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Tree - Self Rescue Kit Information and Sales Page

Don't Be Left Hanging Around! Sometimes we make mistakes. We forget that we are first and foremost glider pilots and that if the lift ends, we need to have a place that we can still glide to and maneuver to make a safe landing. Sometimes the wind picks up unexpectedly and what was an easy glide out to our landing zone is now impossible and we are forced to assess other options. Perhaps an equipment malfunction like the tangled brake line in the upper cascades of this poor fellows glider degraded the performance so that what is normally an easy glide to the LZ is now impossible. Maybe you had to throw your reserve in the heat of battle, and you were lowered into the forest canopy because of your limited control. One thing is certain. As long as there are pilots flying paragliders, pilots will be landing(?) in trees. Typically a tree landing causes little or no damage to the pilots or their gear. It is a proven fact that it is often far safer to maneuver to land under control in a tree canopy than to suffer the results of radical maneuvering in an attempt to force an arrival into a landing zone that is too small, or to try to extend the glide to a point that can't be reached. Once you're in the tree though, what do you do? The first thing should be to secure yourself and stay put while you assess your options. Are you secure, or likely to fall out of the tree because you are barely caught? If you're secure, you should first get on your radio or cell phone and let others know where your are, and what's going on. If it looks like the ride isn't over yet, and your about to fall out of the tree, you might consider pulling on your reserve handle to get your kit, and tossing the works over any branches close enough to reach... just in case. If you have no radio, no friends, and no way down, you may end up looking like our model. This is where our Tree-Self Rescue kit comes in. It's designed to allow you to safely extract yourself from the tree. Whether you choose to rescue your gear, or leave it for later retrieval depends on your skills and each individual situation. Note - The image depicted to the left, while a distinct possibility, is not real. It was staged using some gear normally lying around our shop at one of our clinics. No pilots were sacrificed, starved, weather beaten, or otherwise injured in the shooting of these photos.

As I sat down to review this page, I noted that in the 6 years since this device has been introduced, we have sold well over 2000 of the devices all over the world. Our kits have been used by dozens of solo and tandem pilots to get themselves and their passengers safely down on the ground. This device is a tremendous improvement over the belay devices we used to include in our tree kits because it is designed specifically for 6mm perlon. It prevents the line from tangling, causing the device to jam, and we were able to incorporate a set of wrench flats into the device to enable a pilot to loosen riser quick links to remove the lines and make extracting the glider from the tree a far easier process.

If you have purchased a complete kit from us and have lost the instructions, or if your simply purchased the device itself and wish to download a set of instructions to print out, please follow this link to view to download our most current tree rescue kit instructions, which shows the device in use. Please note that TowMeUp.com ONLY recomends the use of this device with 6mm perlon, or climbers static cord. There have been a few recommendations by others who suggest that this device will work with 4mm to 6mm perlon. While this is in fact a correct statement (certain military applications use this device with 3mm Technora descent line, but then, these guys need the smallest kit possible and consider the risks of rapelling on dental floss thin lines safer than being shot at), it is an extremely unsafe practise. Before you even consider using anything less than 6mm perlon, consider this important fact:

When you knot a cord or line, you will lose 40 - 50% of the rated strength of the line. If you were to use say a 5mm climbers static cord, that means that you will have a breaking strength of as little as 600 pounds. Bounce off a tree limb, or make a quick stop on the descent, and it's quite possible you'll be falling to the ground! At TowMeUp.com we have a special 6mm climbers static cord custom made for us with a breaking strength in excess of 2400 pounds. This provides a safe working load when used carefully to perform a self extraction from a tree.

Please note that you MUST practise with the use of this device BEFORE you find yourself stuck in a tree. This enables you to become familiar with the equipment, and verify the number of wraps used to slow your descent is sufficient. It's also a good time to practise extraction where you can't reach the tree and need to use your glider riser quick links as an attachment point to rapell from.

A few pilots have noted that their current harness design doesn't have large enough side pockets to keep the entire tree self rescue kit stored within reach. The solution is simplicity itself. What you need to do is remove the line, carabiner and LetMeDown device from the bag, and untie the knot that secures the tail of the descent cord to the bag. THIS KNOT AT THE END OF THE LINE IS IMPORTANT, AS IT KEEPS YOU FROM RAPELLING OFF THE END OF THE LINE IN THE EVENT THE LINE DOESN'T MAKE IT ALL THE WAY TO THE GROUND. Now take a small soldering iron and melt a hole on the inside of a pocket that is accessible in flight. Pass the end of the line through the pocket and securely tie the line to a reinforced strap inside your harness. Typically the supports for the leg, or across the back are a good place to secure the line. Feed the extra line so it is flaked inside the harness where it will be stored out of the way. If you wish you can leave the line flaked inside the storage bag, but we have found that if you check your harness periodically the line is easy to extract if it is flaked inside cleanly in the first place, and you don't need the small bag. Leave the belay device, quick link, and a few feet of line in the accessible pocket. If you land in a tree, secure the cord as normal, then withdraw the entire section of cord from inside the harness before attaching to the LetMeDown device and rapelling out of the tree.

There have been a few instances where pilots have landed(?) in the canopy where they couldn't possibly reach the main trunk, or worse, where they were hanging by their glider that had snagged some branches leaving them hanging by their risers. The arguement goes, how exactly can a tree kit help them out? First let me note that there are no fixed and firm rules for what happens after you land(?) in a tree. The final outcome is really based on the pilots skills, knowledge, and what equipment he or she chose to carry. If you don't have a tree kit, or know how to use it, all the options related to it are gone. You're either going to toss your reserve and climb down it to safety if possible, or use it to more securely snag yourself in the tree... just in case.

Should you wish to rappel out of the tree without making it to the trunk, it is quite possible and there are a few ways to accomplish the feat. I will say that none of them are particularilly easy, and all of them require you to have practised the maneuver first before you attempt it in real life. Should you wish to see how we recomend it, follow this link. Getting out of a Tree While Suspended.