Sycamore Tree climbing

Looking around the neighborhood, the largest and cleanest trees are sycamore, wild cherry and walnut. Most of the walnuts are smallish and the cherry too brushy.
I know the Sycamore has thin bark and is easily harmed by climbing but wonder can they still be climbed using cambian savers and careful foot placement? Or should we just stay out of them?
Thanks,
Randy

Whenever i climb a Sycamore i feel that i should be climbing barefoot. Even with rope sleeves it is difficult to \"leave no trace\" since they are so tender. Even the squirrels leave tiny marks in them. My latest climb was thursday night in a Sycamore, for the full moon...and what a great tree to be illuminated by the huge moon!

Becki

Sycamores are great to climb as long as you don't have any reaction to the bark (the whitish dust deposit), some people do. If you're not scratching into the cambium layer you aren't hurting the tree, a cambium saver should be used and will successfully protect the tree from rope damage.
-moss

Great! Thanks for the feedback, guys and gals.
I'm headed for a Sycamore or two:>)
I have a monster behind my house down on a creek but the trunk is deeply hollowed near the ground. Its branches look solid and alive and nearly reach our backdeck 60 ft up. Still, I fear Treeman might rescind my certificate if he knew I'd been climbing a flawed tree.
Randy

I had a reaction to the dust the first time i climbed one but it was in the spring... and that happened after i had returned to the truck. Havent had a reaction to one since. Luckily i had lots of water with me as i felt like i had a huge hair ball in my throat. Lots of coughing and lots of water. I'll stay out of them in the spring.

Re: Sycamore \"toxicity\" and/or allergic reactions from The Natural History of North American Trees by Donald Peattie (a fascinating history of native American trees BTW), the problem is the fine \"hairs\" on the undersurface of the leaves. He wrote, \"Though we may smile at this, we may find some reason in this distrust of the abundant deciduous hairs upon the leaves, for being at once very light and sharp, they float long in the air and undoubtedly some people are allergic to them.\"
So, I guess winter climbing would be best?
Randy

anyone who's worked in asycamore knows that the leaves when disturbed during cutting and chipping will cause respiratory distress: coughing, wheezing, watering eyes and choking. I think if you're climbing in the summer keep a dust mask in your firstaid kit, if your careful you might not have trouble(\"might not\" should be emphasized, but you should be prepared.

Verry interesting. I've heard about many different parts of the tree causing problems from the powdery surface of the bark to the flowers but the leaf hairs sounds like the real thing. I've never had any reaction climbing in sycamores fully leafed out but then again I wasn't doing any work in them either.
-moss

If i remember correctly, my climbing partner was causing a bit of a stir in the canopy of this Sycamore...i think he was trying to encourage a widowmaker to fall so was stirring up the pollen or leaf hairs or whatever. Since then, when we climb Sycamores, we do so VERY gently.

Becki

Well, it's nice having a professional like sadams to give us the \"skinny.\" Thanks, Sam.
I have a slight advantage beings how I'm an eye surgeon. I'll happily grab a bunch of surgical masks and be certain to have one if climbing a leafed out Sycamore.
Anybody need a few, let me know.
Randy

Most interesting everyone, thank you for the great thread. I adore climbing in Sycamores because of their always interesting canopy structure. We don't have many in the Adirondacks of NY at all, but the ones in S.W. Penna that I get to visit from time to time are some of the most massive trees I have ever seen and I look forward to their company very much.

I experienced a rash once that I determined was from a Sycamore, and related the story to Patty Jenkins whose first question was \"Was it in the spring?\" I left the conversation with the impression that it was the whitish bark dust in the spring that gave me such an unpleasant souvenir from such a fantastic climb. It sounds like there are a couple of different concerns regarding interacting with Sycamores. It would be really good to get to the bottom of this.

Eric