Training → About
Fourteen acres, twenty-two stems, five instructors
Crownrig Training LLC has taught climbing and rigging from the same ground on the French Broad river since 2011.
How the school started
Two climbers who had spent a decade on removal crews got tired of watching new hires learn the job by copying whoever they were paired with. Sometimes that meant learning well. Often it meant inheriting a bad habit and a false confidence, and finding out which one it was at forty feet.
The school opened in 2011 with one course and one instructor. It now runs six courses and caps every one of them, because the moment a group gets past four candidates to an instructor, the instructor stops watching climbers and starts managing a crowd.
The ground
Fourteen acres holding twenty-two training stems: mature oak and poplar for work positioning, a stand of pine for rigging, and six dead-topped stems maintained specifically for rescue scenarios. A leased stand at Sandy Mush provides taller timber for the advanced rigging block.
The stems are surveyed annually by an arborist who has no other involvement with the school. Two were retired from the training rotation last year on that survey's recommendation.
What we are not
We are not an awarding body. We deliver training and, where permitted, host assessment; the credential is issued by the awarding organization against their criteria. We do not sell equipment, take commission from manufacturers, or teach a system because a supplier sponsored it.
We also do not run removal work in competition with the crews we train. Instructors climb commercially, but the school does not bid for tree work in this market.
Safety on the training ground
Every course opens with a kit inspection and closes with one. Candidates climb on their own inspected equipment from the advanced blocks onward, and anything that fails inspection is retired on the spot — we would rather lend a rope for the week than watch somebody argue for a sling.
Incidents and near misses are recorded and reviewed quarterly. The register is available to any employer sending candidates, on request and without conditions.
