Hazard tree, highline

[cory]

I have a tricky tree removal, might do it tomorrow. It's a hemlock, fairly small, maybe 35' tall. It goes up from the ground about 10' then curves like a banana out and on up to the top. In the tension side of the curved area is loads of rot with some healing callus on the sides. Its in a confined spot on a short steep incline, leans over a fence with neighbor's pool and patio on other side. No room to cut it from the base. Top will have to be rigged down, No other trees close enough to tie into. I looked at it for awhile trying to see if we could do a gin pole with a tag line etc but ultimately not possible. So I figured I'd either climb it or maybe work it from a ladder but ladder probably won't be tall enough. While I was there I didn't think of doing a highline between 2 trees. I'm not sure from memory if there are 2 trees lined up properly to set up a highline and tie into the middle of it to work from it instead of relying on the tree to hold me. But if there are 2 trees in good positions for a highline, anyone used a highline before, any tips to offer?

Thanks.

 

[SkwerI]

Shoot a line in the top and give it a couple good pulls. If it doesn't break, then odds are you can successfully climb it and remove weight as you go to compensate for your body weight. Minimize shock loading, rig as little as possible. Keep it simple. A half inch rigging rope and natural crotching is a tried and proven method.

 

[cory]

Sound advice. I forgot to mention all the growth is in the top 8-10' so removing weight as I go isn't an option.

Shooting a line is a good idea though the usual issues of shooting a line into a tree by the fence, ie, throw bag falls on the neighbor's side which could be problematic plus difficult to retrieve.

I might have to go back and see if its reachable with a crane. I didn't think about it before because the tree is so relatively small, plus the reach may be impossible.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

I have worked off a high line. Few times. Have one coming up. No crane access or bucket. Crispy dead oak, one side fallen off. Two trees in line with it, both oaks and a high line can be set high enough to work the tree in question. Might have to catch a few pieces of it on a side with a barn. But catch like in natural crotch run it to the ground no bounce style. No Big Pieces. I have done it with a 300 foot long 100 foot high line on some pine spars left standing by ROW work. OH shit lanyard on those. Flip line and spur up, chunk it down. High line is springy like that. Used stable braid for the high line. Hung on that with a pully on it so I could move to the next stem. They were pretty close in a line. One fell over before I got there. Just collapsed under its own weight from 3-4 feet up. Some of them were still 50 plus feet standing.
Make sure you tighten it good, but not guitar string tight. Only has to mitigate a fall... and you will go boing bouncey if you do. Remember that the straighter and tighter the line above you, the less strength it has and you are exerting more force on the tie in points.
Ill probably use the HOBBS to tension mine where it feels right. Then spur up and get to work.
You can rig off a high line as well, but you have to keep it real small.

 

[Bermy]

'....boing bouncey...' great description !

 

[cory]

Good info, CV, much appreciated

 

[Tree09]

This is probably gonna sound dumb, but something that low i would almost consider some scaffold. You can do a free standing scaffold with a 4:1 height to base, so if you could rent some industrial stuff you could do 40 foot easy. Iirc @Ryan does it for a living so he would know best. I need to buy some at auction/ craigslist sometime, you can do a bunch of cool stuff with it, and it could come in handy doing compromised trees in crappy locations. Depending on the exact system you end up with you can do some serious rigging with one too. We would often have the carpenters build us portable "garages" using scaffold and ripstop visqueen, complete with roll up doors, flaps to go around pipe sticking out of it, heaters/ fans, a power strip, fire extinguisher mount and a pick point up top to fly it around with a crane or lull I've also used them to rig up different stuff using chain falls and the like, stuff weighing several hundred to 1k pounds.

 

[Altissimus]

A few times I've done it when I just couldn't trust the Tree , a little time invest to set lines but worth it ... I also set a block off the highline as well

 

[cory]

More good info there.

Good idea, 09 but ground is too steep for scaffolding.

I gotta go back and look again at the tree

 

[flushcut]

Crane, spider? Guy lines?

 

[cory]

No guy line option.

Gonna go back and look re highline or spider or crane

 

[stig]

We once had to set up a highline system to take down a large elm, that had been dead for 10 years.
Fortunately, there were 2 tall Beech trees on either side of it, so we could set a line high enough that Richard started dropping the thin tops with a tophandle and then switched to bigger saws as he came downwards.
The high line was quite long and therefore extremely bouncy.
To make it easier for Richard to go up and down, we set up a 3/1 system with 2 hitchclimber pulleys above one another, top one running along the line.
That way he could simply pull himself up by hand, which eliminated a lot of the bounce.
For moving back and forth on the line, we set two lines with prussics on the high line, one each way, then he could simply pull himself sideways.
Took me quite a few hours on the couch, thinking it through, to come up with that, but they were well spent.
I posted pictures in the, now lost, old forum, and have lost my own from having a lightening strike kill both my computer and the backup.

