Tying in to sketchy trees. Petzl Caritool?

ILikesToClimB

ILikesToClimB

Location
litchfield county, CT
Today I climbed two hollow Red Maples with questionable bases from a high tie in point in a Hickory above them. The question always is in these situations, even though you are tied in above, most cases require you to lanyard into the sketchy tree you are cutting, so if the weak tree fails you are still in harms way. Today I recalled a post in which someone had used a Petzl Caritool as a chainsaw lanyard attachment point, and when one day the work grabbed his saw, the caritool broke, and did not pull him down. So...I thought why not add a Caritool on the end of my lanyard snap as a breakaway link in case the sketchy tree I am lanyarding into fails. Admittedly I would not be tied in twice with rated attachment points, but this seems to me the safest route to go. What do y'all think. How do you deal with these situations?
 
It's a good idea.
I had a pretty big fall when a branch I was lanyarded in broke at the trunk. The weight of me hanging with the huge branch made the decayed trunk snap about 10 feet below my tie in. I ended up with a concussion, six broken ribs and a punctured lung.
 
A caritool is only rated at 200lbs, so I think it would be a little weak to be tied into that alone. What I would do is use two caritools as a d-ring, on upside down, one right side up. That gives you 400 lbs and reduces the chance of the snap on your lanyard coming out by accident.

Ive had caritools break on me from getting snaged in branches, so I think two would be a minimum.
 
Never mind, googled it. looks like a pretty common hardware store item. Wonder how that would work as a trigger on my big shot?
 
Seems like the right time to confess......

Last year I was climbing a big old oak. I haven't been climbing long, so I'm already hyper jittery, and my mentors words of "most accidents happen when redirecting or switching over" was already echoing in my pea brain. The scaffolding was perfect in the tree, se I set the ladder up and starting my leap frogin' hop scotchin' up the tree to my final TIP. I got in my zone/groove and felt good.....safety in, advance line, clip in, un-safety and so on and so on. Halfway up (around 45-50 feet) I safety in, set my weight into my d rings, unclip and start trying to advance my line and throwball. After a few flubbed and snagged shots, that little voice said "double check before you switch over". I look down to double check, only to find I had lanyardididid into my caritool. My heart rate and BP freaked out, as I slowly got my line around a close limb to correct my mistake. I LEARNED FAST.

Now I verbally acknowledge all my points before I make my next move. FWIW, I was pushing back HARD against the stem in my newly found caritool attachment and know for a fact there was alot more than 200lbs of force on that cheapazz piece of plastic. It probably saved my life, or saved me from worse. Lesson learned in the non hard-way for once!
 
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Never mind, googled it. looks like a pretty common hardware store item. Wonder how that would work as a trigger on my big shot?

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I use that panic snap for my Big Shot trigger.
Works well.
See this old post.
http://www.treebuzz.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=193984&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1
A bailout system would have to be triggered by the weight of the climber as we all know your first instincts would be to grab on and ride it out.
I like the short lanyard with no stopper knot on the tail.
 
a guy i work with clipped into one of his belt loops for a bailout. I thought it was a pretty good idea except i wear thinner/ lighter material pants than he does so im sure mine wouldnt hold like his did.
 
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