Another Fall

treesandsurf

treesandsurf

Location
Hawaii
Went to visit a close friend of mine at the hospital yesterday, one of the best climbers in HI. Several days before the conference in St. Louis he was pruning a monkey pod (S. samens, same tree as the Men's masters climb in 2007) and set his climbing line on a 2 1/2" diameter piece at the top of the canopy.

Set his friction saver and started footlocking up the tree, at just under 30 feet his TIP broke out and sent him to the ground. Shattered both his heels, and broke his right ankle very badly. In addition, broke his L5 vertebrae. The doctor said he had to drain the blood and bone fragments from his heels before he could operate. He'll be in the hospital for some time.

I saw the tree and the split fork in the canopy today. Seems the more and more you climb the higher and higher you want to set your TIP. I've climbed with this friend a lot and he is very safe.

Makes me re-think my TIP's for sure, and hopefully these accidents will prevent more accidents in the future.

His last remarks when I was leaving the hospital when we were talking about TIP's and size and he said "Man it's just not worth it...[for a small TIP]"

jp
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[ QUOTE ]
Makes me re-think my TIP's for sure, and hopefully these accidents will prevent more accidents in the future.

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Thanks for sharing that Jon.

I agree that the more comfortable we get in the trees the more likely we will push our limits.

In a sick, but healthy way, I look forward to seeing the next awakening post. Simply, because it is like having a Tailgate Safety Meeting.

When I was starting off in the industry I was trained not to tie into to something 4" or less. Is that written somewhere? The Z Book?
 
Breaking out a TIP when entering the tree is more likely than after you're up there and setting one to work from. And the reason for it is many: For one you can't always see what you truly have, defects in said chosen limb or crotch often escape detection from the ground. Over the years I've climbed up to the TIP I set from the ground and found a condition that I was not comfortable with, and breathed a deep sigh of relief.

Another: is our complacency at accepting something that we understand could be a risk, and go ahead on.

During a lot of our rec climbs in the redwoods our tie in point, or the limb the line is really over, is out of sight from the ground, but we put out weight in the line and bounce in it and then go ahead on. And more than once a small limb broke and gave me, us, a start, but the rope always come to rest securely on a larger limb. "Oh, it'll catch on that larger limb under it." Yeah. So far it has.

Can't say during a rec climb there ever was an injury related to this topic.

Knock on wood!
 
I like setting a high TIP from the ground and I've set a few in 2" or 3" wood, had one break out on a bounce test... I don't think I'll be doing it again though. I use binos on any TIP I'm not 100% comfortable with.

It's slower but safer to throw a low TIP and advance it so you can better see what you're hanging your fanny on.

I know of one rec climber who broke his TIP after resetting it about 6' out on an 8" dia. limb. The limb had a weak point and he fell a long way, 30' or 40', I can't remember. Spinal cord injury, long hospital stay. He was inexperienced.
 
I think testing the line is good but inherantly dangerous too. I know it isnt best practice to rock a spar back and forth to snap the hinge wood that is too thick. This being said many of us have done it. The bounce test and continual bounce on the way up footlocking in my opinion is an excellant comparison.
I dont know what the remedy is yet but thought I would point this out and maybe spark some other thoughts.
 
A few weeks ago I had a conversation with another climber who has been climbing as long as I have. We shared stories of broken TIPS. both of us had fallen and fortunately not gotten hurt. After the experience we were MUCH more careful and conservative about the size and location of TIPS.

Around the trunk not the branch.
Always in the branch union.
At LEAST as large as my forearm.
Over more limbs..just in case the TIP breaks.
Set TIP low and advance high.
 
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2 1/2" diameter piece at the top of the canopy.


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2 1/2 inches? why am I not surprised his TIP broke?

Your asking way too much of a tree for at least....a 95% failsafe ascent into the canopy on a 2 1/2 inch branch.

Hope he gets better soon.
 
with the advent ( a long time now) of various friction savers, I too am guilty of extending my TIP beyond the highest reasonable crotch sometimes. I plan on being a lot more aware now. Even if it means I'll have to use a pole saw more than I care to. I wish your friend a speedy recovery.
 
I am getting binocs for both crews, and we have already made it a rule that if they wouldn't accept the TIP at the ITCC, we don't accept it for every day work. Especially at our chapter, they have a pretty strict policy on your TIP on the aerial rescue and Master's challenge events. Thank you for the story TreesandSurf.
 
I had a TIP break out a little while ago in the top of a previously topped Doug fir. I had set my TIP after ascending so you would think I would have had a good idea whether it was safe or not, but it was a regrown top that I couldn't see the attachment point of and it turned out it had a lot of included bark. It broke out when I was pulling (climbing) hard sideways on it and almost made me come down for a change of shorts. I was tied in twice otherwise it would have been a pretty hard 50' fall onto a wood deck and or shore rocks.

Hope the climber in the original post recovers well, thanks for the warning.
 
When doing line clearance work I encountered a lot of sucker tops and learned early on about how weak the crotches are. During storm damage work they were a main culprit to power outages. I conclude there's really not a safe work around to make a sucker top a safe TIP.
 
Jerry;
What about SRT ?
When one fails you can be saved by another.
The important thing is having the rope in close to the tree.
I went up a hundred feet in a red oak once only to discover I was on a dead branch, I couldn't see it clearly from the ground and thought I was on a good limb.
I won't make that mistake again!
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I think everyone here has a similar story, Kevin. Even using SRT. A person just can not always see accurately what's going on from the ground.

Hey, guess what I got in the mail last week? A "Tree Reaper" Hat and Coffee mug.

Cool!!
 
I had to dead wood a Willow tree today. The tree is in decline and the whole time I was in it, I couldn't help but think about recent T.I.P. failures. --I hate willows!

But, I didn't push my luck. Thanks to this thread.
 
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