DAY 136

DAY 136
08.18.07
TREE 53

I worked all day at the Garners and got home after dinner. I was tired and full but knew I had a tree to climb. I grabbed my camera and headed down the field towards the lake. As I started on the trail I noticed the warm orange light the setting sun was casting on nearby trees and undergrowth. I started to hurry so as to get some nice shots from within my tree. But it took me a while to find it. I went back and forth a couple times till I finally spotted my blue ribbon high in the limbs of the tree right on the edge of the water. I remember the first time I climbed this tree I had a bad headache and I was thankful I didn’t have one today. By now the sun was just beyond the trees so I just concentrated on the climb. The limbs were low and close so I tried to make it fun with quick moves, angling my body, jumping to positions, weaving through branches…. When I got to my marker I paused and got comfortable. I took some shots and enjoyed my view of the lake. I wasn’t too high but this spot was overhanging the water and the limbs were strong but bouncy. I started to climb on the outskirts away from the trunk and worked inward and downward. I tried to swing a little more having fun with form. Once on the ground I started to think about my specialized skill of tree climbing. If I do it enough, I could develop a style. Not that I have much to compare it to besides monkeys who make me look old and crippled in comparison. But my own fluid sense of arboreal movement. Of course, that depends on the difficulty of the tree. However, I do often repeat moves and holds, and retain a certain philosophy of a 3-point hold for safety which may, in turn, evolve into a particular style of climb. I could also consciously work on form, swing, and style which not only would improve my style, but probably increase my abilities even further.

8-18-08:  Yeah, that work towards a style never happened.  Since I try to look for hard and challenging trees I never have much freedom of movement.  I am mostly concentrating on not falling.  Which can be a style I guess.  I still get really jealous when I see monkeys.  Although, at parkour on Wednesdays at U of L we start at a playground with monkey bars.  I have been trying to do more work on keeping my swinging movement smooth.  It takes effort to look effortless.  Maybe I should find an easy tree and work on my movement.  But probably not right now.  I have my bodies to focus on.  My human cicada shell bodies that is.  I have to get them covered in fiberglass for an install the first week of September.  Time to get busy.

DAY 500.  I was telling people it was coming up.  They would ask, “you gonna do something special?”  I don’t know, it’s just another day in the line of many.  It’s not like I am stopping here, right?  But it started to build up in my mind that I wanted a pretty awesome tree for yesterdays climb.  I went back to George Rogers Clark Park since it has large trees and I haven’t been there much.  I took my climbing hear too for practice and to make extremely large trees accessible.  When I got there there were a bunch of huge picnic/familyreunion/get-togethers.  I didn’t want to be watched so I walked across the creek to a part of the park that was empty and found my tree.  It looked like a good one and I was pumped for a good climb. 

Now I should know better to get my hopes up and to have high expectations ’cause they can easily get dashed that way.  But let me tell you, the climb was a bigger disappointment than I could have imagined.  I put my harness on and got my rope ready to throw over a limb.  I chose to throw it over the lowest limb because it was the easiest to do.  But there were some tiny little limbs off the branch that the rope got caught on and made my ability to get the rope over very hard.  I struggled with that, finally pulled it back down for another try.  Then another try.  It wasn’t going well.  I finally get it over and down and tie it to my harness.  Then I tie my split tail to the other side and begin my arduous climb up.  I finally get to the branch and realize something.  I have nowhere to go from here.  I can’t reach any other branches since I was on the lowest one and it was too big to get my lanyard around to throw my rope to another limb.  Ok, shit, but lesson learned.  I repel down to the ground and start all over.  I picked a higher branch so that when I get there I can step to a lower branch and continue to climb.  So I throw the rope, oh four times before I get it.  Then I tie it all so that I can start my climb up.  It goes alright except there is this small dead limb off the side of the trunk that is right in my way and poked and grabbed at me.  Also, the knot I use to tie the split tail to the rope is supposed to slip upward easily then lock when you put any weight on it.  That way I don’t just slip right back down to the ground.  Well, I must have done it badly because I would slip it up and it would slip right back down.  I went back to the ground and retied the knot.  Back up again and it does the same thing, but instead of going back down I just hold the rope so I don’t slip, finish my climb to the limb and get into the tree.  By this point I was incredibly frustrated with my gear and was ready to leave it all behind and just climb the rest of the tree with out it.  So that’s what I do.  I unhook the rope and leave it on the limb.  I start moving around the trunk and up a little bit but soon find I am out options.  This tree is massive and the branches are so wide and far apart.  So I just stopped there, with ants starting to crawl on my legs and wigged out.  This couldn’t be my big awesome climb.  Then I thought, who cares if it’s day 500, it’s just another climb.  You are in a tree, it counts, just take some pictures and stop whining.  So I did. 





Then I start thinking, I may not be able to free climb this tree but I have a rope and harness, I’ll just use it.  But I was worried about my knot… why was it not working correctly?  It was important that I fix that problem, especially if I want to get way up high in a tree.  So I grab my rope and get it ready to throw up over another limb when I realize I have no good limb to throw it over.  I was in no position to heave that thing anyway.  At that point, I just started thinking I could get down and climb another damn tree and call this one a failure.  Just not even write about this one.  But I had my first band practice with MaryLiz soon and I didn’t want to be late.  So I climbed back down to that limb I had put the rope around to climb up.  I took a picture:

Then I put the camera away and tied the rope to my harness and took my time tying the split tail knot.  I did it really slowly and made sure it was tight and was catching likeit should.  And it was… so I took the leap of faith and stepped off the branch I was standing on and hung in the air.  So far so good.  Then I leaned back and grabbed the knot to slip it down and begin my descent.  It was working, when I let go it stopped.  Thank god!  So I went down, pushed off the trunk to swing out past that little dead limb and then got to the ground.  Safe and sound.  I was done.  That was the tree for the day.  It may not have been the best climb or the highest, or happiest, but a climb.  And I solved my problems and learned some lessons so it was all good.  I feel better about it now, but I was pissed for a while about that one. 

Well, what I do know is that I am definitely going to try for at least 730 days in a row.  That is 2 years and that way I will have a new climb to share with you on every entry of this blog.  Then after this blog ends at the beginning of April of next year, I’ll see.  Do I keep climbing?  Do I keep blogging?  Maybe I’ll take a poll.