Daniel
Carpal tunnel level member
- Location
- Suburban Philadelphia (Wayne)
OK, here's the deal.. Hill too steep to move on without handholds.. so nowhere to go on the escape.. There was no chance of the log coming back, but I was still a bit startled by the all that flying dust.
I did cut a slight bypass in the face, (probably the first unintentional bypass in years)... I saw it and with that much force, I didn't expect it to matter.. turns out it didn't, but that's not much of an excuse. It would have been better to take the extra time to clean up the face.. Once the log shifted a little , all the weight was on it, and not on the fork. SO I was going to have to cut through the hinge either way to release it...
slack was left on the lower line and it was locked off, intentionally (so the shock load had nothing to do with the hinge seizing).. whatever happened I didn't want it swinging back into me.. I didn't trust a groundie to let it run, nor did I want or need to put him in a bad position, with low visibility, off balance on that steep hill. Better to have him stop traffic. If the log had dropped, I was going to take a very small swing into the trunk. The wires were not an issue on the swing..
variables that could effect my safety were eliminated as much as possible. The added force of the shock load was an acceptable consequence. It was a throw away rope (white not blue). Given the dry weight of maple and the stretch in that line, forces were certainly close to WLL anyhow.
Whoever thinks that traffic wasn't stopped when any of those cuts were made, better quit getting high, cause its effecting your sense...
Worked out better to leave the piece hanging until after the log landed, so no chance of it getting knocked into the street when the log hit, nor would a groundie have to go under that loose log to untie the piece. And we were able to carefully lower it perpendicular to the hill, so it will not roll.
The roll of the log was unexpected, but proved to be a benefit.. surprisingly there was no discernible damage to the maple bark anywhere. I had cut a small stump near the base of the maple, angling the cut away. That took the brunt of the falling force. The roll kept friction up high to a minimum..
Its quite difficult to get a sense of the steep grade from video.. That changed everything..
I did cut a slight bypass in the face, (probably the first unintentional bypass in years)... I saw it and with that much force, I didn't expect it to matter.. turns out it didn't, but that's not much of an excuse. It would have been better to take the extra time to clean up the face.. Once the log shifted a little , all the weight was on it, and not on the fork. SO I was going to have to cut through the hinge either way to release it...
slack was left on the lower line and it was locked off, intentionally (so the shock load had nothing to do with the hinge seizing).. whatever happened I didn't want it swinging back into me.. I didn't trust a groundie to let it run, nor did I want or need to put him in a bad position, with low visibility, off balance on that steep hill. Better to have him stop traffic. If the log had dropped, I was going to take a very small swing into the trunk. The wires were not an issue on the swing..
variables that could effect my safety were eliminated as much as possible. The added force of the shock load was an acceptable consequence. It was a throw away rope (white not blue). Given the dry weight of maple and the stretch in that line, forces were certainly close to WLL anyhow.
Whoever thinks that traffic wasn't stopped when any of those cuts were made, better quit getting high, cause its effecting your sense...
Worked out better to leave the piece hanging until after the log landed, so no chance of it getting knocked into the street when the log hit, nor would a groundie have to go under that loose log to untie the piece. And we were able to carefully lower it perpendicular to the hill, so it will not roll.
The roll of the log was unexpected, but proved to be a benefit.. surprisingly there was no discernible damage to the maple bark anywhere. I had cut a small stump near the base of the maple, angling the cut away. That took the brunt of the falling force. The roll kept friction up high to a minimum..
Its quite difficult to get a sense of the steep grade from video.. That changed everything..
