Self Lining

I've run literally hundreds of miles on the fells around where we live trying to find just some little outcrop that I can pop out to during the day to practise my rigging and ropework without the need to pack a big bag and head to the hills - or worse get in the way of people wanting to get some routes done.
Nothing - we appear to have no rock higher than six foot in a ten mile radius.

And then we pollarded the big old cherry trees in the garden last autumn - and the tallest of them stood there - looking like a little scaffold tower, and an idea started to form. The knee made me forget for a while, but today feeling confident I got out the big ladders - rigged up a couple of slings for an anchor and set up my own practise self line - it worked a treat - but to be honest I've now got my eye on some of the really big trees in the woods next door - this must be a climbers reaction as the skills are the same five foot or fifty foot off the ground - but obviously fifty foot would be better!