New Era for the MPTC's

So, its been a year, and I've been lazy about posting... but alot has gone on. First lets start with whos departed and whos the new additions.
KD and Grubb both left the Mt. Pinos. KD is off to bigger and better things following his own path. Grubb accepted a Captains position on the helicopter in the Mesa Verde national park in Colorado. Bummer for us, but good luck to them in their journey. Bender and Panda had a child, Mason "the monster", and hes a natural climber. He will be making his climbing debut on the next video. 4c and his girl Brandy have joined us as casual climbers, and have been with Bender, Panda, Kitten and I on a bunch of climbs. Kitten and Panda (my and Benders girls, respectively) have started climbing more and are getting pretty good.
On to more recent news. Overall, the direction the MPTC (Mt. Pinos Tree Climbers) is taking has undergone a sort of growth in the last year. We are no longer focused on work related climbing activities, although we jump at every opportunity to get paid to climb, FS sanctioned or private contract. The other climbers and I had a pow wow and decided that we were all more into the recreational aspects of climbing. Most of us havent actually been paid to climb in several years, although the majority of us hold US Forest Service Certification at some level or another. Since we are getting more non-FS people in our little tribe, we are focusing more on exploring, teaching and making first ascents than with making a buck.
Bender and I are also pondering the idea of starting a treeclimbing clothing company. I am also playing around with the whole video/lifestyle side of treeclimbing. We have a lot of ideas to make treeclimbing specific clothing, and I'm upgrading my video equipment to improve the quality of the films. If I've every asked for feedback from you, my audience, now would be the time to speak up (constructive only please).
Oh and the fouth video should be done within a month. Its got climbs from Shaver Lake, Ca., and Giant Sequoia National Monument, Ca. on it so far. Gonna have some good music too.

Guestbook is back!!!

I got a older version of a guestbook up and running, so please take the time to leave us a message and tell us where your from!

Shaver Lake trip

So Bender and Amanda and a group of other "non climbing" people went to Shaver Lake on the Sequoia national forest today. They will be gone for a week, and Bender promised some pix and video. There's some impressive conifers and hardwoods up there, so it should be good climbin'. Unfortunately I couldn't get the time off of work, it being fire season and all, but I loaned my friend some gear so Bender wont climb alone (which is a big no-no in the FS). Needless to say, without gear, I will not be climbing until they get back... In other news, I have finalized the climbing shirt design for 2010, its at the bottom of the page. I have also posted a link to my facebook page under the "Contact Us" section. I have alot of climbing pictures as well as fire pix and short videos on there. feel free to check it out. Anyway, thanks again to all the climbers worldwide that have viewed this site. Its awesome to see such an interest in our little sport is a global phenomenon, that says alot about how people feel towards nature and trees in particular. Anyway be safe and have fun out there
J

Treeclimbers Worldwide

I just looked at the visitor map lower on the page, and it looks like we have had visitors from Hong Kong, Russia, France, Canada, and the US including Alaska! Thanks to all who have stopped by and drop me a line on the contact email to suggest how I can improve the site. Thanks again for checking us out!
J

New "Follower" feature

So I cant figure out how to fix our guestbook, so I put in a follower feature on instead. Hope you like to new vid...

New Video is up!

The 2010 video is finally finished! Its a little shorter than the '09 one, but its a little more polished up... Thanks to Corey for helping get footage at the '10 climbing school. Anyway, the vid is on the left, under the title "Climbing Videos". Its also on youtube.com, if you search FSclimber you'll find both vids there. Feedback is always appreciated! Oh, and heres a few pics of some recent climbs

Climbing School pt 2

Corey "graduated" climbing school and is now a USFS certified treeclimber! Congrats Cor! Grubb and Kevin both recerted successfully as well. Pics and video will be coming soon, maybe enough to finish the second video!