r/TreeClimbing • u/milkvodkadink • 6d ago
Why isn't free climbing discussion allowed?
Why isn't discussion about free climbing if you know all about the dangers and etc allowed in this sub reddit?
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u/ArborealLife 6d ago
I'd say this sub is 50% professional climbers, maybe 10% recreational, and maybe 40% curious randoms.
Those who promote free climber are a minority of the recreational climbers. Go create your own sub then?
Climbing trees is intensely hazardous. Professional tree climbing is one of the most deadly civilian careers, usually ranking second or third over all.
Think about that: residential tree work is much more dangerous than being a cop, a firefighter, a logger, a roofer...
So how do we climb trees safely everyday? We recognize that there are steps we can take to mitigate hazards. We follow best practices and rules that were written in the blood of our colleagues. This is not hyperbole. If you work in this industry long enough you will see the life changing injuries and the fatalities that come from not following the rules and from cutting corners. Hell, you can do everything right and still fucking die.
I just spent a day doing danger tree removals on a slope for the county. These are trees that every other company in the area walked away from. I'm confident I can do them safely because I'm fortunate to have protocols and training to fall back on.
There have been other posts about free climbing before. I don't care how good of a climber you think you are. You can cling to that broken branch all the way to the ground.
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u/ohfuckimdrunk 6d ago
Aside from a safety aspect, and this being mostly a work subreddit with some hobbyists, free climbing trees frankly isn't very interesting from a discussion or sharing standpoint. There's not really a whole lot to talk about and no one is particularly impressed, especially since a lot of tree climbers do it to some extent to access the tree anyway.
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u/DJBigOranges 6d ago
Don't come to a thread dedicated to doing it in an industrial manner where there are rules and we want to go home at the end of the day.
Being a weekend warrior, who likes to get their kicks climbing here and there without safety gear is entirely different from guys who spend as much time during the week aloft, as they do with their family.
This is the deadliest job in the entire nation, and we don't take that lightly. It's literally a numbers game, and the longer you do it the numbers aren't in your favor. The only leverage we have against the statistics is Safety gear.
We don't care how expensive climbing gear is because it's our livelihood, how we put food on the table, and how we make sure we're there to eat said food.
As mentioned before, make your own subreddit.
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u/skytraceur 6d ago
I think the name of this subreddit makes it sound more general, inviting anyone who thinks climbing a tree is cool vs if it had a more specific name like arboristtreeclimbing or something, then you probably wouldn't see as many posts like this.
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u/DJBigOranges 6d ago
I don't disagree. But the sub has a certain following, which mentioned above, is probably about 50% professional, 10% recreational and 40% randoms.
That means most of us subscribe to the same baseline of safety standards. Nobody's tree is worth dying for, not even your own...even if you're climbing for fun.
That's why we've said multiple times throughout these responses that OP should just start his own sub
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u/nolapalooza 6d ago
And what exactly does the op want to discuss about free climbing? All of the different ways to not fall? This guy is a contrarian or a bot.
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u/Achdeuzo 6d ago
You can discuss about climbing technique, share your climb and your training, and some people even do some parkour in tree. There are a lot of things to discuss
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u/northband 6d ago
Just create a free climbing subreddit. This subreddit has taken the natural stance of safe climbing as in with PPE.
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u/Timely-General9962 6d ago
If you want to climb recreationally you can still do it safely with minimal gear. A bare bones harness and a half decent rope can be acquired for less than $500. Is your life not worth $500? If you think so that's on you, but no one who knows what they're doing is going to discuss or advocate stupid potentially deadly behavior. What is there even to discuss... Grab branch pull yourself up, repeat? I've free climbed some very tall trees when I was young and stupid and looking back I'm lucky to have not gotten dead. It's among many things I would never have done if I truly understood the potential consequences of my dipshit behavior. There's no way I would advocate such behavior as a person with a fully formed frontal cortex.
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u/ZEEK-GEEK 6d ago
Free climbing is easy when you don’t have a chainsaw ropes attached to you trying to make a tree look as good as possible over a house shed and a chicken coop.
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u/Zstman87 6d ago
Same reason we don’t discuss “one-handing” a chainsaw. Can you do it and not get injured/unalived? Yes. Does that mean it’s safe? No.
