Rookie mistake

If i dont need to advance my system ill use a x rigfinf ring. Works great as well
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ARLO said:
I took the worst fall in my career last week, and it was really lucky I did not die or end up paralyzed. I shot a line over a bomb-proof anchor about 160' up in a big doug-fir. I then pulled the line back to isolate it over the anchor and then dropped it to the ground and then used a haul cord to pull up the climbing rope. This is something I have done many, many times, and I had no inkling that something was about to go horribly wrong. As I headed up the rope I thought it was odd how much I was bouncing on the HTP, which has very little stretch. When I got up about 40' I heard a loud crack, and instantly dropped about 20' straight down. The jolt when I hit bottom was relatively gentle, but then I heard a whooshing sound and had just enough time to look up and see a 3" diameter limb about 15' long coming down at me. It missed me by about 5' and smacked into the ground below me. It all happened so quick I never had time to piss my pants.

So, here is what caused it all. When I shot the line over the visible anchor point, it also passed through a crotch about 15' out on a big limb on the backside of the tree. When I pulled the line back to isolate it over the anchor point I did not see that it was also cantilevered out on the limb on the backside of the tree. When I started up the rope the limb held initially, but after about 40' of me bouncing on the rope the limb finally snapped and dropped me until the rope came up tight over the main anchor.

Several things in this scenario were incredibly lucky for me. One, when the limb broke I had about 300' of HTP between me and the basal anchor, so the impact force when I hit the end of the rope was relatively gentle. It could have been much worse. Second, I was about 40' above ground when the limb broke. If the limb broke when I was closer to the ground I would have smacked the ground. Third, the tree was a big leaner, so the falling limb missed me. Forth, the main anchor held.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. I got in a hurry and did not spend enough time checking the initial rigging, and did not listen to the alarm bells going off when the rope kept bouncing on my way up. I am lucky I am not paralyzed or worse.
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That's a very sobering story... thanks for sharing

I got hot with a little dead fir limb from about 25' up, right in the back of the hard hat and it dazed me pretty good... might have killed me without the hard hat...
 
Daniel said:
That's a very sobering story... thanks for sharing

I got hot with a little dead fir limb from about 25' up, right in the back of the hard hat and it dazed me pretty good... might have killed me without the hard hat...
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Most of the accidents that I am familiar with involve something falling out of the canopy and hitting the climber or a ground person. So I agree 100% on always wearing a helmet and staying the heck out from under the climber unless you are cleared to do so by the climber.
 
The whole team was taking down a big basswood in the rain, and I asked our former aspiring rigger to loosen and rotate the porta wrap around the tree in order for it to be in line with the rigging. I look over and he's trying to untie our climber's loaded basal anchor bowline.

Same guy kept wringing out his gloves after each little branch hauled to the chipper. In the rain.
 
Mel said:
The whole team was taking down a big basswood in the rain, and I asked our former aspiring rigger to loosen and rotate the porta wrap around the tree in order for it to be in line with the rigging. I look over and he's trying to untie our climber's loaded basal anchor bowline.

Same guy kept wringing out his gloves after each little branch hauled to the chipper. In the rain.
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Specifying tools by color sometimes helps. Everyone knows green from red from blue, unless they're color-blind. When my kid was a toddler, pre-verbal, she could use sign-language for colors. If she was frustrated, wanting something, I could ask by color ('sign' and word) or she would sign "Blue" or "Red". Better yet, it prevented frustration.
 
I got one for ya @southsoundtree. My partner has a white bag with his green and yellow climbing rope. He'll ask for his "green bag" rope. Then he has a green bag with a 1/2'' stable braid in it he calls the orange rope bag. Recently he bought a red stable braid that he calls pink rope. I've never been so confused in my life at times. o_O
Best part ... he's not at all color blind.
 
