Safety Tips for Climbing Trees

dreamaker | Jan 27, 2011 |

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Safety Tips for Climbing Trees, is an article that will give you a few good tips to keep you climbing the tree and help you to keep from falling from the tree.

Let me tell you from personal experience the second one hurts like hell. It's really true what your mother told you, depending on just how high you go, you could easily break your neck.

There are certain precautions that all professional tree climbers take to ensure their necks stay intact. First and foremost they practice not falling. Second they employ the required safety equipment. This is key to a long life in the tree climbing business.

Tree Climbing Safety Equipment

There are a few things that you should have on hand before you make any attempt to climb a tree to any significant height. One is a safety harness like the one pictured above that will strap around your back and your legs. This gives us something to fasten our climbing belt to as well as any safety ropes we may be using. The tree hoppers belt above left is the last part of the equation. This goes around your tree and fastens into the harness.

Learn The Rigging

Learning about the equipment you'll be using is a necessity to your safety. Make sure you take the time on the ground to become familiar with the tools you'll be using to keep you alive. Also if you are going to be using a saw in the tree or dropping any branches, be sure you have a good grasp on simple physics and pay special attention to where the stuff is going to land.

Ropes have tensile strength ratings and this should be a known factor. Broken ropes lead to more accidents then anything else.

Make sure the rope you have chosen is of adequate strength for the job. Lowering limbs can be a tough thing to judge the stress factor on a rope and you should always figure it's a lot heavier then you think.

Climbing Trees For Fun

Every child gets to a point in their life, when they realize how much fun it can be to climb a tree. The problem with this is that usually it's well before they realize how much it hurts to fall from that high. Learning by experience isn't recommended when it comes to tree climbing.

One good tip that can help you stay in the tree is to always have three of four extremities holding on. In other words make sure you only let go with one Hand at a time or one foot at a time.

Move only one thing at a time and you'll have a good chance that the other three can keep you from coming down quicker then you would like.

Watch The Sky For Power Wires

Not all power wires are as obvious as the ones above and some can even exist without being detected from the ground. Never climb a tree with a wire heading into it or coming from it.

The proper electrical company should be called to remove any wires before tree trimming or limbing any tree with wires in, or around it.

Know Your Trees

If you are going to be using tree climbing spikes, you must know the tree your dealing with and the type of bark as well as how well it's going to take the spike. Taking a few minutes to test the hold when you spike the tree is recommended before actually climbing.

Put your gear on and make a five foot climb several times. This will allow you to see how the tree is going to respond to the equipment.

Some types of trees like oaks and other hardwoods will hold the spike well and never slip. Some however like palm trees and some soft pines will allow the bark to peel and slip the spike. Testing while your close to the ground is a good idea.

Ten Feet Can Kill You

Tree Climbing Is A Job For The Pros

Professional tree climbers train long and hard for the rigorous task of climbing trees for pruning or removal. Very extensive care is taken to make sure every precaution is taken. They put their lives on the line every time they go over ten feet. A small fall with an improper landing from a height of only ten feet or less can kill you.

If you are climbing a tree for fun then there really is no reason to take your life in your hands. Staying closer to the ground will reduce the chance of serious injury should you have a fall. If you are going to go higher then make sure the right safety gear is used.

Safety tips for climbing trees is only a reference to learn a few things to improve the safety factor of this activity. It has not trained you to climb trees and as a general rule, most people should keep their feet on the ground.