Jeff_Cochran
New member
- Location
- Memphis TN
my rule of thumb: if i need any assistance (i.e. ladder, short body thrust, short footlock, a boost) then i need to be tied off. unless i'm in a set of gaffs on the right timber.
three points of contact rule?
- Thread starter Jeff_Cochran
- Start date
guymayor
Branched out member
- Location
- East US, Earth
[ QUOTE ]
most of the time on a large removal i will ascend the tree belayed from the ground with a rope until i hit the tie in and if the tree is "right" i will "free solo" to the top to set my tie in and rigging lines(if there needs to be any) before i start working, if it's not "right i will use the alternate lanyard technique to ascend to my tip.
[/ QUOTE ]that will work okay. So does advancing the rope with a polesaw.
So Davey does not allow soloing--surprising that your former company does in 2011. I got fired for doing it twice in the 70s.
The 1970s.
most of the time on a large removal i will ascend the tree belayed from the ground with a rope until i hit the tie in and if the tree is "right" i will "free solo" to the top to set my tie in and rigging lines(if there needs to be any) before i start working, if it's not "right i will use the alternate lanyard technique to ascend to my tip.
[/ QUOTE ]that will work okay. So does advancing the rope with a polesaw.
So Davey does not allow soloing--surprising that your former company does in 2011. I got fired for doing it twice in the 70s.
The 1970s.
- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
[ QUOTE ]
I remember the days when I used to gaff up the first 20-40 feet of the tree, completely unsecured.
Can't believe I used to do that!!
[/ QUOTE ]
I still do that, sometimes 70' or 80'. It's safe on live pines, just doesn't feel that way (and it actually feels like free solo on rock). Obviously a rope is a lot better but when I'm having a bad throwball day it's the only way to get it done.
EDIT:
I mis-read Top's post. I use a lanyard and my lifeline as an alternate.
I remember the days when I used to gaff up the first 20-40 feet of the tree, completely unsecured.
Can't believe I used to do that!!
[/ QUOTE ]
I still do that, sometimes 70' or 80'. It's safe on live pines, just doesn't feel that way (and it actually feels like free solo on rock). Obviously a rope is a lot better but when I'm having a bad throwball day it's the only way to get it done.
EDIT:
I mis-read Top's post. I use a lanyard and my lifeline as an alternate.
guymayor
Branched out member
- Location
- East US, Earth
Chip you are not saying that spiking 80' (you have not measured this have you?) up a pine with no lanyard is "safe",
Are you?
Are you?
- Location
- Phoenix Arizona
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I remember the days when I used to gaff up the first 20-40 feet of the tree, completely unsecured.
Can't believe I used to do that!!
[/ QUOTE ]
I still do that, sometimes 70' or 80'. It's safe on live pines, just doesn't feel that way (and it actually feels like free solo on rock). Obviously a rope is a lot better but when I'm having a bad throwball day it's the only way to get it done.
[/ QUOTE ]
I wish you would start using the alternating lanyard method.
Id really freak out and lose it if anything happened to you.
[ QUOTE ]
I remember the days when I used to gaff up the first 20-40 feet of the tree, completely unsecured.
Can't believe I used to do that!!
[/ QUOTE ]
I still do that, sometimes 70' or 80'. It's safe on live pines, just doesn't feel that way (and it actually feels like free solo on rock). Obviously a rope is a lot better but when I'm having a bad throwball day it's the only way to get it done.
[/ QUOTE ]
I wish you would start using the alternating lanyard method.
Id really freak out and lose it if anything happened to you.
- Location
- Phoenix Arizona
AND BTW!!!!!!!!!
I used to do it all the way to the top of 50 foot palms
Then I went to using a steel core lanyard with so much slack in it that if I were to gaff out It would have only served to keep me against the tree as I slid down to the earth. Palms were alot like the poplar poles that those timbersport people do...just not QUITE as fast.
Now I go up slow and usualy with my AFS on the spar along with my lanyard as I go up.
I used to do it all the way to the top of 50 foot palms
Then I went to using a steel core lanyard with so much slack in it that if I were to gaff out It would have only served to keep me against the tree as I slid down to the earth. Palms were alot like the poplar poles that those timbersport people do...just not QUITE as fast.
Now I go up slow and usualy with my AFS on the spar along with my lanyard as I go up.
- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
Wait, I mis-read Top's post. I use a lanyard after about 10' or 15'. My apology.
Don't get me wrong, it's not my first choice. I REALLY like have a high tie-in with a doubled rope so I can just slide the CMI up as I go. It's nice and quick with no pucker factor.
Pole climbers routinely go 45' without a lanyard... even on those rock hard pressure treated poles... but that doesn't appeal to me. I like to climb hardwoods without a lanyard because it's more like rock climbing but I use a lifeline overhead.
Climbed a pine yesterday that didn't have a live limb below 80'... with a doubled rope, 5' of rope on the ground, 200' rope. I'm not so bad at estimating height, been doing it a long time... wish I was equally not so bad with a throwball.
Don't get me wrong, it's not my first choice. I REALLY like have a high tie-in with a doubled rope so I can just slide the CMI up as I go. It's nice and quick with no pucker factor.
Pole climbers routinely go 45' without a lanyard... even on those rock hard pressure treated poles... but that doesn't appeal to me. I like to climb hardwoods without a lanyard because it's more like rock climbing but I use a lifeline overhead.
Climbed a pine yesterday that didn't have a live limb below 80'... with a doubled rope, 5' of rope on the ground, 200' rope. I'm not so bad at estimating height, been doing it a long time... wish I was equally not so bad with a throwball.
treehumper
Carpal tunnel level member
- Location
- Ridgefield, NJ
Always tied in. Plenty of times I could see that I could free solo but, when I started it was the rule and thus the habit was formed. Like wearing a seat belt. Without it I feel strangely uncomfortable.
chris_girard
Branched out member
- Location
- Gilmanton, N.H.
Page 31 in the TCIA Pocket Guide on Preventing Falls has an illustration and description of the 3-Point Contact Rule.
Pick Three:
Climbing Line, Lanyard, Hands, and Feet are all points of contact.
Pick Three:
Climbing Line, Lanyard, Hands, and Feet are all points of contact.
Frax
Participating member
How do you guys get up to the top of spruce trees - say for the dreaded dead-wooding task or to do something to fix a top?
We just generally free climb it to the top and then tie in, but if we need to stop and mess around a bit, we throw a lanyard around something useful. Hard to fall out of one of those things. I consider it much safer than climbing an extension ladder anyweay. I hate those things. I should learn to master the throwline.
We just generally free climb it to the top and then tie in, but if we need to stop and mess around a bit, we throw a lanyard around something useful. Hard to fall out of one of those things. I consider it much safer than climbing an extension ladder anyweay. I hate those things. I should learn to master the throwline.
Most Spruce trees we climb are for removal.... dont really prune them much, but when we do, we use what many here have never heard of or refuse to use. A ladder. Then alternate lanyard technique for as long as it takes to get to the top.
Im not a big fan of ladders myself, but will use them when its most appropriate and efficient ascent method. If you have a groundie holding it study, its not so bad. Too bad so many climbers are opposed to using them.
Its pathetically funny actually.
Im not a big fan of ladders myself, but will use them when its most appropriate and efficient ascent method. If you have a groundie holding it study, its not so bad. Too bad so many climbers are opposed to using them.
Its pathetically funny actually.
