Women Arborist Injured at New York Botanical garden?

marlinspiker

marlinspiker

Participating member
Location
Pennsyltucky
Has anyone heard of the women who while ascending SRT was stung by hornets and passed out from shock? Apparently her ground crew wasnt able to lower her due to lack of system knowledge. They ended up dropping her another 20 feet and she was severely injured in the fall. this is all second hand knowledge but from fairly accurate sources.
 
Nothing reported, but then again that's not entirely unusual. Lots of shootings and stabbings to cover from the long weekend, this just may not have made the cut.
 
Not that I have a source but didn't see or hear anything about this. There are two Botanical gardens in NY one in Bronx which is the "New York Botanical Gardens" and one in Brooklyn which is called, "Brooklyn Botanical Gardens". I do believe one of our buzzers works at the Bronx gardens. Where did you hear this Marlin?
 
You are correct marlin. She used to intern at Morris arboretum a year ago, that's where I met her. Very driven and intelligent about the profession. She was also only the second female competitor for our chapter. She was representing NY at the ITCC in Milwaukee.
She just started SRT when she worked at Morris Arbo. Learned and adapted well to it. Unfortunately the ground guys and her did not practice more on the rescue scenario. Which has been a concern since SRT started taking off. It's a concern for any climbing method and now more of a push to fine tune your own methods for rescue.
At our company we have 9/15 guys on SRT. We have our rescue methods in place for the most part but now need to go further and have universal kits on each truck for just that. Along with training of ground guys and new members to practice.
As of yesterday Rachael is out of hospital and starting to walk around and spirits are high. She is strong and will be fine. Such a scary thing to happen. Another very valid point that was brought up in our safety meeting was pre-trip inspection. Was it done and how thorough? So could it have been noticed, I don't know. We have had a fair amount of bee issues in the past month. 2 of our climbers were hit by bees in trees in the past month with many bees in ground around work area.
Pay attention and figure out your rescue plans.
 
Hi,
This is Rachel, the climber from the topic at hand. First off, I did not go unconscious. Yes, I was swarmed by a hive of bald faced hornets at about 60 feet up in a spruce. I managed to descend to about 20' when my coworker and senior climber on staff said to make sure my lanyard was off and that he was going to lower me down. (now from this point this is what I have been told) At this point he tied a five wrap Blakes Hitch onto my line above my basal tie (running bowline with Yoesametti tie off), took a few wraps around the trunk with his new line, and cut my climbing line. That is when I fell. At this point it is unclear if my line slipped through the hitch, if the shock load on the new line caused my line to roll out of the spruce, or if the shock load caused something else to go wrong. His new line did spiral up the trunk of the tree so there was a shock loading event that occurred, and since the system was SRT the amount of force at my TIP would have been significant.
What is clear is that the climbers line should never be cut. Also, an unfortunate coincidence is that I had been advocating for an Aerial Rescue training at work. I am a CTSP and have only been at my workplace for a few months and discovered that the last Aerial Rescue training that they had was about two years ago. Far to long. I harbor no ill feelings for my coworker who was only trying to save me. His intentions in an unfortunate situation were good. Also I harbor no ill feelings for my employer. I only hope that after this event that they will conduct Aerial Rescue training's on a regular basis (annually at MINIMUM).
All that said, a note for all SRT climbers. Make sure that your coworkers are not only are familiar with SRT dynamics, but also make sure that they can conduct a rescue from a variety of situations. Also, I feel that if I had simply tied an Alpine Butterfly on my line just above my basal tie that this would have better equipped my coworkers to perform a ground rescue without cutting my line. They could have simply clipped in and untied my basal tie and gradually loaded my system to the new line.

I look forward to finishing my recovery so that I may continue my passion of climbing.

Be safe out there!!
-Rachel-
 
Rachel, welcome to the forum!

Hope you don't mind but if you're willing, so we can learn from it, what height did you fall from and what was the extent of your injuries?

Really, really glad you're OK.
 
