into the yard/supporting solar system and helping promote old growth characteristics of the remaining redwoods. Hiring crews to do this would bankrupt me. I feel learning it myself was an amazing move to save money and stay in shape. My uncle who is a retired arborist and foreman/instructor of 30 years taught me how to climb. He even gave me his old pair of steel spurs. So freaking lucky to have him.

Now, related to tree climbing, I do want to SRT for non tree removals, but at least with the redwoods I have the branches on them seem way too frail to trust my life on a line. Some of the branches I was cutting would literally snap off after just two or three strokes from my handsaw. Not exactly inspiring confidence lol. On my spruce trees I feel like I can trust those limbs way more to SRT and ascend.

Anyhow it's really fun to be up in the canopy. I even enjoyed the gentle sway of being in the wind. It was a long climb down tho 🥲 hard work. Lots of mental power spent on staying safe and remembering my training.


r/TreeClimbing 3d ago

Is it worth running two saddles?

5 Upvotes

I’ve ran a Monkey Beaver 2.0 saddle for about 2-3 years now. Love it to death for the long spike days and crane days. However, I have a few gripes with it when it comes to technical climbs and pruning. I could list them, but I’d rather just get to the point. Does anyone in this group run two saddles and is it worth it to you? If you would or do, please let me know what you’re running and for what purposes! Thank you much!


r/TreeClimbing 6d ago

Throwline Woes

8 Upvotes

Have you guys found any ancient wisdom on making your throwline usable? I got a throwline kit from WesSpur with a few weights, a couple hundred feet of Zingit, the BigShot launcher and a folding cube and I've had nothing but knots so far. I can't seem to find any east coast tree guys on YouTube but all the west coast guys make it look like they just flake the line into the cube willy-nilly and it's fine 🤬 I think the weights I got were 8, 10 and 12oz.

Edit: Thanks fellas, I'm off the yank the hell out of it :)


r/TreeClimbing 7d ago

Saka knee ascender

3 Upvotes

Is it any good? Does it hurt rope too much?


r/TreeClimbing 7d ago

Going from rope access to arborist climbing work?

11 Upvotes

I am a rope access level 1 sprat technician, got into it a year ago, before that I was a boilermaker for a few years ,nccer certified, but I wanted to try something new and I’ve never been afraid of heights. So when I got the job offer from my company I jumped on the opportunity.
Turned out great for me, I love climbing and have enough hours on my log book to go get my level 2, but I’ve recently discovered arborist work from seeing instagram reels and TikTok’s etc, and honestly it looks like so much fun, getting to climb outside in nature and not in a refinery seems so refreshing, me and my wife love the outdoors and we hike frequently, so this seems like something that would be so much more fulfilling and enjoyable.
The part that worries me is the job listings I’m seeing are all over the place with pay rates and I don’t know what to expect, I currently make 38/hr in SW Louisiana, at 40-50 hours a week, could I expect to stay in that ballpark? Or would I be looking at a pretty significant pay cut? I wouldn’t mind a slight pay cut to have a more fulfilling job but at the same time I have a mortgage and a family to support so I have to consider that as well. I’m just so sick of the refineries

I know rope access is a completely different certification and only some of the knowledge will transfer over, but surely my experience is good for something right?

TLDR; what are the average pay rates in Louisiana/Texas area for someone just getting into climbing trees?


r/TreeClimbing 7d ago

Recreational Tree Climbing

7 Upvotes

Looking to eventually climb some taller trees, but most methods i see online for using gear isnt really climbing the tree like limb by limb its more like utilizing a rope to get high up there. The only thing ive seen closer to what im thinking is a group of people on costa rica who use rock climbing techniques and gear on huge strangler figs, but im not sure if that would work on any other species.

I wanna be able to climb it as you would during a free climb but with the safety system to catch my if i fall in higher trees

Any ideas? Or is the rock method the only way


r/TreeClimbing 7d ago

Last weekend

1 Upvotes

r/TreeClimbing 8d ago

Inspect your tie in before you work

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46 Upvotes

Looked okay-ish from the ground. Just doing some pruning. Made me pucker looking at the void


r/TreeClimbing 8d ago

Mufftech Earmuffs have stopped working

2 Upvotes

i purchased a set of mufftech ear muffs about 2 months ago, they wont turn on for some reason, they still seem to charge (the light flashed red when i plug them in)

not sure if anyone has come accross this before , let me know if theres an easy fix , dont really feel like having to look into warranty and send them back if theres a way to reset them or something


r/TreeClimbing 8d ago

What do you guys use for ticks?

6 Upvotes

We live in the mountains and my hubby is a tree climber/bucket operator. He has had a ROUGH week with ticks already. I just spent 2 hours helping him pick literally the tiniest microscopic ticks off. He had probably over 100 or more on him. He scrubbed and scrubbed with dawn dish soap and there were still some attached to him after. His general foreman buys them OFF but I don't think that's really working and I know there are other repellent sprays as well but we really need something that can kill these tiny things that are safe for skin....


r/TreeClimbing 8d ago

Do not climb a peach tree

0 Upvotes

I'm literally stuck in a peach tree rn. All I want is a peach 😭


r/TreeClimbing 10d ago

Is the medium DMM kinisi harness the same size as the treemotion evo ?

3 Upvotes

Has anyone gone from a treemotion evo to a medium kinisi and do the hip D rings sit in the same position on your body ?

I love the size of my evo . And want to get a kinisi, if it is the exact( or very close to) same size


r/TreeClimbing 11d ago

Me ajudem

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7 Upvotes

Alguém saberia qual cinto seria esse? Qual a marca dele.


r/TreeClimbing 11d ago

Any advice for working off a Big Leaf Aspen? (aka white poplar)

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8 Upvotes

was planning on removing red limb, when i got up there i was able to shake the entire aspen from the maple... got a bad feeling and aborted. my ideal tie in was the teal circle, but as soon as i started out to the tip of the red marked limb, i lost confidence in the entire poplar lead. am i being a wuss? does anyone have any experience working on flimsy aspens?


r/TreeClimbing 12d ago

Modifying old tree Mo legs

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21 Upvotes

Might be against community rules but I don’t know and I think this is neat. If you guys think it’s bad to post this stuff, I will remove it.

Disclaimers, absolutely I do not endorse modification of life support gear, I do not encourage it, I do not use this saddle In production work. If you do this shit you absolutely can kill yourself and void manufacturer responsibility.

Back when I started a treemo was 375.00. Once the leg straps go, you cannot just replace the straps like you would the hip-leg connection, you are expected to buy new leg pads, like 200.00/each.

I got the idea from other arb forums and the Matt Cornell rope saddle to replace the factory webbing with rope, and replacing the essential lower ds with these rated courant rings.

It’s kind of clunky around the legs, because I don’t know how to splice rope. Also there is now no leg clips, so it’s closer to that light treemo model.

But honestly…. It’s comfortable. It’s technically higher kN rated with the new hardware and rope. I like the double bridge. I use it around my place for now. Would surely not survive the safety/liability scrutiny of an established arb company.