Climbing News

Several years ago I remember looking through an arborist supply catalog while sitting in the bucket truck at lunch. In it I saw an ad for a pair of chainsaw pants that cost $300 and my mind was blown! 'Who in the hell would pay $300 for a pair of pants?' was all I could muster under my breath. The guys sitting next to me felt the same way! That was crazy! Our blue jeans cost a fraction of that and I could buy 10, heck 15 pair for the price of this one pair of pants! But, I must say, the thought of having a pair of chainsaw pants had planted a small seed inside of my head, even if I was bewildered about how I could afford a pair!

Have you ever been up in a tree and needed to lift some limbs, maybe to clear a roof or overhand, but also needed to immediately have some sort of friction on the rope because the pieces were too heavy for your ground guy to hold them? Many times when I was doing line clearance, we would find ourselves in these situations where we were lifting limbs off of or over power lines, but also needed at immediate friction to help us lower the limbs. We tried to have someone lifting while the other was taking up slack with the Port a Wrap, but that never really kept all the slack out of the system, and if the piece came off too early, there were way too many hands near the Port a Wrap to let something run at the correct time. So, as always, Kevin Bingham, who invented the Rope Wrench and Rope Runner, came up with a super cool use for the already popular Rope Wrench: the Rigging Wrench!

Have you ever been out on a limb with your climb line attached to the ring on your bridge while also trying to use your lanyard as a second tie-in, but as you lean way out there you notice your rope and lanyard are turning your bridge all around in a circle? This is a headache that can easily cause you frustration, but also, in a rescue scenario, cause the rescue to take far longer than it should because of an avoidable misconfiguration of gear. There is, however, a really easy way to fix this little dilemma: a swivel!

Are you afraid of your chainsaw? Honestly, I would hope that you aren't afraid of it, but I truly hope that you respect it! Chainsaws and handsaws alike are both used to cut through some pretty hard stuff, whether it be a solid Red Oak limb or a stone hard dead American Elm. These two tools require your utmost attention when being used, and above all else, your respect! That's why proper chainsaw training and handsaw safety are vital.

To stay in line the discussion we've been having about carabiners, it makes sense that the next things to look at are carabiners that have pulleys built into them. These cool tools can make plenty of jobs easier and setups neater than an extra carabiner with a pulley attached to it. Some companies have been making these carabiners with pulleys for quite now and most everyone is seeing the advantages they bring to the jobs site.