The Redirect Challenge is off to a great start, with several exciting new ideas and some clever variations on old concepts.  Pictured is the basic principle behind an idea developed by leading Victorian climber Tom Oldmeadow, which he calls an “in-line retrievable redirect.”

As shown, the redirect is removed by attaching a retrieval ball to the prussik side of the climbing line, using a klemheist or similar.  By pulling slack into the climbing system on the spliced side, the ball will pass through the karabiner and catch on the clip, sliding the Ropeman off the strop and disconnecting the redirect… without having to disconnect from the climbing system!

Tom tells us that he has a later version which includes a stopper knot in the strop of the redirect.  Sliding the ball up the climbing line will ‘pull apart’ the stopper knot, and allow the Ropeman to be moved down the line.

Note that the system pictured is only the basic principle behind the redirect, and would probably not work very well set up as shown.  Pulling on the spliced side of the climbing line whilst trying to disconnect the system could cause the redirect to ‘flip’ over the branch, possibly becoming very stuck!

The setup shown below goes some way toward mitigating these problems, but in doing so encounters new difficulties.  As shown, the yellow strop which passes around the tree is made using a reasonably hardy hollow-braid.  The Ropeman (could use Kong Duck, Trango Cinch, ART Positioner or old-fashioned prussik) is actuated by a clip which is connected to the climbing line.  To prevent the Ropeman from ‘creeping’ off the end of the strop, a smooth alloy pin is pushed through the hollow-braid below the Ropeman.

As you can see from the picture, the whipping on the spliced side of the climbing line (about 1 foot up from the splice) will catch in the clip, pull the pin out of the hollow braid and slide the Ropeman off the strop.  The great thing about this variation is that disconnecting the redirect can take place as one is relocating the climbing system out of a natural redirect (please see Introduction to Redirects for details of this technique.)

The major downside is that use of the redirect depends on finding exactly the right size of clip for the particular climbing line that you are using, which may not be easy or even possible…

Thank you to everyone who has sent in redirect ideas, pictures of SRT systems or constructive criticism of any of the VTIO documents. We appreciate your input, and will do our best to include as many of your ideas as possible as soon as it is possible to update the documents.

We are particularly grateful for the comments received regarding the VTIO climbing guidelines. We hope that these will be out of the draft stage before the VTCC in October, and we value all of the input and criticism that we have received from the Victorian tree-climbing community.  Keep it coming!

The first VTIO advanced tree climbing workshop took place on Monday 5th July and was a great success.  The day was clear and warm despite some early clouds, and we were lucky enough not to get any rain.

The group completed a range of scenarios set in five different trees, and used some surprising and innovative techniques.  We also spent time indoors, looking at force vectors and discussing the VTIO Tree Climbing Guidelines.  The VTIO hopes to take these out of the draft stage by the Victorian Tree Climbing Competition (tentatively scheduled for Oct. 23rd in Warragul) and we really need feedback from the climbing community!

The handouts from the workshop (on Force Vectors, Redirects, and Single Rope Technique) are now available in PDF format from the Downloads section of the website.  These are intended to be ‘living’ documents, and will be regularly revised as techniques evolve and new equipment gets produced, so do get in touch if you have a better way of doing things or think that an old favourite which we have left out ought to be included.

Please also get your thinking caps on, and check out the Redirect Challenge, in the Redirects download.  The VTIO is offering a prize of $300 for the best new redirect plan sent in by the VTCC, in late October.  Ged Reynolds is currently leading the field with an innovative variation on the ‘Ropeman Redirect’.

The VTIO would like to thank  the City of Boroondara for their invaluable help and support in making this workshop such a success.  In addition, Cannings of Mt Waverley were ready as always to give their support for the industry, and provided the sponsorship which let us hold this event.  The ATRAES group will soon have several of the SRT systems discussed and demonstrated, as well as a custom-spliced redirect, available for sale through their website.   Even if you missed the workshop, you should take the time to check out this exciting new gear!

The VTIO is also looking forward to running another workshop between now and the climbing competition.  Details are still to be confirmed, but both ‘Aerial Rescue’ and ‘Visual Tree Assessment’ are strong candidates.  Keep checking the website for more details closer to the time.

The VTIO would like to invite you to take part in the first of an upcoming series of workshops to be run in partnership with Cannings of Mt Waverley and the ATRAES group. This full-day workshop will take place on Monday 5th July, and will focus on technical problem solving in tree climbing, but will cover subjects as diverse as advanced rigging and forces; Single Rope Technique methods of access; and skill development for problem solving. We will also discuss the ‘mental toolkit’ which climbers need to develop, and the practical toolkit of equipment which needs to be available to use several of these advanced techniques.

Boroondara Council have been kind enough to allow us access to several of the large E. camaldulensis and E. salignas in Belmont Park, so there is the opportunity to do some really interesting climbing. We are lucky enough to have current Australian tree climbing champion Grant Cody setting up some of the climbs, as well as two-time Asia-Pacific champion Ged Reynolds – so do bring your climbing gear!

After a break for lunch and a brief wrap-up of some of the morning’s climbing, the afternoon will be spent in an ‘open format’, with the opportunity to spend more time practicing some of the techniques, or discussing it all in greater depth with one of the demonstrators.

The workshop will cost $50 for VTIO members, and $70 for non-members (lunch included).  Cannings will be present on site with a trade display, including several sets of custom-spliced re-directs, and two new types of complete SRT systems, which will be demonstrated on the day.  The VTIO would like to take this opportunity to thank Cannings, and the ATRAES group, who are always ready to support the industry and help out with events such as this.

Why take part?

As a climber, this workshop will give you a chance to develop your technical climbing skills, see some new tricks, and discuss your ideas with others in the industry. You’ll get to climb some fantastic trees, see some great ways to set a safe high point in a dangerous tree, use a clever setup to cut half an hour off a job time, or install a lowering pulley without leaving the ground. In addition, this workshop will lay the groundwork for more specific workshops to follow. Can you afford to miss out?

To enter:

If you want to take part, you can find out more or fill out an entry form here. We look forward to your participation in this and in future workshops.

In partnership with:

Although we are still waiting for the official ATCC results to be posted, the VTIO congratulates Grant Cody and Kiah Martin for bringing home the national titles… again!  They will be representing Australia in the international tree climbing championships in Chicago, so good luck to them both.

The competition in Adelaide was a great success, so congratulations as well to Doug Sharp, Brett Hamlin and the rest of the ISAAC and SASA volunteers for putting on such a great event.  Although it might be a (slight) exaggeration to talk about a media frenzy, the event did receive national reporting!

On that subject, those of you who took part in the Victorian competition last November may also be interested to read the Inside Sport article on the event.

It’s great for the competition and the industry to be gaining such positive coverage, so hopefully we can attract more coverage of the next Victorian competition.  And what is more, we get to see Kiah and Grant becoming official (D-grade) celebrities!