No Dropped Call from the Treetops

One of the reasons I climb trees is to get away. For me there are a lot of things to get away from and tree climbing gives me a place to escape, if even for a short period of time. The ringing telephone is one thing I try to get away from. 

 

The very nature of phones, be they land lines or cellular, is invasive in that it calls us to react and communicate on demand. I know you can mute most phones and you can also rely on voice mail to pick up. But watch yourself the next time a call comes in on your portable and see if you do not instinctively reach for the phone. I usually don’t mute my cellular, because it creates a gripping fear I will forget to un-mute it when I have come down to earth after finding some peace up in the treetops.  That fear alone, of forgetting to re-plug into the communication grid, can take away from my tree climbing adventure.

 

I would like to report that I have overcome that obstacle to my tree climbing enjoyment but that would be a lie, or, more gently put, a dream. I carry my Blackberry up with me in anticipation that I might need to communicate in an emergency. I’ve never personally needed to make a call because of “my emergency,” as I have yet to be injured while tree climbing. But that call might be about someone else’s emergency, in which case I would probably want to respond.

           It’s a bit ironic that the higher I climb in trees, the better the reception I get. A few years ago I did some tree climbing in Sequoia in California. I was climbing out in the middle of nowhere, with no relay towers or towns for miles. I pulled out my little phone and called my girl, who is now my wife, to give her a report. To my surprise the call went through immediately and I was able to describe the sunset and paint a picture of what I was experiencing while 250 feet up.

          I’m getting better with my phone while climbing trees. I don’t grab as frantically for the device as I once did. I do however sneak a peek at the number and see if a voice mail is in the box when I find a good resting place. I don’t call back unless it’s my wife. I’m more deliberate with my phone handling too. I know that if I lose my grip I will suffer the consequences of a reality-based dropped call.

Comments

[Chagahunter (Marty Franklin)]

Aside from the Basic Tree Climbing Course, I've never climbed with other arborists. I always climb alone, and the trees that I climb are usually at least a 30 minute one-way drive into the forest. It's not that I'm a recluse, it's just that I live in Northern Minnesota and there are no other recreational tree climbers close enough to climb with.

So, as a safety precaution and favor to my wife, I climb with my cell phone and I text message her every hour to let her know that everything is OK. If I don't check in on the hour, she knows to send help to the GPS coordinates that I have sent her by text message. Fortunately, in over 35 climbs, I've never needed to be rescued.

Additionally, I have had some wonderful talks with my college-age children while hanging in a tree at 40 feet.

I love to be alone in the forest. I love to escape the city and the fast paced rat race. But I always have my cell phone with me when I climb. Maybe I'm lucky that only three people have my cell phone number - my wife and two children.

[Peter Jenkins]

Good to hear you are climbing on a regular basis. Texting from the treetops. That's quite a concept, especially for safety purposes. Never considered that. I can see where it would give you and your wife some comfort, being out in the forest alone.

It's too bad you don't have any climbing buddies yet. Keep checking in with TCI's climber finder using your zip code. That feature is always changing with new climbers signing on.

So I have to ask. Do you start your calls to your kids with "I'm calling from the treetops" or something along that line? Are they used to those treetop calls now or is it still unique to them?

[Chagahunter]

Actually, it is usually my kids who call me right in the middle of my setting up another anchor point at 40 feet. They are pleased but not surprised to find out that I'm climbing again. (DID I MENTION THAT I"M HOOKED BIG TIME ON TREE CLILMBING!!?)

I've learned that the anchor point can wait, and so I just make myself comfortable with a lanyard around the nearest branch and use up my prepaid minutes. If I have to return another day to make that next TIP, I do just that.

[Culinarytracker]

I keep a cell phone holster clipped into my newtribe harness. and a wrist lanyard from the phone to a mini carabiner. I manage properties and have frequently "done business" in the trees. I wish I could leave it behind. But being able to take it with me opens up that much more time for climbing :)

[Oldtimer]

I climb with my phone and sometimes I either take calls (wife announcing dinner is ready) or call someone special and let them know I am high in a tree again. It always makes them laugh and it is comforting to have that extra level of back up security just in case I need some help in the tree. I never have used it for a need to be rescue purpose yet!