Joey's Broken Back

[Jed]

We've got a young climber who gets thrown into the mix a bit more than I'd like right now because we're a bit short-handed.

Yesterday, he removed a small Fir, and left his climb line in the stob so that his foreman (not I) could pull it over when he fell it. We always use a running bowline, about 18 inches down the back-side of the stick, with the standing part of the line running UP the remaining 18 inches, and over the top side of the stick (so that the knot will be easy to untie, when the stick's on the ground). He then repelled off the same line using a Munter Hitch on his biner. Somehow.... I do not ask you to try to visualize how, nor could I possibly do it.... the line slipped off of the top so that his body fell that exact 18 inches, thus jerking the line out of his hands. He then sped down the 25 foot stob with no hands beneath the binder to control the rate of descent off the Munter. He landed on his back on a brick wall, busting only a vertebra. He's expected to be released from Overlake Hospital tonight. The doctors are thinking that he won't need surgery, and that he'll be back to work in two to four months depending on his progress.

I can't stop thinking about the fact that if he'd just fallen a hair-bit farther, he'd be paralyzed. Ohhh thank you, God, and yet:

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

Sucks, Jed. Hope he heals well, and quickly, and W/C doesn't f&^k him over.

A munter hitch rappel is fine, with your spurs and lanyard around the spar just in case. When lowering with one hand the other easily minds the flipline down the trunk, IME. A fireman's belay is another option as a back-up instead of spurs and flipline, but doesn't count as life support, as you're on a rigging line.

Rappelling is the most dangerous part of rock climbing, I believe. So often rock climbers don't use a back up friction hitch while rappelling. Dumb.

 

[Bodean]

Best wishes! Dang.

 

[Stumper]

I'm a chicken. I don't rap down with a munter or even on a Fig 8. I am paranoid so I want a hitch (or device).that will do its thing if I slip, pass out or just get stupid. So sorry about your guy.

 

[atw]

hope he heals well. I had a guy a few years ago do the same exact thing, but on a figure eight. only difference was he landed on a soft pile of brush and was unscathed, little shaken up though. It scared the hell out of me as I watched him fall to the ground.

 

[FireFighterZero]

Sorry to hear. Glad he will recover.

 

[Jed]

Sean: Good advice, duly noted.

Stumper: Chicken? Smart!!

Jim: Thanks. Yeah, he's young and strong. If I had to guess, I'd say he'd heal well. We'll see.

 

[Porkbrick]

glad he will be ok, sucks he got hurt.

 

[sotc]

Sorry to hear Jed, best wishes to him

 

[PCTREE]

We are in a dangerous business for sure. Hope he recovers fully.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

Jed, were you at the accident?

I"ll sometimes put a little notch/ groove with my saw on the rappeler's side of the spar. Keeps the rope in place on a smaller diameter spar.

 

[MasterBlaster]

So sad to hear, but it sounds like he was lucky... so to speak. Damn.

 

[pantheraba]

Sorry to hear this...let him know some folks out here are saying a prayer for him.

 

[stig]

So you use a climbing line to pull trees over with?
No way I'd let anybody do that with my line and climb on it afterwards.

 

[Jed]

Sorry to hear this...let him know some folks out here are saying a prayer for him.

We just covet this Gary. He's a believer also.

 

[Jed]

So you use a climbing line to pull trees over with?
No way I'd let anybody do that with my line and climb on it afterwards.

We do Stig, though we never put hard pulls on them. I always make the provision of a downward angled notch in the top of the spar to run the part of my rope through that will make contact with the ground; but I rarely use pull-lines now, preferring wedges.

This kid's only been in tree work for a little over three years, and his current foreman has very little experience also.

 

[Jed]

Jed, were you at the accident?

I"ll sometimes put a little notch/ groove with my saw on the rappeler's side of the spar. Keeps the rope in place on a smaller diameter spar.

Yeah, he actually "told" (he was on a ton of morphine) our boss in the hospital that this is the one provision, that he should have made.

 

[stig]

Jed, I was not so much worried about the pull, since the force needed to trip a spar is usually smallish.
More about the rope being squished between the falling spar and whatever it lands on.

Tel the kid from me that I fell out of a tree and broke a vertebrae in 83 and made a full recovery that has allowed me to log on till now.
He'll most likely have to take care to keep his core muscles strong from now on, but so should we all in this business, really.

 

[MasterBlaster]

We do Stig, though we never put hard pulls on them.

Of course. No big deal at all.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

Somehow, isn't that against the law? Is it a 'Should' or a 'shall', if I have my terms correct?


My two cents, its stupid not to swap a rigging line. Of all the effort in a day, pulling a rigging line up, keeping life support separate from rigging, keeping the climb line free from being trapped/ damaged under a log, and keeping the climber moving, seems so easy. If an old scrap of rope gets pinned/ damaged/ cut, who cares, compared to a climbing line being damaged?

I also am tied n twice, chainsaw or hand saw, almost always. Safety Sean, I've been told. Better than dead or reckless Sean, IMO.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Pulling a stub over with your climb line is harmless. Rigging with it is a different story!

 

[pantheraba]

I am with Sean....lifelines shouldn't end up under a spar that was felled...could be a rock under the dirt that anvil-ed the rope between it and spar. Could be hard to see the damage...especially if that is last cut of the day, getting dark, want to get rope out and go home.

When I learned in the 70's on manila we climbed, rigged, pulled over spars, all with the same 3 strand manila. We also free=climbed to the first convenient place to put a lanyard around the tree. And when you got to the next limb, be it 10 feet up or 80 feet up, you held on with one hand, removed the lanyard, worked it over the limb that was in the way and kept going.

All pretty dumb looking back. That one lanyard, free climbing madness, holding on thing...they earned me one broken wrist and one spike puncture above the right knee.

Not pretty dumb...real dumb.

Climbing line / life line get special treatment with me...but I'm crazy like that.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I guess I should have clarified that it was no big deal unless you were pulling it over onto concrete or rocky surfaces. I kinda figure that was a given...

 

[Mick!]

Climbing line or not, this seems an unnecessarily risky way to come down a spar, I'd expect it from an older dinosaur like me but a young kid? Who taught him to do that?
Sorry to be accusatory (if that's a word) but like an earlier poster said how hard would it be to have your flip line round at the same time. Or leave a stub and come down on your line and run a bowline back up.
I have a very promising young man grounding atm, he wants to climb but I've told him to get trained by professional instructors, then it would be his decision to take needless risks, rather than apeing my dimwittery.
I couldn't take the responsibility.

Ps I hope the kid heals quick.

 

[cory]

Using the climb line for anything but climbing is begging for trouble, sooner or later, by hook or crook. No good can come of it imo.