EducatedClimber

16/04/2023

People often ask me: "what's your favorite rigging hardware?" Well, my best answer is, don't be ideological about it, instead be deliberate and thoughtful about your setups. When I was coming up, I started with natural crotch rigging, it's what we used for almost everything. I still do a ton of natural crotch rigging. But I'm also obsessed with X-rings. And I use blocks and pulleys when it makes sense to. Every single situation is different. Sometimes you need very low friction. Other times friction can be your best friend. Rigging is like everything else, it's so easy to get into a rut and just do things the same way, over and over. So striving to keep an open mind about my setups and to be situationally dependent is so important. Use what makes sense for the situation. Strive to be an Educated Climber :)
- Patrick

16/03/2023

The Siberian Hitch (what I normally call the Daisy Chain Hitch) is a strong, secure, quick-release running knot that I have used for rigging in place of the running bowline for many years. I learned it from an Englishman named Andy Lake in 2008. Ease of quick release is dependent on rope choice and diameter, exposure to shock load, and whether it is backed up with a half-hitch keeper or not.

When I asked Richard Mumford to pull-test it for me in 2019, it tested to within 2% or so of a running bowline...

- Patrick

10/03/2023

The trucker's hitch is a simple, low-tech way of generating mechanical advantage on a rope. In its simplest form it produces a crude 3:1 pull using little or no gear, with the anchor end passing around a fixed point such as a hook or a carabiner. Rope-on-rope friction at the load-end cuts into the efficiency but also acts as a bit of progress capture.

On the opposite end of the complexity scale is the Z-Rig, the high-tech version of the same concept. Incorporating 2 pulleys and 2 prusik cords to provide adjustability and proper progress capture, the Z-Rig closely approaches a proper 3:1 pull.

You can think about the Trucker's Hitch and the Z-Rig as occupying opposite ends of a continuum, from simple and low-tech, to advanced and high-tech. In between these two are many hybrid setups, incorporating pulleys and prusik cords as needed.

The Trucker's Hitch, as a concept, is just a rope tied to a load, run back to an anchor point, then passed through a midline knot of some type, with the end then being pulled against the load. There are lots of options for midline knots. The slip knot/marlinspike hitch or alpine butterfly are popular, but I prefer two other versions for my trucker's hitch: the Dolly Knot, and the Harness Loop. The dolly knot is how I normally tie it, because you don't need access to the end of the rope, and it unties very easy even after a heavy load. If you want to add hardware into the loop to increase efficiency, such as a pulley or carabiner, then I use a Harness Loop, ABOK #1050.

Who still uses a good old-fashioned trucker's hitch at work?

- Patrick

04/03/2023

I love sn**ch.

Sn**ch, sn**ch, sn**ch.

Blocks...

04/03/2023

A "sn**ch" block refers to a pulley or block that can open, to accept a rope mid-line, rather than having to feed the end of the rope through. Commonly used for redirecting pull lines, and for constructing mechanical advantage hauling systems. When attached to a load, where the sn**ch block functions as the moving pulley in the system, it is possible to nearly double the pulling power of a haul system, provided that the pulley is efficient (low friction) and that the entry and exit angles of the rope are close to 180 degrees apart.

I found this old sn**ch block in a barn many years ago...

04/03/2023

A "sn**ch" block refers to a pulley or block that can open, to accept a rope mid-line, rather than having to feed the end of the rope through. Commonly used for redirecting pull lines, and for constructing mechanical advantage hauling systems. When attached to a load, where the sn**ch block functions as the moving pulley in the system, it is possible to nearly double the pulling power of a haul system, provided that the pulley is efficient (low friction) and that the entry and exit angles of the rope are close to 180 degrees apart.

I found this old sn**ch block in a barn many years ago...

15/01/2023

No place I would rather be

"arborist with rope and harness, reading a book, in a tall pine tree"

AI generated art by openai dall-e

21/12/2022

Well friends, 16 months ago a legend was reborn. The Fundamentals of General Tree Work was brought back to life in paperback, as the newly restored and better-than-ever 25th Anniversary Edition. It has sold over 5000 copies since then, cementing its reputation as one of the all-time classic books in the world of arboriculture. It truly is "The Bible of Tree Work". Thank you all so much for the support and love you have shown to Jerry and myself throughout this project, and if you haven't already picked up a copy of The Fundamentals, what the heck are you waiting for? See link below ✌️🙏
- Patrick

Get your copy of The Fundamentals today 👇
https://amzn.to/3zjV12I

04/06/2022

2 inch Ratchet Straps for Tree Work: Cheap, Strong, Good Insurance

27/05/2022

When you heat your home with wood, you quickly realize that splitting and stacking is unlike almost all other chores. Like the garden, firewood is a timely chore. You cannot just ignore it and then realize in October that you are in desperate need of seasoned wood. It must be done in the spring: everything cut, split, and stacked for the coming year. This is one of the rhythms of life that modern people have lost touch with. We rely so much on our conveniences, getting our needs delivered just in time. We fail to ask ourselves, "What if this system broke down? What if the electricity, or natural gas, or propane, or whatever, stopped flowing, as if by magic, to my house? Could my family survive for 2 weeks in the middle of winter?"... Technology is great, but it doesn't solve everything. Firewood is real substance. It's a hard, physical reality that is within your control. Control it.
- Patrick

22/05/2022

Tree on a Crazy Lean: Double Rope SRT with the Bulldog Bone

20/05/2022

"Listen to the old guys in your life because before you know it, you will be the old guy."
- Blair Glenn

08/02/2022

The Quick Hitch vs the Slippery Sheet Bend

From my YouTube channel:
www.youtube.com/educatedclimber

30/01/2022

Holy smokes, I have never been more proud to be a Canadian. Watching the events of this past week unfolding as fast as they have has truly filled me with optimism and hope for the future. Optimism that I haven't felt in 2 years. To everyone participating in person in Ottawa, know this: for each person who made the trek, there are a thousand more who couldn't be there, who are watching and smiling and cheering. The entire world is watching. This is a groundswell of support, and love, and unity, and it represents the turning point that we have all been waiting for...