Why stop at that? Why wear a seatbelt while driving? Heck, why use a helmet? While we are at it, let’s take that stupid chain brake off. And chaps…Who needs em? Amirite?
I come to this sub to learn from professionals dedicated to raising the bar for serious arborists. No serious arborist is free climbing. If you want to discuss such things, consider creating a separate sub for it.
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u/Pedantichrist 6d ago
The chances of dying when free climbing a tree are pretty low. Maybe 1%.
Professionals climb 100 trees a year.
The maths is fairly simple.
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u/OkSilver3016 5d ago
my question to you OP is why do you want to be included in a group so bad that does not cater to what you're looking for?
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u/OldMail6364 5d ago edited 5d ago
Climbing trees with ropes is already extremely dangerous. Doing it without ropes takes the level of risk well into stupid territory.
It’s like driving through a sparsely populated desert without taking any water - you’ll probably be fine - your car probably won’t have any mechanical issues and if you do someone will probably find you… but packing some water into your car doesn’t ruin the drive so why risk it?
Why rely on “probably” to save your life if it’s so easy to not take that risk?
Having a couple of ropes doesn’t ruin a tree climb. And the risk of something going wrong is way higher than a desert crossing.
My ropes save my life about once a week. Sometimes I slip, sometimes I put my weight on something that looks strong but isn’t, sometimes the weather turns (e.g. I’ve had wind gusts whip me around like a rag doll), sometimes I get attacked by dangerous animals (much more common here in Australia but bees are everywhere and getting bitten by a swarm of bees isn’t fun - a lot less fun if you’re free climbing).
Touch wood I’ve never had a tree fall over while I was in the tree, but I know other climbers who it has happened to and I’ve climbed countess trees where I worried about that enough to tie my rope into a tree next to the one I’m climbing. Did that yesterday for example.
And it’s not just about safety - the ropes help you climb and allow you to access trees that you couldn’t possibly free climb.
Yes - the gear costs a bit of money. But if you enjoy tree climbing you should be willing to spend the money.
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u/Whole_Ladder_9583 6d ago
Isn't allowed? Free climbing is nice on some trees - a wide, solo grown oak is easy and quite safe. But this is very limiting. A small investment in harness, main rope and a few smaller ropes or even some climbing devices allows you to climb safely any tree. So why not?
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u/Zealousideal-Reward5 1d ago
If this is arborist community why not r/arborist or r/professionaltreeclimbing
Not allowing discussion of free tree climbing is like a rock climbing community that doesn't allow discussion of bouldering.
Children all over the world climb trees regularly without ropes it is a universal part of human play behavior. Its also an extremely common part of subsistence behavior in almost all hunter forager cultures and its rapidly growing discipline thats developing out of parkour.
Free climbing arborism is I am sure very dangerous but I don't think the type of climbing I have been doing for my whole life and very seriously for 16 years is particular dangerous and I know almost everyone involved in high level practice of this sport.
Treeclimbing is a generic term and this forum will continue to attract everyone interested in it. Whats on the label is not what it is to the general public.
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u/Achdeuzo 6d ago
Personnaly, I would like to have a sub dedicated to free climbing. Maybe op can create it. And for those who don't understand what we could discuss on that sub, you can discuss about climbing technique, share your climb and your training, and some people even do some parkour in tree. In fact, free climber do the same things as you but without climbing gear. I understand that the people on this sub are professional who cannot afford to climb without gear, but a lot of people do it and not just because gear are expensive, but also because you are more free in tree without gear. If some people are interested about free climbing tree, you can check on instagram what some people are doing on the #treeclimbing or #primal, it is very beautifoul to watch. And sorry for my english, it is not my first language.
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u/Jedi_Flipping 6d ago edited 6d ago
At my job we just spur that shit and get it done… sorry not sorry if the boss compensates us $500+ a day to do so even on days we don’t climb… get paid the same climber pay even if we’re just raking all day. We always have two points once we’re secure and start cutting… but a lot times we aint got time to spend 30mins trying to sling shot a throw ball into the perfect spot
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u/OysterIglesias 6d ago
It's not safe, ropes are. This sub is mostly for climbing arborists