Safety

Click on this link to view the playlist on the channel dedicated to Safety, Recovery and Self Rescue.

Some Basics

PPE: Although Hunters rarely use it, Personal Protective Equipment, particularly a helmet, is a best practice for any type of climbing. A dead branch in the canopy or a stuck throwball can be disturbed and released with enough energy to cause serious injury or death.

Tree Inspection: Always inspect the tree for its overall health and look in it AND neighboring trees for dead branches or dead trees that could fall.

Redundant Bridge – JRB recommends having 2 bridges on your saddle, if only for recovery scenarios. See page: Bridge

Lifeline, not Tether – JRB does not recommend a conventional short “tether” and instead recommends a “lifeline”, which needs to be on the tree the entire climb, rappel ready, prepared for any situation, whether it was anticipated or not.

Safety Factor – The safety factor is the ratio of the ACTUAL STRENGTH of a component to the EXPECTED LOAD. Example: Let’s say we have a rope with a Minimum Breaking Strength quoted as 4000 lbs. And lets say that the climber weighs 200 lbs and expects to use it in a NO SLACK Single Rope application. 4000 divided by 200 = a safety factor of 20. Lets say that same climber wanted to use it in a doubled rope application, where each of 2 strands of rope carries half the climber’s weight: 4000 divided by 100 = a safety factor of 40. JRB recommends a safety factor of 20, or 15 at minimum for any rope climbing components. For components like ladders, sticks, steps, JRB recommends a safety factor of 5.

Falls and Fall forces – Summarizing greatly, forces multiply quickly if a fall is possible. The accelerating effect of gravity causes the arresting force to be much greater than the weight of the climber. Our job is to eliminate the possibility of a fall, by the means described below.

Rope (and rope types), Cord, & Carabiners are all covered on separate pages.

Ten Rules for Climbing Safety

This video describes ten dimensions which every tree climber should consider, regardless of your climbing method. The Ten Rules for Saddle Hunting Climbing Safety:

  1. Tie In, and stay tied in for the entire climb. A Lineman’s Belt is NOT an adequate tie-in.
  2. Buy In, buy good gear from a good supplier.
  3. Homework, do your research, from CREDIBLE sources.
  4. Tree: Consider the tree, and look for hazards above you in all nearby trees, particularly dead branches.
  5. Manage Slack, less than a foot at all times.
  6. Strength; the strength of each component must be much greater than the working load.
  7. Inspect all parts your systems, including friction hitches, metal fatigue, etc.
  8. Practice; your climbing, and everything you do or might need to do in a safe environment.
  9. Consider the Stability of all parts of the system.
  10. Consider Murphy’s Law. If it can go wrong, it will. Every climber has a potentially unique system. Analyze YOUR climbing system and THINK about everything that COULD go wrong and have a plan when it DOES go wrong. Add redundancy where you can!

Ten Misconceptions in Climb Safety

This video was made a year later, addressing JRB’s assessment of the most common safety misconceptions. To be clear, the bold statements are the misconceptions (mistakes) that many climbers make:

  1. Assuming I am safe… don’t make that assumption.
  2. It’s not going to happen to me… it probably will if it can.
  3. Trusting my instincts … instead of education and proper use of climbing rated equipment.
  4. A Lineman’s Belt will protect me … it won’t.
  5. A short Tether is ok … need a Lifeline, a path to ground at all times.
  6. My weight is the important metric …. actually it’s your slack.
  7. ‘Not climbing high enough to get hurt… yes we are.
  8. Falling is the only hazard …. consider suspension trauma, conditions, falling objects.
  9. It works, don’t need to evaluate what could go wrong … we do.
  10. Rope climbing is difficult … only if you’re doing it the wrong way.

Self Rescue After Loss of Footing

Consider that components that we put our feet on could experience a failure, or we could slip off of them. We need to be prepared to recover from that situation.

Midline Munter Loop

Another tool that JRB discovered for self recovery scenarios… and you already know how to tie it.

Failure Modes and Mitigations

Although this video is specific to the JRB Stationary Doubled Rope System, no matter how you climb, watching this video may give you scenarios to consider in evaluating Murphy’s Law as it applies to your own climbing systems and methods.