Climbing dead elm

Punctuation, grammar and etiquette go a long way towards having a clear message. Many posters lack these simple skills, so they are misunderstood. Maybe they like it that way.
 
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, here is the deal with those dead elms . If the trunk bark is off the tree it is very dangerous , the part that goes up to the first lead . Than you know the tree is bad .

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The dead elm that collapsed under me (luckily me TIP didn't fail) had all of the bark intact. It was all well attached with no separation from the wood. No fruiting bodies were visible anywhere on the tree. The tree appeared to be stable enough to rig to. The lead that failed was approximately 14-16" in diameter. It took out a 18" lead bellow. Those two took out the service drop to the house, power to half the street, and power to half of the swimming club behind the property. They also tried to take out my three friends on the ground who were luckily unhurt. After the dust settled we examined the tissue at the point of failure. Again this was a 14-16" lead. There was 4-6" of decayed wood all the way around 4-6" of sound interior wood. What looked like a big beefy rigging point was in truth MUCH smaller.

I think the take home message is that there is a type of decay that severely affects the structural integrity of dead elms. Be aware of it!

In tree work, generalizations like, "Dead Elms are strong, hence safe to climb and rig from," can get you killed. Look out for Number One!
 
oh Grover , you know I 'm the only one who really knows your true self . I forgive but I dont forget . Zale , my new friend(?) , the house is brand new , 28.000 sq. feet . lights out 13 mil , put half down and you just have a 6.5 mortgage. Gladwynne , Rockcreek rd. look it up( 4 sale) . Back in the 80's you could go one house to the next and take down a dead Elm . They were all Dead , Whole blocks , buckets were junk , and cranes were too expensive , there were no self feeders . except the Mobark ( ha ) climb , cut , cough . next . Taking down Elms was my foundation , to say you can't climb a dead Elm is , wrong. Baseless , and false. If I had to Climb them today ,no problem I'd be happier to be in a bucket and have a crane above me , thats no lie . 2011 , equipment era , what up !
 
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Ky Sawyer...did you thump test the lead before working it?

If not, in hindsight, do you think that it would have failed the thump?

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I did not thump it, but I don't think it would have made a difference in the decision to climb it. The base was fairly solid as I remember it.

In hind sight I would have had the local utility disconnect her service drop and we would have bombed the whole tree into her yard.
 
Veteran tree climbers. Obviously your day is still here. Riggs, literally you have been slamming elm trees since I was in diapers... so I appreciate the insights
KYSawyer, thanks for sharing a story of elm failure. I am glad you are still with us. That is big wood to fail...
The thump testing as climbing sounds like another excellent method of tree analysis.
I have enjoyed all the feedback on this subject.
 
yo kysawyer , I read what you said . I've ,removed so many elms in my day , I have to ask you one question . Did you back up your lowering crotch ? Did you ? Is the Elm to blame on the failure or are you to blame for not recgonizing the failure that was about to happen? Did you over rig , under rig , or just throw a line up, tie it and cut it ? Block? back up ? what happened and why ? Thats number one . Straight up , why did the dead elm fail you ? were you commited to one lead ? that failed ? I never had one fail , Elm , ever . Always back up your crotch , and always read the tree . Dead for a reason . never seen one fail , ever . Tulips and Sycamores are nasty . Beat a Elm up like a red headed step child . ( easy)
 
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yo kysawyer , I read what you said . I've ,removed so many elms in my day , I have to ask you one question . Did you back up your lowering crotch ? Did you ? Is the Elm to blame on the failure or are you to blame for not recgonizing the failure that was about to happen? Did you over rig , under rig , or just throw a line up, tie it and cut it ? Block? back up ? what happened and why ? Thats number one . Straight up , why did the dead elm fail you ? were you commited to one lead ? that failed ? I never had one fail , Elm , ever . Always back up your crotch , and always read the tree . Dead for a reason . never seen one fail , ever . Tulips and Sycamores are nasty . Beat a Elm up like a red headed step child . ( easy)

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That was more than one question.
 
learned that from my kids . sorry . one is ten . Just want to know . Just another tree guy hitting it , too much, curious not critical. well??? depends who you are . family is from Rush Ky.
 
Admittedly, I didn't rig the tree properly for the condition it was in. In your words, I didn't "read" the tree adequately. I only used one block and had no back-up. We had taken several smaller pieces with no problem. I then took a much larger chunk and sealed the deal. In hindsight, if I had backed up the block and the lead had still failed it could have taken me down too. Obviously that would have sucked.

As I said before, looking back I would have had the power to her house dropped and we would have bombed the whole thing. My experience thus far had been that dead elms are still very stout and we can safely work around the power line. My assumption was too far reaching regarding the strength of the wood. That is what I was trying to get across as my main point. I do not call into question your experiences nor the experiences of others here.
 
Went back and killed the elm yesterday. It turned out to still have a few live tips to it... so it wasnt stone dead. I was able to set a speedline from a neighbors hemlock into my drop zone. It went well. Thanks for the knowledge. In hindsight, I wish I hadnt looked in the garage under the tree. Brandy new porsche...anyhow. Here is a couple of pictures, nothing great, but it was what I was able to snap.
Thanks riggs.
 

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Thanks Mark. It worked out really well. I definitely used as much of the advice as I could. I walked into it with much more confidence after my t-buzzing. It was needed, because it turned out to be a more challenging tree then I had initially given it credit for. Mainly a drop zone that could not handle the length of brush i needed to rig down. I ended up using some balance point rigging to get them down the speed line without tickling the garage, or damaging anything else around it.
My rope ended up in the compost though...
 
Nice job Chep. More complicated than the one we had.

Wish I'd read this thread before my first ever dead elm this week. Well, actually maybe not.
Tall but slender elm dead in a year. Bark already loosening and off the top stems.
No choice but to climb it since no other nearby trees.
Very hard to stay gaffed in as you all noted. Tree felt kind of creepy at first but it seemed pretty solid, except very light. The lightness was the thing that made it relatively easy. The tall slender stems were very light and so could be controlled using just hand held slings. Snap cuts would hold until almost the thinnest margin even though the wood was light. The trick seemed to be to get the mismatch very close and then pull it off with a sling. At least the ones that could not just be dropped.

And I agree that dead birch is much scarier as some of you have said.
 
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I took down a large dead elm by throwing my throwline, pulling up my rigging rope, tying it off and putting it on the grc or my truck depending on the angle of the leads and the pull requireds. We broke out the top leads and then dropped the trunk. no climbing involved.

That was a very dead elm though and I dont think anyone here would have wanted to climb it.

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Given the right scenario, that is a great and often overlooked technique. Never tried it on elm, but have done it on beech, which gets mighty brittle in a hurry once its dry. SPY rigging at its finest!
 
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