Effectiveness of straddle throw

I made my first climb in a conifer today. It's tough to find a decent conifer for climbing in my area. This one is a good sized fir. The challenge was I needed to make a 60 ft. throw to get the branch I wanted. I threw for 1/2 an hour with my usual one hand throw and was off target and too short. I don't know why I've been staying away from the straddle throw. Stubborn ignorance I guess. I tried a two-handed straddle throw and put it easily over the target branch on the first throw. There is no going back!

While I was in the tree I listened to a Great Horned Owl calling from a white Pine nearby. Juncos (small gray winter birds) and Red-breasted Nuthatches were settling into the boughs of the fir for the night at 60 ft. I never knew they roosted so high up.
-moss

Moss,

Interesting comments about the straddle throw. I went through the same thing. My highest TIPs were straddle. However I threw single arm for a longtime because it felt stronger. Abe's one armed technique can beat a straddle. He establishes a long pendulum and builds speed before release. I might be working on Abe's technique in 2006.

Well, I went out yesterday and threw for an hour into a white pine using the straddle throw and couldn't get a good branch It's a tough one 'cause it's a wild tree with many dead lower branches that I couldn't get past. Good practice but disappointed that I couldn't get into the tree. Next time!
-moss

Hey Moss,
It looks like we were on the same tree! I managed to wrap a couple of my throw weights on branches doing throw practice and finally have to pull the Big Shop and set an SRT line and go rescue my stuck gear. This was my Sunday afternoon Climb so it worked out right. Better luck next time!

Moss,

I never got my head around the straddle throw until Dick Flowers directly showed me when I was over in Michigan. One of those things I couldn't seem to absorb from a book (didn't "get" single footlocking either until he showed me). On my first try I got more height than I've ever gotten with a single arm toss.

That said, I'm a long way from getting it to work reliably; I like somebody's observation from another thread (was it Treeman?) that practice makes you luckier. I still have more practice (and considerably more luck) with the single arm toss.

I climb a lot of pines out here (the red and white pines are the main canopy emergents, so you get a nice view on top) and, yes, the lower limbs on whites are a real pain. At least the white pines have limbs lower down; the red pines, being shade intolerant, self-prune pretty high up by the time they're big enough to be interesting to climb.

I'll be interested to read your climb reports as winter goes on.

Cheers,
MarkF

What I'm calling the straddle throw is more commonly referred to as the cradle throw.
-moss