New Climber Seeking advice (Video inside!)

S

Stephen.G.FIddes

Location
Portland
Good day everyone! Been lurking around here and a couple other sites for about a year, but this is my first post. I don't like to waste space on questions that have already been asked, rather I feel this format will be far more beneficial to others in the future with time-stamps and actual video of what I did right and wrong, for other new climbers to see.

This video was my third removal. I Did my first couple removals on my property, and neighbors property next door a month and a half ago, and fell in love. There was a LOT I learned from those first two, and I was able to apply that knowledge to this third one I did last weekend.

I took my gopro up with me to watch and see what I can improve on myself, and also ask others with more experience to show me some improvements I can make as well.

I have a couple of local arborists that are interested in having me climb for them part-time. This will be a weekend job for me in the summer, and more frequently in the winter based on my other business I run, and it's busy/ slow season.

Here's a general timeline. Of where questions are and when things are happening.

0:00 verbal intro
3:03
4:32
6:20
10:00
11:00-22:00 branches chop and drop
22:24
23:25 top chop
24:20
26:30 spar chunking starts, shows how I work down the spar, which I feel has a lot of room for improvement.
38:25 verbal final thoughts and spar fell.



Also, please keep chainsaw brand bashing comments to yourself. Everyone likes different stuff, and I bought what I could justify to get myself going. That, and if they break, it's a lot easier for me to replace an Echo than it would be a Stihl or Husky. My saws cut wood, and that's what really matters :) (I only bring this up because I've seen other threads get derailed by stuff like that.)

And yes, I know the saws were running rough, I had just done a muffler mod on the TH saw, and I didn't get it tuned properly. It's now tuned properly. The bigger saw I set rich for the first few tanks so that's why it was down on power. Re-tuned it yesterday to proper, and she purrrrrs now.
 
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Got some nice gear! I skimmed thru the video so i didnt see lany questions aside from the double wrap with the lanyard. That double wrap helps when you dont want your hips to shift while on a limb thats leaning or to avoid gaffing out on thin spars. I didnt see everything in thw video. At one point you wrre tied into something like a foot out on a 2 or 3 inch limb which could break very easily. Get a buddy to be a grounds guy. Working alone is a big no no. Especially when youve never had any real formal training.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk
 
I'll see if I can give the timestamps of the questions when I get back home. There's a handful in there.

The homeowner (a good friend of mine) was there as a ground guy, but I didn't have him pull branches. Hindsight I would have had him do that.

I'll look back for that TIP a foot out as well. Thanks!
 
Added the timeline to the OP too.

0:00 verbal intro
3:03
4:32
6:20
10:00
11:00-22:00 branches chop and drop
22:24
23:25 top chop
24:20
26:30 spar chunking starts, shows how I work down the spar, which I feel has a lot of room for improvement.
38:25 verbal final thoughts and spar fell.
 
Hi Stephen, mostly, very nicely done. When you are climbing up to set your climb line you would climb above your last lanyard placement until it was somewhere around your feet, if you were to slip before you could install your other lanyard or climb line, that would be a factor 2 fall which can generate a lot of force on the branch and on you. Maybe while the lanyard is around the tree by your waist, with the slack removed, advance the other lanyard higher than you were, to always have your anchor point above you.

Your friction saver is somewhat over complicated and leads to side loading of the carabiner, which is more likely the smaller the stem it is around. If you replaced the ring with a carabiner, you could eliminate the pinto pulley and carabiner and run the rope through the two carabiners.

I was going to comment on starting the chainsaw without the chainbrake on, but then saw you having troubles starting it.

One last thing is you make too many cuts when chopping a branch off. Too much use of an under cut and you leave a stub which requires another cut to remove. Looks like from the vid that you had room to just peel or pop them off with one cut.
 
Thanks brocky!

So then climbing to the top is really the only way to set a top climbing line on a conifer then?

Good note on lanyard. In the future, I'll toss the long one up, and as I get to it, put the flip line around the stem and toss the long one up again. Thanks!

