moss
Been here much more than a while
- Location
- Carlisle, Massachusetts, U.S.
Yeah. another cat rescue. The climbing is the interesting part on this one, cat was easy for a change.
Young cat was in a sketchy small oak, mostly dead. I opted to set my line in a nearby larger tree and cross over to the cat. Tree was slightly set back from a lawn into the woods. I threw from the lawn, on the third throw finally got something good. I told the cat owner that if I didn't get that throw out comes the slingshot. I'd rather hand throw if I can do it for forest situations, the bag will often go through the crown of several trees, when I'm pulling the bag back through them much higher probability of hanging the bag up. Turned out I was over a good high-enough limb to do the rescue. Problem is the basal anchored line was over a small branch 4 or 5' above and out sprouting from the same limb. I spent some time trying to shake it off or break the branch, no go. Being a red oak, even very small branches won't give. The rope was at a small union with the direction of force side compressing into a thicker branch below the union. In retrospect I should've put some mechanical advantage on my line and busted it out.
In "accident theory" a frequent component is self-imposed pressure to "get it done" leading up to an accident. Something I have to guard against constantly in my own climbing. Cat owners often think a rescue will take a 1/2 hour and are surprised at what often has to go into it. Even so I pressure myself to get it done quickly. I did not want to throw again, it would have been fairly quick to rig a 3 or 4:1 MA to break the branch, but I didn't. Maybe it was the heat in the low 90's, maybe it was the skeeters swarming me.
I jumped on the line with a footlock and gave it some good bounces, nothing budged. I still wasn't happy climbing up. I hugged the trunk as I went figuring if I got the drop I would get a chest rash but could buffer the dynamic loading when the limb caught my line. As it turned out it didn't break. At 1:52 in there's a good view of the rope over the small branch and then a few seconds later I pull the rope off of it, amazed that it didn't give out.
Well, the whole situation gives me the determination to do the the right thing before climbing next time it happens.
-AJ
Young cat was in a sketchy small oak, mostly dead. I opted to set my line in a nearby larger tree and cross over to the cat. Tree was slightly set back from a lawn into the woods. I threw from the lawn, on the third throw finally got something good. I told the cat owner that if I didn't get that throw out comes the slingshot. I'd rather hand throw if I can do it for forest situations, the bag will often go through the crown of several trees, when I'm pulling the bag back through them much higher probability of hanging the bag up. Turned out I was over a good high-enough limb to do the rescue. Problem is the basal anchored line was over a small branch 4 or 5' above and out sprouting from the same limb. I spent some time trying to shake it off or break the branch, no go. Being a red oak, even very small branches won't give. The rope was at a small union with the direction of force side compressing into a thicker branch below the union. In retrospect I should've put some mechanical advantage on my line and busted it out.
In "accident theory" a frequent component is self-imposed pressure to "get it done" leading up to an accident. Something I have to guard against constantly in my own climbing. Cat owners often think a rescue will take a 1/2 hour and are surprised at what often has to go into it. Even so I pressure myself to get it done quickly. I did not want to throw again, it would have been fairly quick to rig a 3 or 4:1 MA to break the branch, but I didn't. Maybe it was the heat in the low 90's, maybe it was the skeeters swarming me.
I jumped on the line with a footlock and gave it some good bounces, nothing budged. I still wasn't happy climbing up. I hugged the trunk as I went figuring if I got the drop I would get a chest rash but could buffer the dynamic loading when the limb caught my line. As it turned out it didn't break. At 1:52 in there's a good view of the rope over the small branch and then a few seconds later I pull the rope off of it, amazed that it didn't give out.
Well, the whole situation gives me the determination to do the the right thing before climbing next time it happens.
-AJ
