Luke Glines

rich_h said:
Wishing Luke a full and speedy recovery. He is a beast of a talented climber and I look forward to seeing him back at full strength again soon !

Greg, one of the many things that I LOVE about the TreeJam event is that the emphasis in scoring is heavily weighted on safety and not speed. Time is certainly an element to most of the events during the day, but the actual scoring leans much more to rewarding good safe decisions vs. doing things quickly and perhaps settling for a potential to take a long swing or tying into a suspect branch.

This is not a dig on ISA sanctioned comps or any of the techs, judges, organizers, or competitors participating in them. The fact is that no branch unions on a tree are rated so there is no definitive way to ensure that a suspension point is going to hold. Many incredibly knowledgeable people volunteer immense amounts of time to make the comps enjoyable, challenging, and most importantly as safe as they can possibly be. The comps (in all shapes and forms) expose the professionalism and skill of our technicians and draw young women and men into an industry that they may have otherwise overlooked.

The only somewhat effective technique I know to help avoid a TIP failure is to tie in lower from the onset and then advance your TIP when you can assess the situation better than from 60' below. Advancing the line in both Doubled Rope set ups and Single Rope set ups takes much less time than figuring out how the hell you are going to work with a broken leg.....or much worse..

Tying in lower and never settling for a questionable branch union are the luxury for guys like me who are no longer out climbing production every day. I have climbed on way more than my fair share of questionable limbs in the past so in truth I have no leg to stand on to make any recommendations to any climbers on that regard. I only know that no other industry would put up with as many accidents as we have in Arb. We have to ability to reign in these accidents if we change our mind set and just plain never settle for a questionable limb as a tie in. Until trees come with rated anchors, what other choice do we have?
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Thanks so much Rich! Your exactly right about the time it takes to advance one's line vs sitting on one's ass trying to get better to get back to work! Even in old age we can keep learning new lessons.
 
Levi.CO said:
I am curious what a person with a lot of competition experience would deem an appropriate reaction at the moment of an incident like this. Carry on with the competition?
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Hi Levi. Thanks for the concern. As for your question about how the comp proceeded. The judges asked me if I felt I could keep climbing and initially I said give me a few minutes to recover and I'll be ready to go. Several first aid responders were asked to check me out and none of them were willing to see me get up and climb. After about 20 minutes I stood on the leg and knew that trying to climb on it would be the second dumb decision in a row and not worth it. I take the responsibility for choosing a bad tie in point and feel that was reflected in the outcome of my not being able to win. I'm okay with it. I'm sure I would feel a lot different if I had been in solid place and then it broke out.
 
GregManning said:
Thanks for the update. Heal well & quickly.
Was this RMTCC ?
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Yes it was. Held in Grand Junction for the first time this year. Which is another component of how it happened. Grand Junction has not had a history of certified Arborist's working in the community and the numerous flush cuts throughout the masters elm was a case in point.
 
LukeGlines said:
Hi Levi. Thanks for the concern. As for your question about how the comp proceeded. The judges asked me if I felt I could keep climbing and initially I said give me a few minutes to recover and I'll be ready to go. Several first aid responders were asked to check me out and none of them were willing to see me get up and climb. After about 20 minutes I stood on the leg and knew that trying to climb on it would be the second dumb decision in a row and not worth it. I take the responsibility for choosing a bad tie in point and feel that was reflected in the outcome of my not being able to win. I'm okay with it. I'm sure I would feel a lot different if I had been in solid place and then it broke out.
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Hey, Luke, glad to hear from you, hopefully you are well.

Sorry this happened to you.
 
Glad to hear you are ok.
I've been having a discussion on TIP stress testing and understanding redirect load sharing, and posted some videos. I'm not saying I have answers but I really hope these things get some serious reconsideration.
 
yoyoman said:
I would suggest, set the TIP, stop the timer for 2 mins for a stress test, restart the timer and climb on.
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Or establish several preferred psp's during set up. That way time during the comp is not sacrificed and climber concentration is not broken.
 
oldoakman said:
Agreed, but they establish point values for the height of the selected crotch prior to the event which pushes competitors to go for the highest parts of the tree and the sketchiest psp's.
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We dont do that @ JAMBO. This year however we will be defining MAXIMUM TIP points. As in, you cannot tie in above here at all...
 
