Lightning struck Sugar Pine

[Oxman]

Here's a series of photos showing the aftermath of a lightning strike on a hundred foot Sugar Pine. This pic shows what the scene looked like when we arrived.

The tree is 40" in diameter. The top third was blown out, & just missed the back porch of the house.

 

[Oxman]

The job was to remove the hulk of the tree. The remaining brush was all over the roof, & had to be lowered.

The trunk was split, so it was interesting to climb on a shell of a tree that had the potential to fail even further.

 

[Oxman]

Here's the back side of the tree. Fun stuff. This tree was cracking & popping when the saw cut thru the shattered wood.

 

[Oxman]

A strip of bark was peeled all the way down to the ground on one side. Cutting the blocks from the split trunk resulted in 2 halves from each round.

Lots of sharp splinters were sent flying around by the Stihl 076. It's nice having plenty of power.

 

[Oxman]

The lightning struck tree was one of a pair of pines . The other tree wasn't touched. It made a fine piece to be tied in to, in case cracked wood gave way unexpectedly. Everything was as solid as could be, though, no surprises. Even though slightly over 50% of the trunk was missing.

Notice the 'cut-resistant' flipline?

 

[klimbinfool]

nIce photoes Mike , where were thise taken .

Greg

 

[chris_girard]

Great pics. Quick question, How did you set your climb line in the adjacent pine? Did you use a throw line or spike up it.

 

[Oxman]

This job was in Mt. Shasta, California. The other tree was close enough to just reach over and tie off to. A loose coil tossed over fork a short distance away can be easily retreived with a short stick.

 

[Burnham_Chamberlain]

Oxman--
So you spur climbed the damaged stem, then set your lifeline in the adjacent one? Thus, while climbing, were you lanyarded in to the damaged stem with no quick escape available? Seems like a risky proposition, looking at the pictures and reading your descriptions of the damage. Could you have put a line in the good stem first?

I expect you evaluated all of this, but am interested in your thought process.

 

[Oxman]

This job was a decade or more ago, pre-throwline age for me. The Stihl 076 was a clue. This is a massive saw, comparable to an 066, but weighing about 5 pounds more. I feel priviledged to have been around to use state of the art gear (such as Manila rope), that is now considered obsolete.

As far as thought processes go, testosterone rules--maybe a crane would have been a better or safer option, eh?

When climbing on a defective stem and simultaneously being tied in to an alternate safe support, I consider if there would be time to unclip if the stem fails. I believe this falls into the delusions of grandeur category. The reflexes would have to be squirrel-like. Which is not necessarily a real-world scenario. More likely a 3 toed sloth.

This would have been a nice place to use a flipline hitch that could slide right off the end, if needed. The Grillon would be perfect. At the least, a non-steel core flipline that could be severed with the saw, if the climber is lucky enough to still be concious and able.

We don't always have the option to use Jerry's beltloop to tie in to. Having read the book has to have been enough. When contemplating these dicey jobs, I dig out a reassuring thought that calms those around me down. "There is no one else better able to pull this off."