96coal449 said:
I got one for ya @southsoundtree. My partner has a white bag with his green and yellow climbing rope. He'll ask for his "green bag" rope. Then he has a green bag with a 1/2'' stable braid in it he calls the orange rope bag. Recently he bought a red stable braid that he calls pink rope. I've never been so confused in my life at times. o_O
Best part ... he's not at all color blind.
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He sounds like Satan. Literally, Satan.
 
96coal449 said:
I got one for ya @southsoundtree. My partner has a white bag with his green and yellow climbing rope. He'll ask for his "green bag" rope. Then he has a green bag with a 1/2'' stable braid in it he calls the orange rope bag. Recently he bought a red stable braid that he calls pink rope. I've never been so confused in my life at times. o_O
Best part ... he's not at all color blind.
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After telling the new guy to bring me "the blue rigging line" he will often come back empty handed and say that there is no blue line. Well, it used to be blue, but now it's more like grey and my red rigging line is more like pink.... I've come to realize that changing the color code is necessary during the course of a rope's life.
 
Yea, that's real funny! That freakin "pink rope" is brand new and never used yet. He will ask for it to be put on the truck for load out on big jobs once in awhile. It never sits in the sun and its still pretty damn red ....
maybe he is a little color blind lol.
 
southsoundtree said:
Specifying tools by color sometimes helps. Everyone knows green from red from blue, unless they're color-blind. When my kid was a toddler, pre-verbal, she could use sign-language for colors. If she was frustrated, wanting something, I could ask by color ('sign' and word) or she would sign "Blue" or "Red". Better yet, it prevented frustration.
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True. Point taken.

Just to clarify, the port-a-wrap rope is blue and the climber's line was rainbow.

Hard to standardize climbing line colours though.
 
Treezybreez said:
After telling the new guy to bring me "the blue rigging line" he will often come back empty handed and say that there is no blue line. Well, it used to be blue, but now it's more like grey and my red rigging line is more like pink.... I've come to realize that changing the color code is necessary during the course of a rope's life.
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My boss refuses to replace ropes until well after they should be. Our red bull rope made it all the way to "The White Rigging Line" before it was finally hung up for good.

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I have one questionable 1/2'' 3-strand that has been reserved for light duty only. It gets used as a tag line or a "tie back" rope, for tying bushes and small trees out of harms way. I also have a collection of short ropes under 20', all used for simple little tasks when needed, like tying a stubborn gate open.
 
if this is the place for silly mistakes:
I was setting up a 5:1 between two trees to tension a highline, attached the top fiddle block directly to the first tree, and the bottom fiddle to the next tree. I pulled for an embarrassing amount of time before I realized that i needed to attach the fiddle block to the rope I was trying to tension instead of the tree the highline rope was hainging in. For the life of me i could not figure out why the pullies were not pulling together.
 
This is not my profession which was very evident last Saturday. I have a dozen pin oak on my property that are overloaded with branches everywhere. My intention was to trim/thin them real good and not have a branch coming off the trunk any lower than 20'++. I was able to get a line up around 55' and ascended to where I intended to start cutting. After a good while I had cleared a ton of branches. I took my lanyard off to reposition myself. At the same time I noticed a branch I HAD to have...... Being new AND STUPID. I figured I would just quickly cut that one branch which I did. However, upon pulling my saw back towards me it hit my line! My heart instantly sank. Thank God I only went 1/4" through 1/2" rope. I grabbed for my hitch climber and bombed down 40' in a split second. I hit down and called it a day. New rope showed up today and cut new rope on it's way back to be repaired/respliced. High voltage work is so much easier!!!!
 
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Broke my finger yesterday. Thought I set a second rigging block above me - but didn't. Made my cuts, harnessed my saw, rest my hand just behind the rigging line, pushed the load free with my left hand while holding a branch above me my right hand.

Rigging line slid right down the limb above me and across my finger tips!

Ugh...it was supposed to be an easy peasy pruning job.


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Thanks for sharing Brock...
those are the little warning s that you have been becoming complacent... I know cause I;ve been there... its about taking things for granted to the point where you end up loosing focus on the details... which in this business is very dangerous... Please pay attention and make the adjustment..
 
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