First Big Top - using redirects on slopes

[pantheraba]

My son has been doing some climbing occasionally, usually limbing trees and has done a few small tops (trees maybe 50 feet, 16" dbh, maybe 10 foot top). We own a rental property in NC and two roofers have told us that two pines near the house are causing the roof to go bad due to the accumulation of needles on the shallow slope of the roof.

Alex and I drove up Saturday, seven hours, got there about 5pm and hoped to get some lines set so we could start early Sun. AM. He decided to go ahead and climb up and get some limbs out of the first culprit tree. He used a Thor's Hammer technique (will post that video later) and decided to go ahead and throw the top while he was up there.

Yes, the sun was starting to try to hide behind the mountain ridge...SOP for me, it seems. Here is what I consider to be a fair size top he took out of a white pine. The trees were on a pretty steep slope...the top hit and slid down slope. You can hear some yay-hoo down the road hollering, "Timber!!". It is not as dark as it looks, camera was pointed up at sky, but is was getting dusky.


<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/66AKqYPkxok" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

On the second cut (he decided to take the center spar piece since he was already there and it was not completely dark yet ) it somersaulted down the slope (end over end ) and landed between the two trees where I was standing with the pull line...pictures of that later, too.

The slope was steep enough that we shot a redirect line into a tree about 40 feet up the tree at the bottom of the slope...we hung a pulley from a false crotch line...this let us pull out on the top and not down. We tried with a straight pull from the ground at first but did not have enough "oomph" to move the top. This redirect pulley up high made a lot of difference in being able to get pieces started falling...just had to remember to release the pull line once a piece started falling..the pull line gets pulled UP as the piece goes down.

We ended up taking down seven trees, I think we only climbed three...good for us. We usually limb, top, rig, etc...dropping whole trees is way more fun.

I'll post some more picts and a bit of video later.

















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[Tarzan]

Awesome! I sure hope I can get one of my kids interested in doing this work. I tell them all the time that if they would show more interest they could learn enough so that when they move out, they can maybe put themselves through college. My Dad was a Timber Faller, which is what I aspired to do when I was a boy, but I wish he would have been a tree climber instead!

 

[stig]

Nice, Gary.

You are getting some fun and interesting jobs lately.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Cool, Gary. Thanks for posting it. Bet he was STOKED!

 

[Treepreacher51]

 

[pantheraba]

Yep, you can hear in his voice that he enjoyed the ride.

Tarzan, when we surveyed the first tree that first afternoon and I said I would go ahead and get some of the limbs down in preparation for the next day's work, he said, "you know, I'm going to have to start doing the climbing sometime." It seemed like a good tree to work on for him so up he went. It's a good skill set to have under his belt.

 

[Tarzan]

Yes it is, and I am sure you are proud of him!

 

[MasterBlaster]

I like the guy yelling "TIMBER!" Haha!

 

[flushcut]

Sweet!

 

[pete mctree]

Nice Gary.

 

[gf beranek]

right on, Gary!

 

[CurSedVoyce]

You realize that now your son threw a top, he is an addict for life Gary?
Good to see him get to have some of the fun

 

[gf beranek]

Yeah I can relate to it.

 

[ClimbingFool]

Nice Job! Always fun and rewarding watching your son accomplish something you've taught them to do.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I remember my first toss... the fools pulled like a mofo, just to give my noob ass a ride. They taught me a good lesson that day that I've used all my life.

 

[SoonerFan]

What was the lesson?

Hang on tight? Don't let your friends have a pull line? Do something different than what was done?

 

[MasterBlaster]

Know how to hang on!!!

 

[SoonerFan]

Aaahhh.

 

[Bodean]

Wow, Gary. That's really cool to see, you're kid is stoked.



It's a good skill to have under his belt, good confidence builder too, I'm sure.

 

[Tucker943]

Tree work sure does build confidence. It should anyways.

 

[Jed]

Gary: That video absolutely made my day.

Gotta love this work. Your son did really well.

Good dad.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Aaahhh.

You'd be surprised how many people don't know how to do that.

 

[pantheraba]

Thanks, Deva and Jed...I appreciate the kind words and enjoyed sharing what I found pleasing.

And you are right...he was stoked. Today I told him I thought I would come to his house to take out some dead oak limbs over his driveway. He told me to bring the spurs so he could start taking some limbs out of a big sweetgum in his front yard that we have been talking about getting rid of...he's ready to DROP some wood.

I have another video snippet to edit of an 80 foot white pine we dropped...it landed on a stump about 15 feet away and the butt jumped up about 10 feet...a real bucking bronco. I'll get that out soon.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

You'd be surprised how many people don't know how to do that.

I'm for one, partially.
Surely, some advices should be cool to know.
Usually I hug the tree like a koala, works well for the round bumping in the spar (the spar comes toward you). but not for the heavy top catch during his fall on a relatively skinny spar (spar goes away extremely fast).
I took 2 bad rides not long ago.
One in a small Cupressus, I was tied on 4" trunk and the top was around 12' above me, with no more valuable limbs to climb farer, only twigs and a big bunch of seeds, damn heavy. Wires under me and a wall fence with small tiles, almost no drop zone. I put a sling in a self retaining mode and cut... ouch, what a start when the sling catch the top. Before my koala's hug. I heard (and feel) a cracking sound in my back and ended all bulky. Just in front of the home owner of course.
Only one week later, same player, on a big London plane 100' tall, actually a regrowth on a very old pollard (16' high by 5' trunk)with a wide and open crown. There were more co-leaders than limbs but some over the neighbor have to go. He had a big underground watering project still under construction. I was alone, with no time to do things properly (thanks buddy !). So no rigging line and like a moron, I decided to cut the top of this co-leader with my favorite rigging system: the self retaining sling (but a big one). Not very wise for a piece like 8" by a good 25' (the part over the fence) at 60' high. Different size but same ride as in the cupressus, with a rocket start before my koala's hug. Ouch again!

I'm surely a little slow minded but I understood two things :
Now I'll take all the time needed to do it the right way, no more shortcut.
I have to find an other technique to take the ride (in case where I don't have the choice), as my koala's hug doesn't work in all the situations.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Usually I hug the tree like a koala

The trick is knowing at what moment to do that. It's gotta be when the bend/bind is complete... THEN you hug that sucker. It's just a ride back as opposed to a SLAM back.

Am I clear as mud?