Coming back after 7 year's break from tree work.

[treeajnin]

Hi all,

Life things have happened but now am I making my comeback doing some weekend warrior work for myself. In what feels like a previous lifetime now I was a somewhat progressive climber for what was available at the time. I had some random thoughts, questions I was hoping to run by you all in an effort to spark the proper thinking again and keep me safe. I also hope this thread maybe sparks new questions or things I forgot. All in the name of safety for me because I am smart enough to know that without doing this everyday things and thoughts get lost in time.

-At one point I had the mentality of "Mechanical Devices fail, Knots are safest", yet now I notice a lot of mechanical devices being used (rope runner,zig zag? etc etc. ) Has this mentality changed industry wide ? These devices intrigue me but just hoping to hear what the community here has to say on the topic.

-For spar work, what is the latest greatest way we can now be cinched to the spar and able to descend in case of emergency ? The last way I could remember was a cinching knot around the spar combined with rope wrench for descent. Anything more progressive or worth mentioning here ? This was a rare job for me but nowadays I see myself getting more removals than pruning jobs so I want to be prepared.

- all of my climbing gear, ropes etc have been in bags,indoors,dry all these years. Something tells me to question all my old Eye to Eye's and rigging ropes. As long as they werent exposed to the elements getting wet than dry, photodegradation etc is there any concern here ? Should I not think twice and get new ropes ?

That is all I got for some, I am sure I will think of more..

Thanks

 

[RyanCafferky]

Welcome back to the trees.

It wasn’t that many years ago where there were long discussions about whether SRT was too dangerous. Mechanicals were a hard thing for some folks to accept and adopt but now they seem as common or more common on job sites than hitch based systems. At least in the companies I work for. In the hands of a poorly trained operator, every system is potentially dangerous.

As far as ropes and things aging out, consult the manufacturers and they will likely say anything over 5 years old needs to be retired. Lately I’ve been retiring a lot of old equipment. It is a hard process to go through but when the mind is doubting what you are using because of the numbers of cycles it has gone through or just age, I would rather just have new stuff and peace of mind so I can keep on cranking away.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

I'VE CLIMBED on Unicenders since the first day that Morgan debuted the tool. There has never been a fear of mechanical multicenders. Any one of them is much less complicated than the simplest motor vehicle that I use for transport. In fact, simpler than my bicycle too. Routine inspections are the important thing.

Welcome back! Good to have you active here again.