On Tuesday 28th September the VTIO in partnership with Council Arboriculture Victoria (CAV) will be running a workshop on tree hazard assessment in the beautiful grounds of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. 

Details are still to be finalised, but we hope to be working with several leading speakers to cover a range of topics related to visual tree assesment, identifying structural weak points and discussing targets, as well as offering a guided ‘walk and talk’ around some of the interesting trees in the gardens.  Further information will be posted here as soon as it becomes available.

Registration is available using the form given here.

The dates for the Victorian Tree Climbing Competition have also been pencilled in – we hope to run the competition across the weekend of October 23rd/24th, with the venue tentatively confirmed as Warragul.  Further details and entry forms will be given here as they become available.

Good luck to Kiah Martin and Grant Cody, who are representing Australia in today’s International Tree Climbing Competition.  Word from the States is that the preliminaries on Saturday were rained off, forcing the whole competition into a one-day format on the Sunday.  Results will be posted here as soon as they are available.

In better news, the first revisions of the popular handouts from the recent workshop are now up online.

The PDF on Single Rope Technique now features the RAD system (pictured to the right).

Introduction to Redirects has been updated to include Tom Oldmeadow’s In-Line Retrievable Redirect (see below.)

Perhaps the biggest revision has been to Working the Angles, which has been updated with a new appendix showing graphs of the various relationships described in the text: much easier to work with on a job site than a complicated equation!

The VTIO would also like to announce that the next workshop in this series will be on Visual Tree Assessment. Date and details are still to be finalised, but keep watching this space!

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:

On Friday the 21st May the VTIO will be running a free workshop on Aerial Rescue, to be followed by a bonfire and BBQ.  The workshop will be taking place throughout the afternoon, and will be held in Kilmore.  Please contact VTIO president Pat Kenyon for more details.

Pat Kenyon: 0419 567454