Let's be real for a second. Politics is downstream of culture. Politicians are power hungry shills who will push whatever agenda they believe will get them votes. If you believe that any government will voluntarily rescind so-called "temporary" emergency powers once the "threat" is gone, then you simply have not read history. The "threat" will not end. They make it their job to keep a continual "enemy at the gates". It has always been this way. But politics is downstream of culture. The changes we need will not come from government, they will come from the people. And the people are finally starting to wake up. They want us to believe that we are the minority. They want us to believe that we are the fringe. But the truth is, "We The Fringe" are united. We support this cause for our children and our children's children. This is about our collective future.

If you have been awake to what is going on but have kept silent, now is the time to speak up. The way we come out of a Mass Formation is by everyone speaking their truth. Help get the message out, whatever way you can. We are on the right side of history and they know it. Speak your truth. Make your voice heard. Peace, love, and unity will always win out over divisive rhetoric and doublespeak. The time is now.
- Patrick

"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis". - Dante Alighieri

Understand this: if you are seeing this post in your feed, it is for one of 2 reasons:
1. You are on our side, you see what we see, you are not blinded by the lies, and manipulation, and deceit that have deceived so many.

2. The algorithm knows that this information will offend and "trigger" you, and has placed it in front of you to spark a confrontation:..

I know personally that this is how social media works... you don't see this first-hand until you have a large audience, then it becomes clear-as-day just how much manipulation is happening to the organic reach of posts which go against the "Official Narrative"...

29/12/2021

Couple more examples of using the Daisy Chain Hitch with a Long Tail. Use your imagination...

27/12/2021

The Daisy Chain Hitch: 2 Ropes, 1 Quick-Release Knot ✌️

25/12/2021

Merry Christmas Climber Nation

09/12/2021

Read your Bible...
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The Fundamentals of General Tree Work, 25th Anniversary Edition, by G. F. Beranek
https://amzn.to/3zjV12I

25/11/2021

If you still think that institutional, a.k.a. 'unbelievably expensive paper-based' accreditations still matter in 2021, then you are living with a pre-internet mentality...

What actually matters, is what a man (or woman) CAN, or CAN'T do...

Use the Internet to showcase a portfolio of work that represents you: what you're about, what you've accomplished, what you're up to, what you're working on, etc...

Your results speak for themselves in a way that fancy pieces of paper never can... ✌️

21/11/2021

"Life, faculties, production – in other words, individuality, liberty, property – this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political
leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it. Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men
have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.

“Every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a
state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not
wanting people to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.

"No society can exist unless the laws are respected to a certain degree. The safest way to make laws respected is to make them respectable. When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law."

- Frederic Bastiat, 1850

18/11/2021

The Daisy Chain Hitch with a long tail = built in tagline ✌️

13/11/2021

Flying Squirrel

09/11/2021

Anyone can buy equipment.
Anyone can sell tree jobs.
Anyone can drag brush.

Not just anyone can go up and get treework done safely and efficiently.....

If that's you kudos...

Know your worth...

Cheers ✌️. - Patrick

14/09/2021

Over 1000 copies sold! The verdict is in: time to read your Bible....

The Fundamentals of General Tree Work 25th Anniversary Edition, available here:

https://amzn.to/3zjV12I

Thanks for the support Climber Nation!

-Patrick

31/08/2021

Blown away by the support for this project, over 500 copies sold in the first week!!! Check out The Fundamentals of General Tree Work 25th Anniversary Edition here:

https://amzn.to/3zjV12I

Thanks for the support Climber Nation! 🙏

Patrick

26/08/2021

It is finished 🙏

Thank you so much to everyone who helped make this project a reality, including Gileno Rego, Patrick Donoahue, and the Fundamentals Proofreading Team. And a big thank you to Jerry for the continued support.

Bringing 'The Fundamentals' back to life in physical form took an incredible amount of work over the past 18 months or so, but it was worth it. I hope you will check it out... (see link below to order on Amazon Prime 👇🙂)

https://amzn.to/3zjV12I

- Patrick

23/08/2021

Friction is a good thing...
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In all honesty, I was late to the rigging rings party... I didn't get my first rings until 2017, long after they had been popularized by Professor Driver . Before then, I was such a proponent of natural crotch rigging that I really wasn't looking for an alternative. But man oh man was I ever wrong. Rings opened up an entire new world of rigging possibilities for me, they took my rigging creativity to a whole new level, and allowed me to load stems in compression in ways that I never dreamed possible otherwise. Rings, in combination, change everything. They take production, and predictability, and redundancy to an entirely new level.
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At this point, rigging rings have been ripped off and copied by every one and their brother. Ring politics (at least prior to 2020) was a very divisive issue... there are so many brands selling their own versions. But for me, the only rings I use are the original X-Rigging Rings, and the newer, Canadian-made Bend-Right Rings. I'm not a shill, or a brand-whore. I don't say good things about gear just because someone sends me some free stuff. I'm also not an expert, this is just my opinion. So take it for what it's worth ✌️

- Patrick

20/08/2021

Well, after 3 years, the foot strap for my SAKA finally gave up the ghost. Good thing I had a new one ready to go. Climbing Innovations by Richard Mumford .richard.d you make top quality stuff.... (p.s. looking forward to seeing the new HH ✌️)

- Patrick

16/08/2021