Highpod/Gigapod

Disclaimer: there are 1312 ways of doing this and this is only a recommendation based on experience, not a definitive guideline. Think about it, figure things out, trust your judgement, check with people around you, and if you feel unsafe don't do it. But in the end of the day this is not rocket science. Don't be intimidated!

What is a highpod and and what is it for?

A highpod is similar to a classic monopod . The only difference is that is in the crown of a tree (or in more rare cases like Lützerath, tied to another monopod). The process of building the highpod itself is already well-documented in the Danni-technical-zine, and this page is partly copied from there, and partly informed by the experience of people who build highpods in various other occupations, like Lützi, Fecher, or Banny. 

A highpod has various use cases, including a potential function as a lightning rod, wind turbine above the forest, flag pole, or crow's nest. Most commonly though a highpod is used as a structure to significantly delay an eviction by having people climb on it. It is much harder to evict than a normal monopod, because it is much higher and harder to reach. Even after evicting it, it is quite hard to dismantle the pod itself, because of the fact that a trunk of several hundreds of kilos is standing upright in a crown of a tree, held up by ropes under tension. 

"In the Danni Eviction we made the experience that Building crazy structures lifts activists spirits
and can create lots of struggle for those who try to get people off these structures. A Skymono can
be built with our basic climbing and building equipment, but can easily extend over the cannopy 10
meters, more is thinkable as well!"

Advantages of the highpod

from the technical zine:

• None of the anchor-traverses can be cut before the whole area is free of persons, otherwise the
  Skymono could collapse. So freedom of movement through all traverses is given for a longer period of time
• Some standard cherrypickers cannot extend over 30 Meters, so bigger machines need to be
  brought in and maybe the ground must be prepared for their stability.
  
• It takes at least two cherrypickers to get activists down, and they must move to multiple
  parking-positions if climbers are not within reach.
• Climbing cops will not climb up the beam, as they can‘t trust it. So if cherrypickers can‘t
  access, it is not evictable and becomes a safe space for activists and valuable material.
• Every structure, that is above the anchor traverses, cannot be fully destroyed before the mono
  is down, because everything that falls on these ropes is a risk for the whole structure. So
  tree houses on the anchortrees can be reoccupied if the eviction isn‘t complete by dawn.
• The more anchor traverses are used, the less movability is possible for the cherrypicker-basket.
  Stacking smaller monopods over each other will create quite a web.
• Most cherrypickers with a basket cannot exceed much over 50 Meters, so climbing cops might
  hang from the hook of a crane, but not a technical unit required to open a lock-on at this height.
• The total amount of material is quite low, only for pulling it up a decent pulley system and
  around 15 activists are required. -super cheap!
• You get a great view of the defended forest!

Required Material

• main beam for the pod

The main beam for the pod should change in diameter as little as possible. more cone shaped pods mean weaker at the top and stronger at the bottom, so if you want them to be strong enough at the top, you will end up with very little weight at the bottom. In the technical zine it says ~20 meters long and minimum 20cm diameter where the anchor traverses are attached. This recommendation really depends on the use case: if the anchor tree of the of the pod is not that large, it would be irresponsible to load it with such a large pod. As the zine correctly notes: "A 20m beam 20-35 cm strong weights around 500 kg", which is not possible to rig in a lot of trees. If you are using a smaller pod and/or do not plan on climbing on the anchor traverses for some reason, it should safely be possible to go below 20cm in diameter where the traverses are attached.
Coniferous trees work well for this, because they usually grow fairly straight. Spruce, pine, or fir wood is also relatively light and flexible. Make sure to peel the beam before using it as it makes rigging easier and the beam more durable against insects, fungi and moisture. Removing braches is also strongly recommended for rigging.

• anchor traverses/ guylines

At least 3 anchor traverses are necessary, more is better. From 5 on one traverse can fail without risking the pod falling over. Quality polypropylene rope of 14 mm is recommended, one 220m roll might be enough for 3-5 traverses.

