Quote:
Originally Posted by newguy18  I would have sworn it was the loggers of the late 19th century and 20th century.The climbing gaff was invented in 1896. |
That may have been connoted in the book The Wild Trees.
It included a section about an arborist who saw a guy on TV who said he learned to climb from Steve Sillett - using spurs.
So apparently, this arborist gets angry, and calls up Steve (Dr.) Sillett, and calls him a woosie, saying that he climbs like loggers, and that loggers are woosies.
Mainly in reference to the primitive / prehistoric climbing gear.
I think the arborist's point was that the gaffs are not really climbing gear - it's ascending gear, of a type that causes damage.
Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if there were some loggers back in the 1800s who already free-climbed some of these giants with just their bare hands and boots, and nobody knows about it.
The book defines "discovery" not as being the first to see a record size tree, but as the first to really recognize and record it as such.
It's even written that bushwhackers of forest workers may have seen the Grove of Titans before. The "discovers" don't seem to think they are the first ones to have seen some of the trees.