Big Tree Rigging

Hoffman Challenge Course, Ithaca, NY

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

            For big tree day, we decided to use the tulip poplars by the HCC, and Devin, Mark, Rob, and I packed up and headed out to rig.  This time would be a little more intensive than my last rigging venture, as we had to set up anchor lines for all the students.  Saturday’s class has 10 students, plus instructors, which translates to a lot of rigging.

            It took us quite a while to find the trees, and when we did one of them (the one that I had climbed, briefly, on my own big tree day) was looking rather sick.  The other one looked great, and Devin, Rob and I started shooting for it while Mark went in search of a good second tree. Devin gave me first go with the big shot, and I amazingly managed to hit exactly the highest crotch on my 3^rd shot.  As it turned out, that highest crotch was really, really high.  Our 200 ft rope didn’t reach, and we had to tie on another hank of static rope to complete the full circle.  I jugged up trailing my motion lanyard, and once I got off the main line, hauled up the short static lines for the anchors, 2 false crotches, and a hank of p-cord.  The view of the valley was really impressive, being 100 feet off the deck in a tree on Mount Pleasant (the highest point in Tompkins County).  

The lovely view

Now that I was in the tree, I realized that the rope I was jugging had been trough a crotch, but also over a very tiny, fragile-looking twig that had actually been supporting my weight the whole time I jugged.  A little freaky, but really, if that twig had broken, I would have fallen a maximum of 6 feet before the rope caught on the actual crotch of the tree.

            By now Mark and Rob were working on the second tree, and Devin had to leave.  I quickly set one false crotch and threaded the line through so that I could repel in case of emergency.  We ran into some snags (pun intended) when I pulled the rope up, as the knot connecting the long static with our extendo-segment got stuck in some twigs just out of reach.  We had to remove the extendo-segment, then Devin set one end of the rope in a hard anchor on the ground.  There wasn’t enough rope now to make a full circle without knots that I could be lowered on, so I was warned not to get myself knocked out.

            I set the second false crotch (spending way too long untangling the mess of p-cord to feed through), then worked my way around on my motion lanyard to set the anchors.  Finally, with 4 solid anchor lines and 2 elevators rigged, I switched to rappel (very easy off a motion lanyard, thank you blake’s hitches) and finally returned to the ground.

Amazing sunset-- I caught the beginning of it up in the tree, when I was without camera, and the end back at Bartels

            Mark and Rob had finished before me, as they had run out of anchor ropes to put up, and they helped me pack up the last of the stuff before we all headed out.  We nearly got the van stuck on our way out of the HCC, and had to back all the way down the road.  By the time we got back to Bartels, it was nearly 8, the sun was setting (gorgeous), and I was more than ready for some food and sleep.

My class later that week, enjoying my handiwork