Sideways Barberchair

rico said:
A dangerous and absurd statement Daniel!!! Whether on the ground or aloft a barber-chair is the vertical splitting of your trunk wood. When topping trees you do not have the benefit of the stump to stop a barber chair from going in a downward direction, which means that a barber-chair that occurs when blowing a top can and possibly will go below your cut creating an extremely dangerous scenario. Thus the infamous "circle of death", which has killed its fair share of climbers.
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My new ass had heard the term "circle of death" many times but never knew what it meant.....Now I think I got it, lanyard or flipline around trunk....trunk splits, climber pinned to tree/crushed/broke back etc.
 
Mowerr said:
any side ds I think...even the lowers right
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Wouldn't it sort of avoid it to clip your lanyard on the central ring? If you clip on a ring and then clip the ring onto the bridge with a carabiner then you could just clip out of your entire system with it still trapped on the tree. I think that would work, please educate me if I made a mistake in my thinking.
 
How many of you guys clip everything to the center before making the back cut? Or, alternatively, do you strap the tree below the cut and stay clipped into the side/lower D's for stability while making the cut?
 
LordFarkwad said:
How many of you guys clip everything to the center before making the back cut? Or, alternatively, do you strap the tree below the cut and stay clipped into the side/lower D's for stability while making the cut?
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In sketchy wood you could, but with solid wood and good cuts you'll be fine. Depending on the situation, assuming your not blocking down the trunk, your better off tieing into a neighboring branch before making your cut. Keeps your rope and lanyard away from the cut, and should a peel for split occur, you wont get sucked into it.
 
I know of people who when faced with the likelihood or possibly of being trapped in the circle tie in to a neighbor tree and attach their pole belt around the spar to be cut with a sturdy cable tie to act as a break away should shit hit the fan.
Not an ideal scenario but it does provide solid life support and optimal positioning on the spar by using the bolt in the traditional way.
The down side is the swing you may take should the cable tie break during a barber chair/tear out.
Up side is being prepared for the worst with a swing being a lot less life threatening than being trapped or having pole belt break
 
LordFarkwad said:
How many of you guys clip everything to the center before making the back cut? Or, alternatively, do you strap the tree below the cut and stay clipped into the side/lower D's for stability while making the cut?
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Strap when it looks bad for sure. Also if there are super tight codoms with rot starting in the crotch etc. Rarely needed but good trick to remember.
 
Serf Life said:
Strap when it looks bad for sure. Also if there are super tight codoms with rot starting in the crotch etc. Rarely needed but good trick to remember.
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Oh man, you gotta hate super tight condoms and crotch rot. Thass the worst! Strap def solves all that. Jajaja!

Ok, sent the 12yr old part of my brain to his room...

I've seen where ppl triple up zip ties for mechanical-fuse-like behavior when tied in to another tree, for sure.

I think I need much more experience to recognize signs of a potential vertical split.
 
The most recent use was for climbing above the junction. Singlestem spruce for 50ft that then had three tops from one point but wouldn't fit if cut at that point and I didn't trust a single one but together was fine. Worry about peel-out for sure, also consider cutting notch into one lead which hits the vertical plane where the leads meet below the crotch. That lead may hold or can easily fall before you backcut, or maybe pinching saw tipping early and settling onto the wedge before you can clear the notch. Notching both stems is standard for good reason, but not always an option around houses. Don't do it in the tree till you fell doubles on the ground imo.
 
Serf Life said:
I didn't trust a single one but together was fine.
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Apologies if this is obvious, but you are saying you didn't trust that one wouldn't run a split down to the crotch if you notched and cut it by itself as per usual?

And then you are describing notching one 'inwards' towards an imaginary vertical line coming straight up from the crotch?
 
climbstihl said:
Wouldn't it sort of avoid it to clip your lanyard on the central ring? If you clip on a ring and then clip the ring onto the bridge with a carabiner then you could just clip out of your entire system with it still trapped on the tree. I think that would work, please educate me if I made a mistake in my thinking.
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Yes tie into your bride ring In this situation. Also good time for an adjustable friction saver.
 
The single best thing you can do is to make sure you do everything in your power to never experience a barber-chair when topping trees. Your 1st line of defense is always gonna be your cutting, so make sure its spot on, and when in doubt strap it up both above and below your cut.

If a big barber-chair heads downwards it is gonna find the weakest link in the chain and break there. Is that your back, your flip-line, or your adjustable friction saver. Maybe its your climbing line, or whatever attachment point you chose to use. Fuck finding out!!
 
Serf Life said:
Enter mechanical advantage, have one trustworthy worker who isn't an idiot have a controlled pull of 4 guys without a reving engine. Cheap, easy, silent, and dependable. Videos of pulling tops with trucks and climber still in tree, no thanks.
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Hey, that's me!

This tree was wild, a bit of rot at the base, some visible defects. where the top was cut had beautiful intact bark, would have bet money on healthy wood.

Goes to show the importance of actually checking out the face cut. I glanced at em but usually just to check for dutchmen, valuable chance to observe wood quality too! thanks for the free lesson.
 
rico said:
Look at your picture. The only part that did barberchair was along the outer edge that appears to be the only place with any sound wood. The rest of the tree was simply to punky to barberchair because the wood fibers were to soft, so they gave up very early and left that little strip of sound wood on the outer edge to barberchair.

A barber chair can and will go both above and below your cut when topping trees, and having that big old crotch below your cut would have most likely stopped any downward barberchair dead in its tracks.
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yep and a downward barberchair whilst being attached via Flipline- is a bad day!
 
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