R4chel said:
Hi,
This is Rachel, the climber from the topic at hand. First off, I did not go unconscious. Yes, I was swarmed by a hive of bald faced hornets at about 60 feet up in a spruce. I managed to descend to about 20' when my coworker and senior climber on staff said to make sure my lanyard was off and that he was going to lower me down. (now from this point this is what I have been told) At this point he tied a five wrap Blakes Hitch onto my line above my basal tie (running bowline with Yoesametti tie off), took a few wraps around the trunk with his new line, and cut my climbing line. That is when I fell. At this point it is unclear if my line slipped through the hitch, if the shock load on the new line caused my line to roll out of the spruce, or if the shock load caused something else to go wrong. His new line did spiral up the trunk of the tree so there was a shock loading event that occurred, and since the system was SRT the amount of force at my TIP would have been significant.
What is clear is that the climbers line should never be cut. Also, an unfortunate coincidence is that I had been advocating for an Aerial Rescue training at work. I am a CTSP and have only been at my workplace for a few months and discovered that the last Aerial Rescue training that they had was about two years ago. Far to long. I harbor no ill feelings for my coworker who was only trying to save me. His intentions in an unfortunate situation were good. Also I harbor no ill feelings for my employer. I only hope that after this event that they will conduct Aerial Rescue training's on a regular basis (annually at MINIMUM).
All that said, a note for all SRT climbers. Make sure that your coworkers are not only are familiar with SRT dynamics, but also make sure that they can conduct a rescue from a variety of situations. Also, I feel that if I had simply tied an Alpine Butterfly on my line just above my basal tie that this would have better equipped my coworkers to perform a ground rescue without cutting my line. They could have simply clipped in and untied my basal tie and gradually loaded my system to the new line.

I look forward to finishing my recovery so that I may continue my passion of climbing.

Be safe out there!!
-Rachel-
Click to expand...
Holy crap Rachel, you were in my group at the New England TCC, weren't you. I am glad you are all right.
 
Welcome to the buzz Rachel. I am wondering if as soon as the Blake's hitch hit a branch or stub on the way up it released your line which dropped you. Thanks for sharing your story and hope you heal quickly.
 
Super glad to hear you're OK. This could be a learning experience with a positive outcome, awesome.

I've practiced that Blake's hitch tie in above the running bowline and it is tricky at best. The ground rigger has to be very familiar and comfortable with knot tying and use. MUCH better to tie the Butterfly or "In Line 8" above the running bowline to facilitate the attachment of another rope. Also helps if you've rigged your line in such a manner so that they can take tension off the Bowline and untie it without having to cut anything, a couple trunk wraps above the Bowline take the friction for ya, knives are bad IMHO.

I think I'll spend some much needed training time on this scenario this weekend. Thanks for sharing Rachel, and I wish you a speedy and full recovery.
 
Great to hear from you Rachel,

Sounds like you didn't hit your head that hard...that was well written and full of details.

Thanks for responding, it is relieving to hear that you will live to climb another day.


From your response it is clear that you live up to your reputation:
Sawdust said:
Very driven and intelligent about the profession.
Click to expand...

All the best!
 
Wow talk about a bad day at the office! Glad you are still with us, Rachel. I do have some questions. The attack occurred at 60 ft and you were able to make it 40 ft down the rope before the attempted rescue occurred. What were you climbing on? What prevented you from making it all the way to the ground on your own?
 
Well that certainly passes for a bad day. Glad to hear your ok. What where the extent of the injuries (recently falling from 15' myself), I ask? There is a recent thread on here about "bald faced hornet" stings. Been there and I think they are the worst sting of all bees. It's a bit like being hit with something.

Being a fellow NYer and climber it would be nice to meet you someday. Bob

Why was the spruce needing to be climbed? Must have been sticky at this time of year.

Wishing for a speedy recovery.
 
DSMc said:
What prevented you from making it all the way to the ground on your own?
Click to expand...

