Motion Lanyard Test Run

Cornell Plantations, Ithaca, NY

Saturday, April 11, 2009

            I’d been itching to take my motion lanyard out since the day I got it in the mail, and setting it up across my dorm room didn’t quite cut it for me.  I convinced Melissa to come along (because smart people don’t tree climb solo), and we walked out around Bebe Lake to a relatively isolated spot next to the creek.

Trying out my motion lanyard between the beds-- maybe not the best place to climb

            I found a tree with a couple relatively low branches (probably 30 feet up), just to try going up and down on the ml.  Melissa was skeptical about the alive-ness of the tree, given that none of the trees were leafing out yet.  We pulled a z-drag just to be safe, tying one end of the arborist rope off with a tensionless hitch and putting a 3-to-1 on the other end, and the branch passed with flying colors.

            I strapped Melissa in to the ml set up first, because she wanted to try it with out beta, as she said (silly rock climber).  I showed her foot locking, which she had some difficulty with, then hip thrusting, which provided even more timing-related challenges.  With the help of an auto-tender, she made it up to the top.  Her rappel was speedy (thank you shiny new rope) but controlled with the tail of the rope backed up underneath her.

            We swapped off, and I went with foot locking as my method of choice.  The top yielded a lovely view of the falls leading into Bebe Lake, as well as the back windows of several houses across the creek.  Hopefully the occupants were feeling unobservant.

Waterfall leading into Bebe Lake, as seen from up a tree

            After a quick rap down, I slipped out of my harness to let Melissa give it a try. Compared to her much less cushy harness, she really appreciated my super-padded leg loops. We packed up after that (some people had homework, what a concept).  I enjoyed the addition of a little dirt christening my arborists rope, which was far too white before.