My fall last year!

ratherbclimbing

ratherbclimbing

Location
Knoxville TN
Ok so I've debated on posting this for not wanting to be ridiculed! What
happened is what happened though. I can't change it so why not share.

Late August of 2011 I was working for my former employer doing a removal of a silver maple. No rigging at all ;free landing zone to drop everything. I had removed all the limbs and was positioned in a triangled fork with two sides to my back and one long stalk in front of me. As maples are known to peel I did something I knew I should never have for this scenario. I was speeding through this removal as fast as I could. I placed my rope in a crotch that was way too small and removed my laynard for the last cut to drop about a 15 ft section of it that was in front of me. Yes you heard me I removed my laynard to pop a section out.

I wedged myself in this 3 pronged triangle crotch and took my laynard off! Incredibly stupid I know. The crotch I placed my rope in could'nt have been more than 2in deep. My irrational thought process was to place it there to keep it out of my way while I made my final cut before descent. I then removed my laynard so it didn't peel and suck me into it. I felt comfortable that I was wedged were I was and wasn't going anywhere.

I made my cut watched it fall and land beautifully then forgot about were I had placed my rope. My intentions were after making that cut to place my rope in the crotch at my feet then descend.

I leaned back to clip my saw on and come on down. As soon as I leaned back I felt and odd slip in my rope almost as if my hitch didn't grab. My eyes went to my hitch immediately it appeared fine then I remebered the crotch and my rope. I looked up and seen my rope sitting on top of the stub of the crotch. My instincts kicked in and I grabbed for a limb this caused me to flip forward as my rope fell free of the crotch and I went face first towards the ground. I landed on a pile of brush with my left hand out in front of me trying to break my fall. Saw still in my right hand.

Immediately I jumped up and started taking my saddle and spikes off. my foreman and another climber were running to me.I asked my foreman and a fellow climber "HOW FUKCED UP AM I?"

I couldnt feel my teeth at all and blood was running down my face. No pain as adrenaline and endorphins were going into overdrive.

I went to the hospital and was released that day with no broken bones. Few stitches in my chin, minor bruising, and a pneumothorax(partially collapsed lung). The pneumothorax was about the size of a tennis ball.

As a result of this fall I have bone bruising in my left wrist should be healed by now but still hurts. My left elbow and shoulder still hurt as well everyday.

This incident was completely my fault! I knew better than to do what I did. Is my former employer still responsible for my doctor bills? Yes! Do I still hurt? Yes!

WHAT WOULD I DO?

MAN UP! I wasn't paying attention and doing stuff I knew I shouldn't do. I stand on principle...my mistake, not my employers.

As I know how long it takes to heal from a fall; I wish Steve a speedy recovery. I hope he heals completely and is able to climb again and this doesn't deter him from climbing. My heart goes out to his family.

Sorry for this being long winded. And I have tough skin so any ridicule and bashing for my stupidity I can deal with.
 
Forgot to mention I was approx 40 ft..which is debatable appearantly as my buddies would always ask me "hey how high is that about 40 ft" that "saying" use to fire me up. They knew this and kept poking at me. I remember looking down at the power pole in the front yard so 35 or so atleast.
 
Way to man up Isaiah, it was hard for me to admit when I fell too. You're helping others though.

I agree, you made a mistake, one of the most common causes of injury in tree work... you were going as fast as you could.

THAT SHITE HAS GOT TO GO! Money is NOT worth someone's future, definitely not their life. The whole emphasis on fast production is bullshit... this ain''t that kind of work. It ain't general labor. It's precise, it's risky, it's difficult... F_CK going fast.
 
thanks for sharing, glad your wernt hurt worse that you were, hope all the achs and pains go away eventuly, anyone who has been in the field long has had a close call or a fall but most are to prideful to share, thanks for the post the more people read about these close calls the more alert and cautious people will be.
 
Glad you made it through. It's gotta be tough to run through the events and realize how simple it is to lose track of you life line.

My biggest fear. The one that wakes me up in a jolt about 15 minutes after falling asleep. Falling to the ground....

Bless your heart, Bubs.


SZ
 
It's not so much the speed as it is the rationalizing shortcuts that cost. Being efficient doesn't mean flying around up there just making wise decisions. Which in your case you didn't. I'm of the impression you convinced yourself that the small diameter limb was ok for the moment and in a very neat trick of compartmentalizing made the decision that having your lanyard around something was ok as opposed to a back up to the poor TIP. It sounds like you had several options for your lanyard yet didn't use them. The peeling out is another thing that could've been handled without leaving you in contravention of the 2 points of tie-in.

Hindsight is 20/20 glad your around to put it to use!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Way to man up Isaiah, it was hard for me to admit when I fell too. You're helping others though.

I agree, you made a mistake, one of the most common causes of injury in tree work... you were going as fast as you could.

THAT SHITE HAS GOT TO GO! Money is NOT worth someone's future, definitely not their life. The whole emphasis on fast production is bullshit... this ain''t that kind of work. It ain't general labor. It's precise, it's risky, it's difficult... F_CK going fast.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a great post.
Good, good words, Blinky.
There's a lot of pressure for speed in my workplace, and I am just starting to learn how to not let it get to me, because when it does, I do stupid, stupid things.

Thanks for sharing this story, Isaiah.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom