no groundman? no problem!

I just came up with a way to lower 3 slings at a time and retrieve all of them with this system. I have been messing around with it and I am finding all kinds of uses. my ground man can be busy with cleanup now instead of tending rope. We are much more productive especially on Large evergreen removals.
 
Took me a while to grasp the whole concept. I like it!

What I've done, is to make use of a side branch or fork to run the DWT rope through (if there is one), and to lower the branch from. Then, no gear such as your slick trick uses is needed at all.
 
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Took me a while to grasp the whole concept. I like it!

What I've done, is to make use of a side branch or fork to run the DWT rope through (if there is one), and to lower the branch from. Then, no gear such as your slick trick uses is needed at all.

[/ QUOTE ] I have to agree that at least some of the gear in the system can be left out including the sling choking the spar and the figure 8 and you can just use other available branches,stubs, or crotches, but the greatest thing about the system is that you are independent of your ground help. You would have only a couple of slings and you could retrieve them in the tree. I really have to make a video, the pics just don't do the system justice.
 
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Took me a while to grasp the whole concept. I like it!

What I've done, is to make use of a side branch or fork to run the DWT rope through (if there is one), and to lower the branch from. Then, no gear such as your slick trick uses is needed at all.

[/ QUOTE ] I have to agree that at least some of the gear in the system can be left out including the sling choking the spar and the figure 8 and you can just use other available branches,stubs, or crotches, but the greatest thing about the system is that you are independent of your ground help. You would have only a couple of slings and you could retrieve them in the tree. I really have to make a video, the pics just don't do the system justice.

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Its a nice system, being refined. I wonder if carrying extra slings and using the natural crotched-DWT on branches to be removed would be easier than the pulley method, which I haven't tried. Beer-knot tied slings are cheap, and you can lower as many as you want at a time. Pull the rope through and you're free. Periodically, you will want the brush cleared anyway, and the ground support can send you up a bunch of slings. (I have a bunch of slings already from speedlining.)

As well, if you anchor the bottom of the rope, you can speedline smaller conifer branches away from the tree and they will pile up in one direction near your lower anchor point. You can use a Figure 8 or tie off on the trunk, and adjust as you go up. You might have a neater pile, closer to the chipper.

Thanks MattBC for putting the idea up, so we can tinker with it.
 
I like the retrievability of the system, but I usually carry 3-4 slings in a tree with me anyway.
It appeared that those branches couldn't have been much more than 30 lbs or so. With the setup you have there, the F8 is really only holding 15 lbs. Do you have to hand feed the rope through the F8 to get it to run?

In a situation like that, I use slings with a carabiner clipped into my lowering line. I have the tail of the line tied to an adjacent branch the same way you do, but I usually just lower by hand (like I said before, it is a 2:1 system, so I really only have to hold 1/2 the weight). Then once the load is on the ground, release the tail of the rope and pull it through the biner. The sling stays on the ground, but that's why I carry a few of them. Hopefully by the time I've used all of them, I have convinced someone on the ground (maybe the UPS guy) to tie them back onto my line for me.
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You don't have to pull any rope to reset the system with this method if you don't want to. You can leave the slings and branches attached to the line until you are done, then release the tail and pull it through all of them at once.

I've even used the tail of my climbing line if all my guys are busy and its a small piece.

Without a groundie, you've got to improvise! Nice work.
 
Matt, I really like this system and I remember you mentioning it to me on that COLD,COLD day of climbing a few weeks back that we did.

This system definitely has its advantages and I can see where it would come in handy on certain jobs.

Very clever and nice thinking. I'm going to have to drive up to your place so you can show me first hand on how the system works. A visual always helps me to interpret things better.
 
I think that an important part of what Matt shows would be how climbers can become more independent of groundworkers, so each can function efficiently with less down time while waiting on the other. Or how everyone can be climbing for something like simple, small conifer canopy raises over targets, then come down and get the branches cleaned-up.

I know that while climbing, I end up with some down time while the ground crew unties ropes and clears brush, then they may have some downtime while I rig and get ready for them to lower pieces. I try to make the most use of the time, but sometimes its unavoidable.

Lately, I have been using stubs in the tree like a trunk wrap/ friction brake, and natural crotching on removals so that I can both be more efficient, and get what I need as far as "working the hinge", "holding tight", or dropping rigged pieces free away from me, from an up close perspective without trying to communicate what I want to someone below that can't actually watch the hinge/ branch.

I've been thinking of how to set up a climber-run zipline system for small conifer branches that can be dropped right onto the zipline without a control/ rigging rope.
 
Simple yet slick MP. I like it. The original posters idea was nice, just too much gear for my liking. With hundreds of feet of 1" webbing I have, there's plenty of loop runners to go around.
 
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It appeared that those branches couldn't have been much more than 30 lbs or so.


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No doubt Matt used that tree simply for the illustration photos.....

[/ QUOTE ] Thanks. That tree was merely the easiest tree to set up the system if I was cutting those limbs I would probably just cut them with my hand saw and just handle them with out tying them off.
 
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Simple yet slick MP. I like it. The original posters idea was nice, just too much gear for my liking. With hundreds of feet of 1" webbing I have, there's plenty of loop runners to go around.

[/ QUOTE ] That is definitely an option and it works pretty good. I was just showing the most involved way to set the whole thing up. There are several simpler ways to set the system without all the gear.
 
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Any chance of a pic MP? If I read it right the only real difference is the retrievability, right?

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I'll see if I can snap one this week. You're right, besides retrievability, the only differences are the amount of gear involved and not having to pull the rope every time.

Matt - Do you ever get the overhand knot stuck under a limb or in a biner?
 
I have had a few little issues with the overhand knot but not from just one sling. I usually lower three branches at a time with the system. I have never had it become non retrievable though usually just have to pull a little harder. The system that you use is how I started lowering my own branches from in the tree and even now I regularly use just two or three slings and lower them the way that you describe when I do not have many branches to cut. Either way it is a major improvement over using both ends of your lowering line and then using your climbing line tail if you have three pieces to lower and no ground man.Not to mention it is safer. It is nice though to have one retrievable sling with you just in case.
 
That's pretty cool, lot of thought in that one. Just make sure you don't need any maneuvering of the limb to get it safely down. I've been there before, holding a self roped limb for 10 mins. until I can get some help on the ground.
 
instead of a knot you could use some kind of hardwear. I use the ring from a blown out throwbag for cambium saver removal.
 
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