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Came to this realization in the forest I live in about a week ago.
So I'm looking at a tree. Actually make that two trees. There's one, maybe 10 meters tall, and I can get to 8 without it buckling under my weight. I'm going up that one as a warm-up - due to recent events I haven't been climbing as much as I used to, still need to warm up the joints.
And above that is a much bigger tree which I want to get onto. Directly above, with a person's height of air between them. I want to go up, but I'm too lazy to go down. So I try jumping the distance. Grab top branch, pull myself up. So now I'm at about 10 meters. Hard part's over.
Shimmy over to the trunk, grab branch, do pullup, grab other branch, pull up with both branches, force left leg up, force right leg up, clockwork, repetition, ascension. Every tree has this golden zone that's easy to navigate because you're above the trunk but the branches are still big enough to support twice your weight. I'm in that zone.
Then I want to go see my house.
Grab branch, drop and hang, arm over arm to the edge of the branch, do pullup, grab smaller branch for support, pull up. I'm a bit lower because now it has room to bend, but I'm still around 12-15 meters up. So far so good. The branch is old and dry but it's holding. A little bit of rustling as I try and carefully drag my ass up. The roof is visible but I want a more impressive view. Picture-worthy.
I'm almost there. A few more inches and I can go for my camera. The rustling gets louder and then I realize it's not leaves, it's not the wind.
The branch is breaking under my weight.
Shimmy back. But to pull myself up, I have to push the branch down. And the branch is already too far down. So I'll pull it forward and push myself back. But it doesn't want me to move. It wants to fall. And the branch gets its wish.
This is where my mind goes blank. You don't really have the time to take in your surroundings when you have two seconds left to live. I just grabbed whatever I could. And whatever I could turned out to be the another branch. Not big enough to stop me - and I'm thankful for that. That probably would have jerked my arm out of its socket.
The wood and the leaves burned my fingers. The palm of my right glove was destroyed. And when the branch slowly shrunk, it stopped slowing me down. A speed at which I'd walk away with no broken bones, but still too fast for comfort.
I hit the ground hard. My mind turned on again. First I realized I was alive. That was good. Now let's try to move things, see if they still work. Left arm up, all good. Right arm up, scarred, but in working condition. Wiggle my toes, legs seem to be fine.
Finally I realized I was alive. And if it wasn't for that branch, that wouldn't be the case.
That in two seconds, I'd go from a happy healthy teenager sitting on a tree trying to take a picture of his house to an invalid or a corpse on the ground, at the mercy of whatever wants to eat me on the forest floor.
And I come to the revelation that although I wasn't going to die that day, some day I wouldn't have a choice. Everyone will die, young and old, big and small, reckless and cautious. Everyone will die.
I always like to end on a happy note, saying that today I climbed another tree, my first since that day, and my second in months. It fell under my weight (that is, the whole tree, not just the branch), but this time I just calmly maneuvered myself so I'd be on top when the branch fell and enjoyed the ride.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger 
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Belgium6771 Posts
This one time, I was sawing off dead branches while in a tree. I suddenly slipped due to some moss which caused me to fall with my back first.
Luckily, I landed about half a meter lower on a stump that was still sticking out. I have no idea why I didnt cut off that branch completely earlier, but if I had I would've probably broken my back and/or tailbone (which already hurt like hell by simply landing on it) with the 3 meter fall. Oh and, large rocks on the ground below.
High five for good endings!
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be careful!
but don't stop climbing trees 
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Sounds exhilarating. Good job for having the guts to just go and climb trees that are that tall O_O
Glad you're alive to share this story with us and yeah, stay safe x__x
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^Can't be too careful. Then it's no fun
On June 03 2012 07:50 Xeofreestyler wrote:
High five for good endings!
My hand is on my screen. Feel free to return the favor anytime 
Tomorrow I'm setting out on an adventure. I want to make it through the forest to McDonalds (about 1 mile from my house) without touching the ground once and come back with something to eat. McD's parking lot/property and mine are the safe zones.
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[UoN]Sentinel could have been no more, what would TL be like then? I like the juxtaposition of that, the seriousness of death... all for the innocent joy of climbing a tree to get a nice picture. Makes for a good blog...maybe a bit morbid. You should probably be more careful though .
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Just careful enough so you don't die >.<
That sounds AWESOME though, just swinging through to McDonalds and swinging back through the trees. We got a regular beastmode Tarzan over here :D I wonder though, what does the area around your house look like and in what region do you live? Slightly interested, is your house just surrounded by trees, picturesque natural landscape kind of idea?
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On June 03 2012 08:32 Aerisky wrote:
Just careful enough so you don't die >.<
That sounds AWESOME though, just swinging through to McDonalds and swinging back through the trees. We got a regular beastmode Tarzan over here :D I wonder though, what does the area around your house look like and what region do you live? Slightly interested, is your house just surrounded by trees, picturesque natural landscape kind of idea?
A bit southwest of New York, flat (another reason I climb trees, it's probably the only way to get above sea level where I live) and I live in suburbia but the entire neighbordhood is surrounded by about a half mile of forest.
And not really picturesque. Right now it's rather nice because everything just turned green, but there's still signs of civilization (power plant, old railroad, McDonalds) here and there.
I live right in the corner, so two sides I see houses, two sides I see trees. You get about 200 feet in you stop seeing the houses.
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Hmm I see.
Really not bad though, really cool that you can sort of escape into the trees and be sort of alone in the forest (yet not alone if you want to be transcendentalist ;P) that way in the middle of suburbia, just climbing and leaping around :O
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Well suburbia helps too. Sometimes I wear dark-green/brown/camo clothing, find a spot near the local pool, and just chuck rocks at the water. Done it twice so far, nobody seems to look in my direction
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GG, so ninja! On another topic, do you have a 320 kbps mp3 (or otherwise high quality) version of your Storms of Siberia song? I randomly checked your blog and I REALLY like it. Now I also can't help imagining swinging through trees or just hiding up in trees too, instead of the Siberian storms about which the song must originally have been written (well with something along those lines in mind at least). So good.
Edit: going through some of your that YT account, I LOVE this type of music, omg. It's all ridiculously good--I just love this orchestral type of songs, not to mention you have beautiful melodies and harmonies....judging by "wearesentinel", is it a band and do you have an album? Unfortunately I can't buy albums though so if it costs money then T____T but anyway it's so good and I was wondering whether you had any more of your songs in high quality? So. Freaking. Good.
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On June 03 2012 09:09 Aerisky wrote:
GG, so ninja! On another topic, do you have a 320 kbps mp3 (or otherwise high quality) version of your Storms of Siberia song? I randomly checked your blog and I REALLY like it. Now I also can't help imagining swinging through trees or just hiding up in trees too, instead of the Siberian storms about which the song must originally have been written (well with something along those lines in mind at least). So good.
Edit: going through some of your that YT account, I LOVE this type of music, omg. It's all ridiculously good--I just love this orchestral type of songs, not to mention you have beautiful melodies and harmonies....judging by "wearesentinel", is it a band and do you have an album? Unfortunately I can't buy albums though so if it costs money then T____T but anyway it's so good and I was wondering whether you had any more of your songs in high quality? So. Freaking. Good.
If you say so, although I would have never thought of putting the two together
Here's a wav for download: http://www.mediafire.com/?uhiv5vlhz5xoy7b
WeAreSentineL used to be a two guys one piano, me and a friend of mine. We'd just take turns writing songs and helping each other improve and have some fun along the way. Then he kinda split off, didn't like the concept anymore, so I've been going solo since (right around the time I started adding pictures on my YT videos). I'm planning to make an album with the (eventually) nine Infinity songs and Storms of Siberia. It'll be free, I'll have the whole thing up for download on Mediafire as well.
Any song I have up on YT i have a wav copy. Just PM and I'll send a link ^_^
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Sweetness. Thanks soooo much I have a pretty overeager imagination so I can imagine songs fit with completely incongruous scenes at times, so there you have it hehe. Anyway you're absolutely amazing, you know that? Sounds awesome ^^
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Do you still have the glove? should take picture, sounds badass
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On June 03 2012 10:55 QuanticIllusion wrote:
Do you still have the glove? should take picture, sounds badass
Nah, threw it out 
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EPT
