English Open 2008 Masters Challenge

Image 1 - Jo Hedger getting a little breath after ascent into the Masters tree.
Image 2 - Scott Forrest installing his anchor point
Image 3 - Jon Turnbull working the extreme rope angles
Image 4 - The Masters Challenge tree from ground level
Image 5 - Jon Turnbull, Ross Kite, Philippa Allen, Scott Forrest, Jo Hedger, Rhys Brace & Mark Fraser. A great effort by all, congratulations & well done.

I was kindly asked by Alex Laver (TCC chairman) if I'd be keen to set up the masters challenge tree late on Friday afternoon. It has been a few years since I was last asked (for various reasons) & I jumped at the chance to give the finalists a run for their money. I basically feel that if a climber is good enough to reach the masters then the climb must ask more of the individual than just how good a climber they are. If the climb is finished too soon their resolve & decision making abilities don't even come into play so with this in mind myself & Ben Connon went to work. It was after 7pm before we came out of the spreading oak pleased with the task we'd set for the following day. Sadly for myself I was not going to be there on the Saturday to see & hear how it was, but regular text messages kept me updated.

Only one climber finished the job having reached all four stations & removed all equipment before the time was up, 25minutes. This for me was enough to know that the task was difficult but not too difficult to manage in the time allowed. The final placings were Scott Forrest, Rhys Brace, Ross Kite, Mark Fraser & John Turnbull in the mens event; Jo Hedger & Philippa Allen in the womens event. If my understanding is correct, this means that Scott has earnt himself a place on the UK & I team for the European championship to be held in Malmo, Sweden in June 2009.

The final word goes to Scott, who with the winning climb under his belt said, " That was the most challenging & best Masters event tree that I've ever climbed in!".

So, as far as I'm concerned the job asked of me was okay & if there is a next time I'll look upon the task with the same view of how high the bar can go without being too high.

Cheers for now & well done to everyone who spent many hours organising, setting up & generally making the event happen.

G'luck
Nod

Climbing comp in Hampshirre

Good Afternoon Folks,

Last Friday & Saturday saw the start of this summers full house of tree climbing championships organised by members of the ISA. Sparsholt College in Hampshire was the venue for the English Open where a handful of mature ash & oak were chosen to test the ability & nerve of those climbers brave enough to venture out. By now the ISA competition format is well known by many as it has not changed dramatically for the past 10 or so years.

It has been said in the past that these events can be elitest but I feel that there is so much potential to watch & learn that anyone put off from attending should really just turn up, hang out & find out for themselves what's on offer. Even those who feel the're seasoned climbers may see possibilities not previously encountered. There's normally a plethora of individuals more than keen to share their experience & knowledge.

The preliminary events on Friday went off in good spirits. Some were overjoyed at their results whilst others hadn't done as well as they'd hoped. I guess that the ideal way to compete is to enter without expectation; this way means disappointment is a rarely experienced factor & there are normally more smiles to be had.

Seven climbers were asked to be ready for the Masters Challenge to take place on Saturday & by all accounts a challenge is exactly what it was!!

Nod

The beginning of Treeworkers blog effort

Hi Folks

Today has seen the creation of our blog page, which I hope will form part of the future interaction that we hope to make with our client base.

Linking it to the webpage means that we can bring you news of what we're up to, of happenings within the industry, day to day images of our life with trees & hopefully much more. We do hope also that it will become a place for all to interact, comment & question anything regarding the daily work that we do. Feedback is an important aspect of being able to improve the products & service that we currently offer & I see this as a great place to find inspiration.

I have always believed that the Treeworker thing would be more than just selling tree work products to treeworkers. Change comes slow, but that is just fine!

Cheers
Nod

Welcome to the New Treeworker blog

See our new harness by Petzl:

http://www.treeworker.co.uk/acatalog/Sequoia_Climbing_Harness.html

All the best,

Nod