How would that friction saver setup work for the "circle of death" tho. That was the intent behind that friction saver design. (Not opposed to trying things!

That tune was pissing me off lol. Should be fixed now.

Some of the double cuts were because I was close to my lanyard, I didn't want to have to make a fast cut pointed at my lanyard. Will watch for that again when I re-watch it tonight tho to see if I'm doing that unnecessarily.
 
Try a snap cut with a small snipe taken out when blocking, it's alot less wear and tear on your arms and you dont have to worry about making a bunch of face cuts line up.
 
Stephen - this is a great idea - really enjoyed watching you climb. I do have couple comments - help me learn too - my own chicken butt never comes down on anything mechanical or twine without a backup for descent - I ALWAYS go down with a munter/ flat sided biner combo on my right leg loop (or a petzl shunt above my ATC if alpine climbing) as backup. If anything were to happen with the mechanical or hitch it'll be a fast fast ride down (been there, done that, more funner to go slowly). You can use a figure 8 too, but the times I've used them they all seemed to twist rope like bandits (a munter can twist it too, but not as much?). And you can use just a ring too, but it perhaps need more attention with your control hand. Some other thoughts are at:
at 3:50 and at 5:24
(whole thing but esp at about 17:50)
I usually try and go round the tree stem itself when ascending, not branches, but especially when I don't have branches 3-4 inch diam. and up. And if the tree is really dry or been dead I will only go up and wrap or choke the stem with a 2 in 1 lanyard (like in the Wesspur video). I've seen 2" branches pop off (a larch) like they really didn't want to be part of the tree anymore (also my buddy, the fir named douglas can be like this too) - drought years! When cutting, there's also the issue of stems splitting out if they're dry/ dead - beware the circle of death when cutting the pole!
Laurence Schulz has some really neat stuff in his videos SRT vs. DdRt, choking configurations etc. - well worth the money too.
Cheers
 
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Z'sTrees said:
Try a snap cut with a small snipe taken out when blocking, it's alot less wear and tear on your arms and you dont have to worry about making a bunch of face cuts line up.
Click to expand...

Not quite following what you're saying.

I did two styles of cuts when working down the spar. Standard face cut and back cut, and a flat offset face and back cut like this ---> _--
 
With a snap bypass or overlap cut put a small face in the side you are pushing toward. This gives the piece some room to rock off the bypass. This is much quicker and easier than a face and back cut when you aren't needing to land large pieces a certain way
 
Try putting more space between you and the tree when you're on your spikes, you'll gaff out less. And set your TIP from the ground with some throw line and a big shot ( my preferred way) it'll save you a ton of time. Once you get more comfortable you'll be able to just spike up the tree no problem without your overhead tie in point. Just remember to always tie in twice . Although we're all guilty of spiking up these soft pines and just zipping off limbs . I can get trees like that done in 25 minutes nowadays as opposed to an hour. You'll get there one day brother! Push your limits but stay safe!
 
Z'sTrees said:
With a snap bypass or overlap cut put a small face in the side you are pushing toward. This gives the piece some room to rock off the bypass. This is much quicker and easier than a face and back cut when you aren't needing to land large pieces a certain way
Click to expand...

Look at the cut at 26:50. Is that what you're talking about, but with a small face cut (1-2" deep) and a long back cut?

david1332 said:
Try putting more space between you and the tree when you're on your spikes, you'll gaff out less. And set your TIP from the ground with some throw line and a big shot ( my preferred way) it'll save you a ton of time. Once you get more comfortable you'll be able to just spike up the tree no problem without your overhead tie in point. Just remember to always tie in twice . Although we're all guilty of spiking up these soft pines and just zipping off limbs . I can get trees like that done in 25 minutes nowadays as opposed to an hour. You'll get there one day brother! Push your limits but stay safe!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip on more space when on the spikes.


