Climbing in heavy winds

[Gorman]

The lift was an Easy Lift 70. I subbed another tree service for it for half a day and the owner got me in it. I found it rickety and wobbly. A couple times I froze up and my heart was in my throat. The wind wasn’t all too bad but I used the lift for half a beech tree that was leaning over a shed and septic. After I got the hard stuff with that thing I came down and politely asked the other owner to use it himself on another part of the job.

After coming down from that lift I felt a weight off my shoulders as I put my harness on and started up the tree.

In a high wind scenario I would rather use a bucket than climb, climb rather than use a lift, use a lift rather than drop it on a house.

 

[JeffGu]

I've rented a small, tow behind lift a couple of times, locally... it has about 55' working height, and if there's any wind at all it feels like it's made out of rubber. I had to keep telling myself that if these things were unsafe, the streets would be littered with bodies. I wouldn't even think about going up in one if the winds were much over 20MPH, let alone 35MPH (which we've had a lot of lately). I've been in trees that swayed that much, but I haven't had one tip over on me. I'd probably be a lot more comfortable with those small lifts if I used one more often.

 

[climbingmonkey24]

The lift I used looked like this (might even be the same model). I had rented the 50ft one, and it rotates. We were able to push that around to adjust position by hand. Went well until towards the end of using it the alarm started going off. I got down real fast lol.

 

[JeffGu]

Yeah, the one I rent is that same type, only a Haulotte brand. Neat little lift, and I really liked being able to just squeeze it in where I needed it, but they do seem very wiggly and wobbly to me. Not like a bucket truck, which seem to handle wind a lot better. Probably just something that you have to get used to, but I'm not going to rent it on a windy day, again. My nerves were shot from trying that, at the end of the day.

 

[theatertech87]

We are not saving the world so there's always tomorrow. Wind like other weather conditions can reduce productivity significantly, increase the potential for failure - like we may be taking a tree dow because the client thought it was hazardous and we agreed-, and predictability has gone out the window.

I've done a couple mergency jobs for hazard trees that were slated for removal that failed in wind storms. One even landed on a house the night after another local tree crew passed on doing the tree because of the winds.

 

[treehumper]

I've done a couple mergency jobs for hazard trees that were slated for removal that failed in wind storms. One even landed on a house the night after another local tree crew passed on doing the tree because of the winds.

It's all about the assessment. In the cases such as this could it have been guyed to prevent failure in the near term? We've done that with hazard trees when conditions don't permit immediate action.

 

[CutHighnLetFly]

I have never ever work for anyone anywhere who has said anything remotely close to "there s always tomorrow."
I've heard "well we are screwed for tomorrow", but usually it's a form of "it's not in the budget/schedule to come back here."
I would never make people do what I've been told I HAVE to as far as working in weather. Not that it was like insanely dangerous, but just a stupid.
Several weeks ago I climbed in 45+ mph frequent gusts right on the what. But it was a stout tree with strong wood that grew up in that environment, right on the water. My buddy got video of it, i looked rediculous

 

[southsoundtree]

Gusts are definitely different that steady wind...good and bad.

 

[theatertech87]

It's all about the assessment. In the cases such as this could it have been guyed to prevent failure in the near term? We've done that with hazard trees when conditions don't permit immediate action.

I didn't have the privilege of setting them before failure, but most of them if they had been cabled would've held together

 

[ClimbMIT]

I have never ever work for anyone anywhere who has said anything remotely close to "there s always tomorrow."
I've heard "well we are screwed for tomorrow", but usually it's a form of "it's not in the budget/schedule to come back here."
I would never make people do what I've been told I HAVE to as far as working in weather. Not that it was like insanely dangerous, but just a stupid.
Several weeks ago I climbed in 45+ mph frequent gusts right on the what. But it was a stout tree with strong wood that grew up in that environment, right on the water. My buddy got video of it, i looked rediculous

Dude that’s crazy! Cuthighnletfly is a good name for you profile [emoji38]


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[ClimbMIT]

Yea the tree doesn’t look like it’s moving too bad until your attached to it around 50 feet and up. Spend 3 plus hours in a tree on a windy day and you still feel off balanced even when you get home. @Drumbo . i saw this Spanish climber tied in at sixty feet up straight across from his tie in point about twenty feet away in This silver maple one time. It was midnight and we were removing storm damage from the power lines when a cell of rain and heavy wind came through out of nowhere. He was moving over thirty feet from side to side in this violent wind for probably less then 7 minutes but it felt like hours as we watched. He was screaming the whole time as he clung to the tree. He made it out okay but it was one of the scariest things I had ever seen.

Wow! That had to be stressful to watch. I would have forgot all of my vocabulary except Shit, F***, Son of...


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[treehumper]

I have never ever work for anyone anywhere who has said anything remotely close to "there s always tomorrow."

and yet tomorrow always comes....