A series of poor decisions and I've lost most of my gear in a tree

treehumper said:
A few times, I've left it and come back to find it comes out with a little tug or has dropped on it's own. Strange....
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This is so true, I had my rope hooked on a small stub last week and I couldn't bounce it loose. All kinds of extravagant plans went through my head of how to climb to it or knock it loose. The next morning with a fresh look, I grabbed some pulleys out of my bag setup a quick 4:1 MA on the tail, and popped it loose in 1 tug.

5 minute solution vs. the 1 hour projects I envisioned.
 
I got a 12oz bag caught about 80 feet up in a Locust. I tried all sorts of things. I had heard of the "wait for another day" method, but it didn't help either. It was in the twigs across the top of the canopy, so I couldn't use my backup throw line and just climb to it because it wasn't a removal. Besides my backup throw line is 150', so a bunch of advancing the TIP would be required.

I wrapped the line around a 4' section of PCV pipe and used it as a lever poked into the ground to either break the twig or the line. I was hoping if the line broke it would be at the ring on the bag leaving my line mostly intact and releasing my weight. The line was shockingly strong. After some violent pipe action, I got my wish. The line broke an inch from the ring, and the bag fell when the line broke.

What I didn't wish for was the high velocity line leaving the tree and hitting me in the chest. It left a mark that looked like the beginning of a bad tattoo , right through my shirt. I'm still thankful it didn't hit my face. I'm also reminded of why I wear my helmet and glasses when I'm setting up for a climb.
 
@adaycj; Yeah, I hate to admit I've had similar experiences when trying to break small deadwood branches off a tree without having to climb it. I'd get a throwline or a small diameter rope over a branch that I wanted to break loose, but when you're holding onto the end of it & pulling, and the rope is in a straight line from you to the object in question, it tends to come straight at you. I can be a slow learner at times, but what I eventually learned to do was to perform a redirect around an object or to install a small pulley for the same purpose. This takes your body out of the direct "line of fire" of any ropes that might break or branches or throw balls that might come flinging back at you.

Tim
 
I once broke a throw line and it felt like it piled up on my face like in a cartoon. I had it tied to a small piece of firewood and was pulling water skiing style.

Stung me bad.

I turned to a fellow worker and asked 'Is my face bleeding?'.

It wasn't.
 
TimBr said:
@adaycj; Yeah, I hate to admit I've had similar experiences when trying to break small deadwood branches off a tree without having to climb it. I'd get a throwline or a small diameter rope over a branch that I wanted to break loose, but when you're holding onto the end of it & pulling, and the rope is in a straight line from you to the object in question, it tends to come straight at you. I can be a slow learner at times, but what I eventually learned to do was to perform a redirect around an object or to install a small pulley for the same purpose. This takes your body out of the direct "line of fire" of any ropes that might break or branches or throw balls that might come flinging back at you.

Tim
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I thought I was pretty clever for using a lever for the MA instead of a pulley setup. Sometimes I discover I'm much more clever in my own mind than I really am. I'm probably lucky the twig didn't break and send the 12oz throw bag at my face at 300 mph.

... pulley ... I need to write that down ...
 
adaycj said:
I thought I was pretty clever for using a lever for the MA instead of a pulley setup. Sometimes I discover I'm much more clever in my own mind than I really am. I'm probably lucky the twig didn't break and send the 12oz throw bag at my face at 300 mph.

... pulley ... I need to write that down ...
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You are clever. It's just hard sometimes to anticipate all of the possible ways that something could go wrong with a particular approach to something. It is what gives engineers and architects sleepless nights. Like that bridge that collapsed due entirely to a harmonic frequency set up by the perfect timing of a series of gusting winds.

Tim

P.S. Here's a link to historic video of the bridge in question.

 
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Galloping Gertie, via a Maxell audio cassette as in the 80's, was my first look at a Washington original.

I believe they wanted the bridge to look sleeker, and enclosed the open truss designs on the sides, increasing the wind profile.

Good thing they wanted it prettier.

They rebuilt the bridge back when, and recently have built another bridge, one for each direction.
 
Do you guys tie your throw line to the bag ring with a figure 8 with the tail as a slip knot? I find that a very hard pull undoes the knot. I use 2.2mm zingit, which is dyneema. I assume that the slippery nature of knotted dyneema has something to do with this advantage. I learned the knot from a Treestuff video a few years ago.

These stories of throw line incidents are really eye-opening. Thanks, everyone, for sharing!
 
Girth hitching the bag to an eye spliced on the throw line, just big enough for the bag to go through, works the fastest and easiest.
 
I use a bowline to form a loop large enough for the bag to go through then girth hitch it to the ring. I do like the idea of having an eye spliced on though. hmmmm
 
Slipped clove hitch. It's within a couple seconds of being as fast to install on a throw bag ring as a girth hitch. It won't find things to catch on like that open girth loop will though. Easy and fast enough to tie and untie that I never pull a bag back through the canopy on a missed shot. Just untie the bag, retrieve the line and then tie it back on for the next one. That in and of itself will resolve about 90% of stuck bag issues.
 
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