Close to Death

I

IGTreeWorker

Location
Chicago, IL
I am very concern, how can this happen? I was climbing a white oak today. The tree is 70 feet tall, I was body thrusting, I was more than half way up then I pulled myself up and my bridge just broke, then I fell and got stuck in a branch 5 feet below me. Just my legs got sore. I am know freaked out about bridges. What should I use. I spliced my own bridge and it was techno cord.
 

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Wow. You never get used to that feeling of your heart jumping into your throat. Glad to still have ya posting.

It didnt fail at the splice did it? So was it a wear issue, or was there any previous damage to the bridge itself?
 
It looks like your bridge was worn, but that shouldn't lead to such an acute point of breakage. Is it posssible that this bridge was shock loaded at this spot (did you fall or do something extreme) before?

Glad you are OK.

-Tom
 
That is freaky, glad you are OK, you must be living right!

I don't have a rope bridge so I can't shed light on it, but definetly get some answers and make the required changes before climbing again. It's basically impossible to climb without total confidence in your gear. Hopefully some guys here can shed light on it.
 
I'd rather climb with my 12 year old sierra moreno eucman saddle than any of the new fangled rock climbing saddles that seem to be all the rage lately.

Think about it, we aren't rock climbers, we're arborists that use razor sharp chainsaws and handsaws, more than capable of cutting those puny bridges in a heartbeat when they're under load.

I may be an old school die hard, but I'm still alive and climbing in this biz after 35 years.

Glad you're ok and still have the chance to re-evaluate your choice of saddles to hang your life on mate.

jomoco
 
BTW, so it was just luck that you got hung up on a branch, as opposed to somehow catching yourself? What did you do then? How did you get down?
 
I don't understand why these new fangled bridge saddles don't have steel cores in their roped bridges as an industry standard.

If they can make a wire core lanyard, why the hell can't they make a wire core bridge?

jomoco
 
Hmmmmmmm... It looks like it was really warn out. I'm having a difficult time grasping this. It concerns me greatly. I guess it is a reminder to check our gear often, right?
 
The bridge looked really worn out prior to that breakage.IMO

Derrick Hulsey
beer.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
It looks like your bridge was worn, but that shouldn't lead to such an acute point of breakage. Is it posssible that this bridge was shock loaded at this spot (did you fall or do something extreme) before?

Glad you are OK.

-Tom

[/ QUOTE ]

I never shock load myself.
 
[ QUOTE ]
BTW, so it was just luck that you got hung up on a branch, as opposed to somehow catching yourself? What did you do then? How did you get down?

[/ QUOTE ]

I put my lanyard right away. Then I start to breathing camly and checking myself if I was okay.I hooked an extra carabinner through the rings and bring my other end of the rope up and I tied a town line hitch, and I climb a little bit to unhook my carabinners that is when I came down.
 

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No way NE tech 5/16ths (or whatever it is) just breaks! No way any rope "just breaks". Just one of those strands could hold your weight (and then some), so no way could you shred through all of them unless SERIOUS deterioration was already present.
 
That's a surprising picture. I used to ride a bridge made of that same tech cord. It's supposed to be extremely strong

I agree with Taylor, something compromised your bridge material. No way to know what though.

At this point I have two spliced vectran bridges covered by the sheath from some old kernmantle. I'm figuring they can't both fail simultaneously unless it's just my time to go anyway.

Tech cord needs a cover when using it for a bridge.
 
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