I'm totally comfortable without the top line, as long as I have a secondary TIP that I can use to bail out if needed. (I climbed the tree without a top TIP to set the top TIP) Considering SRT for this instead of DdRT as there's less chance for rope getting trapped and trapping me in the tree. (Going to get a rope bag too... Which should also help. )

My biggest issue was I climbed up and down the thing twice, and that was a LOT of extra effort that may not have been needed for that type of tree (Live and learn right??). I feel like my fatigue level would have been much lower with only one trip up and down.

I'm going to make a DIY APTA to use with my throw line for deciduous or similar trees.
 
Stephen.G.FIddes said:
Look at the cut at 26:50. Is that what you're talking about, but with a small face cut (1-2" deep) and a long back cut?



Thanks for the tip on more space when on the spikes.


I'm totally comfortable without the top line, as long as I have a secondary TIP that I can use to bail out if needed. (I climbed the tree without a top TIP to set the top TIP) Considering SRT for this instead of DdRT as there's less chance for rope getting trapped and trapping me in the tree. (Going to get a rope bag too... Which should also help. )

My biggest issue was I climbed up and down the thing twice, and that was a LOT of extra effort that may not have been needed for that type of tree (Live and learn right??). I feel like my fatigue level would have been much lower with only one trip up and down.

I'm going to make a DIY APTA to use with my throw line for deciduous or similar trees.
Click to expand...
Go for it man. I'm a huge SRT fan
 
Stephen, nice vid. I usually climb to the top of a conifer to set my climbing line first, then come down and work my way back up, especially if there is rigging involved. I have a few longer teaching-style videos that you might like as well. You can check them out here:

Sugar Maple Takedown

Simple Trimming: Silver Maple over 2 yards Part 1

Simple Trimming: Silver Maple over 2 yards Part 2


www.educatedclimber.com


.
 
ghostice said:
Stephen - this is a great idea - really enjoyed watching you climb. I do have couple comments - help me learn too - my own chicken butt never comes down on anything mechanical or twine without a backup for descent - I ALWAYS go down with a munter/ flat sided biner combo on my right leg loop (or a petzl shunt above my ATC if alpine climbing) as backup. If anything were to happen with the mechanical or hitch it'll be a fast fast ride down (been there, done that, more funner to go slowly). You can use a figure 8 too, but the times I've used them they all seemed to twist rope like bandits (a munter can twist it too, but not as much?). And you can use just a ring too, but it perhaps need more attention with your control hand. Some other thoughts are at:
(VIDEOS)
I usually try and go round the tree stem itself when ascending, not branches, but especially when I don't have branches 3-4 inch diam. and up. And if the tree is really dry or been dead I will only go up and wrap or choke the stem with a 2 in 1 lanyard (like in the Wesspur video). I've seen 2" branches pop off (a larch) like they really didn't want to be part of the tree anymore (also my buddy, the fir named douglas can be like this too) - drought years! When cutting, there's also the issue of stems splitting out if they're dry/ dead - beware the circle of death when cutting the pole!
Laurence Schulz has some really neat stuff in his videos SRT vs. DdRt, choking configurations etc. - well worth the money too.
Cheers
Click to expand...


Some good videos! Thank you! I think I'm going to take that 2 in 1 lanyard to the next level by adding a prusik and hitch tender to either end to have one-handed slack tending instead of having to play around as much with it in the tree... Less work = less effort and fatigue! I like it!

I'll have to go back through the Pfannerman's videos again. Should have done that just before this removal. It's been a month or so. I'd like to not be in the circle of death, but at the same time want to make sure that things are easy to move around, and safe. My adjustable friction saver I made was my first attempt at that. (Considering using a Delta ring instead of the biner and arb ring. Then I can clip into the delta ring for my lifeline too.)[/MEDIA][/QUOTE]
 
The circle of death is when you attach, say your lanyard, to the side D rings, and you are cutting the piece you are attached to, and there is a possibility of the piece splitting and then squeeezes you.

With your friction saver I was suggesting that you replace the ring with a carabiner and putting your climb line through that instead of using the pulley.
 
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