lead climbers

[klimbinfool]

I hate to use the term, lead climber, but I couldnt think of anything else to put.
When training new people to climb or even intermdiate and advanced. I always tell them, two safty rules. never compremise your safty and the ground crew as well. Everything can come after that.You cant replace a life.What kind of safety guidlines do you people fallow?.....

Greg

 

[dave_spencer]

no tree is worth your life! Safety first

 

[TreeDr]

Use common sense. Work smarter not harder. Think like a climber. Don't be a cowboy and attempt something over your head. Inspect gear and tree before every climb. Show up in the morning ready, willing and able to work.

 

[TreeDr]

Oh yes, one other thing... Donate money to the Cliff Oulette Childrens College Fund

 

[Mark Chisholm]

Agreed! I think that Sam Noonan put it well when he said that "No job is under bid so much that it can't be done safely and right!" (parphrase)

I have a whole bunch of guidelines that I keep in the back of my mind that I am constantly reiterating. I do this to help make safety second nature to not only the ground crew but to remind me as well.

I am known for telling my crew to always be ready for the worst case scenario. This may mean different things at different times. For example, I often remind my crew to stay out of the drop zone and out of any possible path of a moving object. The worst case here may be rope or tree failure over head.

I like how Don Blair explains the need for accident avoidance!

 

[TreeDr]

hope for the best, expect the worst and be happy if you got anything in between

 

[TreeDr]

Another thing is to know the limitations of the crew. You could be the safest, most aggressive takedown guy, but if the guy on the end of the tag line is a little green you could be in trouble by shockloads and other possible accidents.

 

[klimbinfool]

speaking of shock loads, and not to change the subjuect to much. I was removing a large valley oak today (5' dbh)with a tower and one green guy on the ground , with one experienced guy.some of the loads where shocked so bad I thought the tree was going to shake out of the ground. Glad I wasn't in the tree, would have tossed me a quarter mile.needless to say, I put the experienced guy back on the rope.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

When I start to train a newbie on the crew, we go through a lot of detail. This lets them know the systematic way we work on my crew. My system may be different than other crews and we need to know what action to expect all of the time. Something as simple as fuel/oil whenever a saw comes out of the truck. Some crews only service when the saw runs out of gas.

Another process I use is to explain the task and then have the newbie explain back to me what we are doing. That gives me an insight into how well I explained the job and how they interpret my yacking. When they explain back, I can clear up any details and not make an ASS[out of]U[and]ME that they get the instructions. This goes for the times when we're doing a tricky lower too, even with experienced crews. Its always time well spent.

Tom