 

[DMc]

High lines are cool but rarely achievable in my experience. Everything needs to be just right; I.e., trees tall enough, close enough and in the right location that you can use adequately sized TIP points.

The force multipliers get huge on a horizontal line so you need to be careful. Guying out at a 45º angle, and inline with the load can help a lot.

 

[Tree09]

but ground is too steep for scaffolding.

With either cribbing or cuplock type scaffold, there is literally no such thing.

 

[Ryan]

We recently had two 40' scaffold towers around some cooling tower risers. Each one has 9 legs and a 14 x 14' base. It was a lot of gear and a big footprint. A smaller base would mean a wobbly scaffold which you'd have to either stabilize with the tree itself (which would only work down low where the trunk has less sway) or guyline outward. PITA. I'm also nervous about non scaffolders building a 40' tower on level ground never mind a slope.

Our legislation dictates an engineered print on anything over 32'8". I'm sure the state's are more lax but like handing a guy a chainsaw and saying cut that tree down, shit can go bad with a sketchy scaffold .

Wicked pictures Kyle.👌

 

[Tree09]

Lol found online, not mine. I would be fired if i was caught taking pictures

I'm the us, it's a 4 to 1 height to base. That's osha's standard.

 

[Ryan]

4 to 1 here as well for free standing. Smaller base needs to be tied in every 15' vertically (clamped to structural steel to keep from falling over.)

 

[cory]

Ha ya got me, 09.

I went back and looked again. Highline is out. Guys, etc, are out. No access for spider or tractor. Crane could probably reach over house from manicured front yard and one-pick it. Extension adder looks like it might work, ladder would be taking most of my weight, I could zip off the top bunch of branches with spear cuts to keep them within the confined area without wrecking ornamentals, fence, etc.. Tree is at top of a short steep hill in a corner created by 2 tall fences.
If I had to guesstimate, tree is compromised approx 50% by rot in the curving trunk 10' up from ground.

Barring catastrophe it would probably take 1.5 maybe 2 hours to do the job by hand. It's priced at $800.00. Min charge on the 55 ton is $1220.00. Decisions, decisions.

Doh! Edit: Aight. I wanna do the job by hand and make an easy 800. But getting crippled would put a bit of a damper on things. So I called my crane guy and described the situation. He's possibly the most humble and down to earth, yet very shrewd, guy I know. He insisted he'll just do the job for me, just throw the op a hundo or whatever. I said at the very least we'll split it. So, crane it is. Probably for the best. Why risk chit for one stupid job when I'm busy as heck with jobs that aren't so sketchy. Plus, I have a couple of nice full day crane jobs coming up to help take the sting out his very kind offer.

I was thinking about it, and if I did it by hand and there were no mishaps, afterward I think that instead of being pumped up about the fine performance and outcome, I think deep inside I would feel a bit stupid for having taken such a stupid risk and maybe even worry that deep inside I would be emboldened to take the same or greater risk in the future since this one worked out fine.

 

[lxskllr]

Safety first. If you aren't having a great time doing whatever, it isn't worth risking your life for it.

 

[pantheraba]

I like the way you thought this one out. Especially wise where you realized that "getting away with it" this time might embolden you to do similar stupid chit later (doh...done that, too). Cool crane guy you have!

Survive and thrive, bro!

 

[flushcut]

It's starting to sound like an $8,000.00 tree to me. Add more dollars and get a crane.

 

[SkwerI]

$400 for picking up a tree laying on the ground next to your truck versus $800 for a sketchy climb and then humping all that crap out of the back yard, sounds like an easy choice.

 

[cory]

Gary, awesome post. Yeah, 'getting away with it' is what I was trying to convey. Ya know, "old climbers and bold climbers but no old n bold"

And I like that, 'survive and thrive'. Is that a saying or you just come up with that now??!?

Flush, I hear ya. But I don't want to change the price on the guy. With a lil luck, I'll probably still make my daily rate after I do other jobs that day. Plus, Ive been at this so damn long, done so many jobs too cheap over the years. But lately I realize, I can't even remember basically any of them, even though at the time I'm sure I was disgusted, no doubt. Not that I'm losing memory, doh, but they all just blend together. Hit some home runs, a few grand slams, a buncha strike outs too, it all comes out in the wash, so to speak. So this lil job, I'll get the crane EZ PZ, make a couple dollars, move on, it really doesn't matter in the long run. Just tryna survive n thrive!

Edit: 100%, skwerl

 

[pantheraba]

hahaha....it just popped into my noggin'...I like the way your itty bitty tree is working out.

 

[Tree09]

Hell, line up some other crane trees and make a day of it