I had the same question. I imagine, even if you weren't unconscious, you were lucky enough to get yourself down the first 20' with all the hornets and all...but seeing as you did start the descent on your own what was the turning point?
R4chel said:
I did not go unconscious. Yes, I was swarmed by a hive of bald faced hornets at about 60 feet up in a spruce. I managed to descend to about 20' when my coworker and senior climber on staff said to make sure my lanyard was off and that he was going to lower me down.
-Rachel-
Click to expand...


That's got to have been so painful, I probably would have been contemplating just cutting my line and hoping the fall would be the lesser of the two injuries...but you got both! I am so sorry for you.


Speedy recovery!
 
TreeLogic said:
Rachel, welcome to the forum!

Hope you don't mind but if you're willing, so we can learn from it, what height did you fall from and what was the extent of your injuries?

Really, really glad you're OK.
Click to expand...

Thank you, yes I am more than willing to share.
I was swarmed at about 60 ft in an Abies homolepis var. umbralatta, there was no hornets nest in my tree I think that the branch I pruned out hit the adjacent tree where they must have been located. Less than 15 seconds after the cut, while I was re-positioning for the stub I was swarmed. They covered my arms, face, neck- I flipped upside down trying to fight them off. Once I regained myself I grabbed my hitch and burned down the rope (Rope wrench, bee line cord, hitch climber pulley). Burned my left hand badly but made it down 40 ft of the tree. I was around 20 ft when I stopped descending, my co-worker spoke to me and cut my basal anchor off the tree. I landed on my back/butt and left ankle.

The MRI concluded that the L1 vertebrae of my Lumbar spine had received a compound compression fracture. Meaning is had shattered into multiple pieces, and there was concern that a portion was pressing on the spinal cord. The Neurosurgeons determined the best course was to fuse the 5 vertebrae permanently together, for extra strength they used 8 screws and 4 rods around the fusion.

They have said my youth is a huge factor as many have had broken spinal cords from much less. In 3-6 months I can return to work and begin climbing again. I will never have the same range of motion though. I wont be able to touch my toes or twist but in the scheme of things I have much to be thankful for.

I was walking the day after the surgery and have had support for hundreds of friends and family. This accident may have broken my spine but it certainly wont break my love for this industry.

Rachel
 
DSMc said:
Wow talk about a bad day at the office! Glad you are still with us, Rachel. I do have some questions. The attack occurred at 60 ft and you were able to make it 40 ft down the rope before the attempted rescue occurred. What were you climbing on? What prevented you from making it all the way to the ground on your own?
Click to expand...

I was climbing on the Fly, we have ropes we use just for conifers because of how badly they 'gum' up our good lines. This Fly was retried by me to be used as a 'conifer rope' as it had seen a few years in the field and was beginning to show more fuzz than a rope you would climb on daily. The reason I stopped at the 20 ft mark was because, in my panic I wasn't making a controlled descent I burned down the line-and burned my left hand. Additionally I was having difficulty with my hitch, it was a 30'' bee line (typically use it for Drt) with the hitch I tied that day, a Distel-with tresse's. The top of the hitch was jumping directly under the Rope Wrench (10'' hard tether) . The Wrench and Hitch were both sharing the load but I failed to provide the necessary distance between them to work them both. So in my initial descent I had to step up take the weight of the Wrench, place the load fully on the hitch and then break the hitch and then re-position the Wrench. It was very rough, awkward, and rushed. I stopped when the heat on the rope became to much, unfortunately in a spot I stopped, there was no where to stand to do this again. Yet by the time I had reached the 20 ft mark and stopped my co-worker was already beginning the rescue, although I didn't know he actually was intending to lower me. We both failed to communicate.

I'll most certainly won't make that mistake with my hitch again, if my knot had been smoother I wouldn't stopped and likely could have reached the ground before the rope was cut.

There have been some conversations now that when they transferred my weight to the second line they shock loaded my tie-in point, which caused the failure? I have been told there is a large rip high in the canopy where they think I was tied in. This still would explain why I fell as the rip, would have had to tear in order to drop me entirely from the tree?

Unfortunately, I only know what others have told me after the point of failure because I have not gotten to inspect the equipment from that day or revisit the tree.

Hope this can help teach others

Rachel
 
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