Testing your TIP

Raven27

Raven27

Participating member
Location
Pittsfield, Ma
It goes without saying to really test your tie in point, and until Saturday, I'd never had one fail.
We were removing what was left of an old, dead hemlock that had just enough life in it to climb and rig down. There was a sturdy looking Silver Maple standing tall over it, so I decided to tie in off what looked like a really sturdy crotch, at least 8" diameter. Got the line in, gave it a moderate pull, then put all my weight onto it, it made a very loud crack and dropped about a foot, but didn't break free. I always test, as I imagine we all do, but you never know, get in a hurry maybe and don't, if I had taken even a short fall on that, it wouldn't have held me. Little eye opening.
Other down side, I had to go remove that section that was the neighbors tree for free.
 
Raven27 said:
It goes without saying to really test your tie in point, and until Saturday, I'd never had one fail.
We were removing what was left of an old, dead hemlock that had just enough life in it to climb and rig down. There was a sturdy looking Silver Maple standing tall over it, so I decided to tie in off what looked like a really sturdy crotch, at least 8" diameter. Got the line in, gave it a moderate pull, then put all my weight onto it, it made a very loud crack and dropped about a foot, but didn't break free. I always test, as I imagine we all do, but you never know, get in a hurry maybe and don't, if I had taken even a short fall on that, it wouldn't have held me. Little eye opening.
Other down side, I had to go remove that section that was the neighbors tree for free.
Click to expand...

Glad you tested it.
 
Say yes to the test.
Yoyos base tie lanyard trick is pretty slick for consistent loading beyond the forces of a climber.
How were you tied into the maple?
Silver maples suck and sketch me out. Not to be trusted
 
Fortunately for me, all my silver maples are removals. I climb to my TIP where I watch my whole travel looking for signs of distress. If I see anything that looks decayed or fractured I pick another leader to tie into. I would not want to have to prune one of those over grown giants.
 
Use two ropes ,two separate anchor points. Try to employ the trees strength in compression to achieve optimal redirect high anchor points and keep your weight evenly distributed to both lines. Of course only tie in as high as needed to accomplish whatever the scope of work entails.Pre Scope your leads with binocs for signs of weakness within structure can help sometimes.
 
Sorry for long response, busy work.
I hadnt even set up the basal anchor, it was just doubled over my intended TIP, lol. Ive never had to prune,trim,remove, nothing on a Silver. Ironically, customer from yesterday's job wants a rather large section removed from his beast in July or August. So they're brittle? Go smaller pieces?
 
Raven27 said:
Sorry for long response, busy work.
I hadnt even set up the basal anchor, it was just doubled over my intended TIP, lol. Ive never had to prune,trim,remove, nothing on a Silver. Ironically, customer from yesterday's job wants a rather large section removed from his beast in July or August. So they're brittle? Go smaller pieces?
Click to expand...

Very brittle. Large, leggy pieces tend to just pop off.
The big issue seems to be poor unions, very heavily decurrent tendencies, and poor compartmentalization.
They all fall apart at some point. They are great trees for preventing erosion on the banks of a creek, but not for hanging over houses.
 
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