• pulley system (2:1 in the tree, 8:1 compound at the bottom)
  • 100m static rope (minimum)
  • 7 pulleys + carabiners (1 on the tree, 1 on the pod, 1 redirect at the stem, 4 in the 8:1)
  • 2 loops of accessory cord (Raupe) for the 8:1
  • 1 Distel (preferably thick aramide cord) + 1 mallion rapide for progress capture
  • 4 heavy duty webbing slings (1 on the tree, 1 on the pod, 1 for the redirect, 1 in the 8:1)

The pulleys should preferably have ball-bearings, especially those that get the highest loads (anchor tree, pod, redirect). An alternative pulley system can also be built with a grip-puller winch (Greifzug) replacing the 8:1 at the bottom.

• base of the pod

The pod can either rest on a small platform or hang from the anchor tree. For the small platform you need beams, crossbeams, planks, and 8mm poly as well as tree protection (as for any normal platform). You can also hang the pod from the anchor tree. In this case you would want three pieces of 14mm polyprop for the pod to hang in, as well as tree protection and a spacer between the tree and the pod. For the spacer, a round beam of 20cm in diameter will do. Make sure to carve a nudge into it so the pod can pivot on the spacer, but not break out to the sides.

How to build it

Bringing the pod

After preparing the tree to become a beautiful highpod, bring it to the tree. It might be too heavy to carry it, even with a lot of people. In this case you can either use a heavy duty trailer, roll the beam on smaller logs (think moving big pieces of stone for building pyramids), or (if you have a clear path) you can build a pulley system and just drag the pod.

Place the pod with the top end to the tree and with the bottom away from it, this way it does not need to be stabilised while pulling it up. If you do it the other way around, the pod will stand up on its bottom next to the tree and potentially swing uncontrollably. 

Preparing the (anchor) trees

Once you found the main tree, you should also find 5 anchor trees for the traverses. The angle between these trees should be roughly equal so that all traverses exert a similar force on the pod when stabilising it. Ideally, this means you have a 72 degree angle between all the five anchor trees. 

The main tree of the pod should obviously be very tall and healthy, with the attachment of the pod being sturdy and not above a V-shaped crotch, which might critically destabilise the tree. The anchor trees of the pod should also be healthy, but do not need to be as tall as the main tree. Look for any damage on the tree itself, but especially on the section that you would like to anchor your traverse on and the root base of the tree to minimise the risk of the branch snapping of or the tree being uprooted in a storm. Once you have found a suitable anchor point, you can mark it by installing tree protection there, to protect the tree from the polyprop of the anchor traverse.

In the main tree, you can either build the platform, or install the spacer if you hang the pod. During this step, you can also already install the pulley system

Installing the pulley system

At this point, you need to install the pulley system to lift the pod into the first position. To do this, find a good spot at least 3 or 4 meters above the point where the pod is supposed to end up. Here you can build the 2:1 with one end of the rope on the tree, a bight of the rope going down to the pod, where it can be put through a roll, and a second roll up at the top. At the ground you can build a redirect at the stem, with the 8:1 compound behind it. The whole pulley system should look something like this:

 

from the technical zine:
"The pulley system should be setup with the option to increase and decrease the strength quickly. If
there is a risk of being interrupted by cops while pulling it up, the brake (eddi/grigri) should be
installed off the ground, so the remaining pulley system on the ground can be broken down quickly.
Even a setup with a vertical pulley system worked out well. We have worked with 1:6 up to 1:30
Pulley systems, somewhere in between is fine with 10-15 people pulling. The heavy duty rolls and
carabiners should be installed at the first few turns, if they have ball-bearings that is even better.
Standard climbing rolls have a lot of friction under such heavy loads, so they should rather be used
in the second multiplication. A pulley system with multiplications (a pulley system pulling on a
pulley system) does not need as much equipment as normal one, but is a little bit more complicated
to build and use."

Note: Since then, multiple iterations of this system have been tried out. Using a GriGri as a brake did not work out well in Fecher, where the tension on the rope going through the GriGri became so high, that it became almost impossible to use the lever. Furthermore, using any other device than a GriGri, will decrease the efficiency of the pulley system more because the angle of the rope going through it deviates more from 180 degrees. When using a Distel as a progress capture using thick Distel (and maybe multiple of them for redundancy). There are reports of building highpods and completely smoking the accessory cord of the Distel in the process, giving the pulley system rope a glassy coating and rendering it unusable after.

Pulling up the pod (step 1)