30’ Fall

Steve Connally said:
Back in the days before SRT of when I was still resisting the movement there were multiple ways to descend a spar on dDrt. I dabbled with it for a long time always trying to find the perfect system. There are a ton of ways. Look at the old video's from Taylor Hammel and a few others
Not to mention a few on the Schultz Effect. The information is out there. I personally se absolutely no need to cut extra in the tree for a groove for the rope to ride in. I know you old timers did that a lot but not this guy. Seems almost as bad as what he did. LOL Same potential outcome.
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Really early in my career I took a 25' fall from a rope in a groove on the back of the spar. My foreman and boss both seen me crash out of the tree when it rolled out Thankfully I landed in some brush so only had a bruise hip from landing on my chainsaw.

I never decented a spar that way again. It may be wrong, but most times I would figure 8 repel down the pull line. Way safer than a groove. Then came adjustable friction savers, and now SRT methods.
 
I am self taught at crane work using knucklebooms only. Have never used a stick because I am usually craning in very tight spots. Thankfully we have huge kbooms here. That being said TRAINING should be a must for all crane virgins in this modern era of treework. The training is easily obtained and well worth it. Easy to be killed or maimed for life doing it. 2018-06-20 10.39.34.webp
 
Steve Connally said:
Back in the days before SRT of when I was still resisting the movement there were multiple ways to descend a spar on dDrt. I dabbled with it for a long time always trying to find the perfect system. There are a ton of ways. Look at the old video's from Taylor Hammel and a few others
Not to mention a few on the Schultz Effect. The information is out there. I personally se absolutely no need to cut extra in the tree for a groove for the rope to ride in. I know you old timers did that a lot but not this guy. Seems almost as bad as what he did. LOL Same potential outcome.
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Steve, I use a butterfly knot. I can choose to belay in either single or double rope and can recover my rope! No need for a notch. In addition I carry a rescue 8 for fast descent, dissipates heat better and less wear on gear, and lately a Unicender for ascent and positioning.
 
The other bonus for using a butterfly is if you are in a super tall spar and only have 150’ hanks you can join two together and not have to pass the joining not while in single rope mode. Effectively giving you a 300’ recoverable rope!
I bought a 600’ roll of climb line and made a 300’- 200’ and a 100’ That seems to cover all the climb line requirements in thes parts. I also have 2 x 150’ in a bin in my bucket truck. The same lengths are cut in Sampson stable braid 1/2”, nothing I hate more than having to lug 3 times more rope up a hill than I need!
It seems like a lot of rope, and for some it is, but rope is the backbone of this business. Oh I also pack 300’ of 7/8” and all the blocks and gear. And because we live in lake country, I carry 2 x cable grabs to connect to dock anchors. That’s a must have!
 
TimBr said:
Wow. This I was not expecting to be the case. Kind of shocking to me, really. If I'm not getting too personal, how old is this guy, just ballpark? Some folks are eager and aggressive about starting companies young. If he is older and still does not know this stuff, you might want to introduce him to the forums and the internet. It is a bit hard to understand how it is possible not to know this stuff for a person in his position, but maybe it is just an access to information issue.
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40's maybe. He might even be on here. He follows some good stuff on youtube but i'm not sure he has the resources he needs.
 
@Steve Connally; Thanks for taking the time to answer, Steve. He might be too busy actually working to have time to avail himself of all the knowledge on the forums. The SRT sections and climbingarborist.com are the first places I'd tell him to look at. Thanks again, and huge congratulations on the success of your very ambitious and courageous enterprise.

Tim
 
Steve Connally said:
40's maybe. He might even be on here. He follows some good stuff on youtube but i'm not sure he has the resources he needs.
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In his 40s Stephen and doing this shite. Geez. Might be better to look into another career path with low accident rate. Mail carrier maybe. Oh shite they slip a lot. Maybe a bank teller. Yes bank teller it is.
 
A sidenote about descending spars with an adjustable friction saver.

Unless you are using the ART style that actually cinches around the pole, your DDRT line will be rotating through the rings, and if there is enough sap on your line it can cause the rings to spread momentarily.

If there isn’t a nub for the friction saver to hang on it can open enough to slide down the pole!

This scenario can be especially bad on smaller diameter poles, I had one slip about 5 feet one time.

Moral of the story if there is no stub or branch it’s safer to use an alpine butterfly knot with a tail long enough to reach the ground. If you don’t have enough rope descend 20 feet and do it again!

Glad this dude wasn’t hurt too bad.


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Yes, welcome! I think that concept is very underutilized. It is no big deal to just descend to the end of your retrieval tail, stomp and clip in, and pop it on down and tend your slack to descend. Probably faster and easier than having a ground guy dig out a line to extend your retrieval tail, tie it on, you to pull it up, and finally tie it to the end.
I never have a full length tail on a spar. 10 feet or so handles everything I could want to do. Sometimes I clip the tail of my rope on when someone calls to me that we can drop it, sometimes I'll just leapfrog down.
 
AJ Gallagher said:
A sidenote about descending spars with an adjustable friction saver.

Unless you are using the ART style that actually cinches around the pole, your DDRT line will be rotating through the rings, and if there is enough sap on your line it can cause the rings to spread momentarily.

If there isn’t a nub for the friction saver to hang on it can open enough to slide down the pole!

This scenario can be especially bad on smaller diameter poles, I had one slip about 5 feet one time.

Moral of the story if there is no stub or branch it’s safer to use an alpine butterfly knot with a tail long enough to reach the ground. If you don’t have enough rope descend 20 feet and do it again!

Glad this dude wasn’t hurt too bad.


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Just to be clear here, AJ, you are talking about using an SRT cinch with a tail versus using an adjustable friction saver and DdRT technique, correct? Thanks for your time.

Tim
 
AJ Gallagher said:
Yes sir, exactly.

I descend SRT with a piranha figure 8 hooked to my left D ring if using a friction hitch, or rope wrench over my mechanical device (spider jack 3).


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A Rope Wrench over a Spiderjack 3?
Give me 40 acres and I'll turn this rig around!
 
@rico; Forgive my slowness, I'm not getting what you mean by your post above. I probably should understand, but I don't. It's a trucker's reference, yes? Thanks for your patience with me.

Tim
 
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