I know JAmbo and Charlotte buck the system somewhat Nick. This was an ISA event though. Speaking of Jambo, I am still trying to think of a way to justify it to my wife.
 
When I was involved with ISA comps there were several times where we chose to install flagging that denoted a 'ceiling' or out of bounds for TIPs. Sometimes for size and sometimes because of compromised structure that would make the branch unsuitable.
 
Most of the Master's level events that I have been to in the last couple of years, have a very knowledgeable Tree Tech (or Tech's) that have pre-evaluated the canopy TIP's.
If a different TIP is used, the Tree Tech is in a much better point to make the evaluation (vs Ground Judges). They can also approve a canopy vs base tie. Radio's make this very easy now days.
e.g. Charlotte Master's had a couple "Do-not-use" TIP's, which were explained to each climber, just before they started.

Another comment about time .......................
It seems that most ISA events (Judges) allow the climber to complete the installation of the climbing line, before DisAllowing that TIP. i.e. wasted time.
At Jambo 2 last year, all the judges made a point of discussing intent, and various TIP's, with the climber, during and very early in their installation.
 
Luke is taking responsibility for his choice of TIP.....because that is the kind of man he is. However, there is more to the story. While setting up the tree Mark James and I recognized the crotch that failed as the likely target for the competitors..... most centrally located high TIP. He and I both looked at it from buckets, saw no visible defects and thought it was beefy enough despite the dogleg down to the branch attachment. We said " it should be fine if they load test it." Therefore he and I were both primed to approve it as soon as it was double loaded by Luke and a judge prior to ascent and it held. One of the other judges quietly asked "did you see how much that torqued?" I looked up at it as Luke began his ascent, saw the way the limb was twisting, said "eww.....you're right"...and the limb failed. Lots of lessons for us all. Hopefully there will never be another situation like this, But I think that those of us setting things up are going to be a lot more leery of questionable TIPs, pretesting and restricting some. Comps put pressure on everyone...hurrying to set up, judges not wanting to inhibit competitors, competitors pushing for the best TIP on the first shot. The irony is that Luke it "THE" target. I am much heavier that Luke and I would have chosen that TIP, Would I have let it stand completely isolated as it was? Would I have stopped when I saw the way it torqued? I will NOW but I know I have gone up on a couple like that before. Be careful everyone!
 
Stumper said:
Luke is taking responsibility for his choice of TIP.....because that is the kind of man he is. However, there is more to the story. While setting up the tree Mark James and I recognized the crotch that failed as the likely target for the competitors..... most centrally located high TIP. He and I both looked at it from buckets, saw no visible defects and thought it was beefy enough despite the dogleg down to the branch attachment. We said " it should be fine if they load test it." Therefore he and I were both primed to approve it as soon as it was double loaded by Luke and a judge prior to ascent and it held. One of the other judges quietly asked "did you see how much that torqued?" I looked up at it as Luke began his ascent, saw the way the limb was twisting, said "eww.....you're right"...and the limb failed. Lots of lessons for us all. Hopefully there will never be another situation like this, But I think that those of us setting things up are going to be a lot more leery of questionable TIPs, pretesting and restricting some. Comps put pressure on everyone...hurrying to set up, judges not wanting to inhibit competitors, competitors pushing for the best TIP on the first shot. The irony is that Luke it "THE" target. I am much heavier that Luke and I would have chosen that TIP, Would I have let it stand completely isolated as it was? Would I have stopped when I saw the way it torqued? I will NOW but I know I have gone up on a couple like that before. Be careful everyone!
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So if a 2min time out was taken while 2 guys stood on it, and I mean stood on it, both with foot ascenders, for that period of time while someone else observed???
 
As everyone knows, dynamic loads can be much, much greater than 2X (i.e. 2 people loading).
Obviously, I don't know the answer to ultimate saftey.
 
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