vertical speedline size/weight limits

snunyabizness

snunyabizness

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Location
portland, oregon
did a walkthrough today for an upcoming job next week. it's a big fir, shaped like the letter s, pushing 175' maybe 200'. forested rural Woodland, Wa. Owner says it's making noise and scared of it. They want it reduced to a 50' spar. chip and remove all wood. There's nowhere to fell the tree. It's completely tangled with monster cedars on the backside and mature maples on the other, on the side of a gravel road following a creek ravine, homes less than 200' on both sides. the base on a steep bank about 15' higher up above the road. We have to keep it from falling down into the creek if at all possible. Rigging the countless branches will clearly be a suckfest frustration battle. So I want to spend a few hours clearing open the road and use it for the drop zone where we can process the material. use a redirected winch pull line and butt tied vertical speedline in the hopes of keeping everything landing down on that road. starting directly with the top and then work back down all brush intact going big.

the vertical speedline choked off on top and locked off portawrap at bottom. rigging ring sling tied to the piece butt.

what size rigging rope is appropriate for this?

any vector forces concerns if the piece takes a nosedive or goes in oddball directions?

any gotchas or good tricks?

All advice greatly appreciated thanks!
 
Doing the top first on conifers is the way to go, when possible. Mass damping makes such a big difference. I like mid-tying the pieces, it allows the speed line to exert pull on the piece to help it come over. Drawback is that it puts extra slack into each rig, depending on the distance between the cut and the tie-off point. But the extra slack can act like a safety factor to keep the trunk from getting rocked too hard on heavy pieces. Tighten right up on the line before the cut, the tension helps to pull the piece over, and then as soon as it comes off the slack enters the system. This is more appropriate for vertical speed lining than regular speedline. Keep the sling tight to the piece so that the ring can't smack into the porty, although it should hit the ground well before it gets too close. I like minimum 9/16" for the speedline and 5/8" sling for the ring.
 
southsoundtree said:
I wouldn't do the top first. Someone was showing me that technique early on, then the electrician showed up. He couldn't see the service drop and hit it.




Occasionally, I'll leave a couple branches on it for dampening.
Click to expand...
There is a time and place for everything. Sometimes it makes sense to cut a path up to top, set rigging, take the top and come back down to the lowest limb and commence rigging the rest.
Personally I find this situations kinda rare, and yeah leaving a couple of limbs does ALOT.
 
A couple thoughts. If you're worried about putting too much force on the tree while going big, counteract the resultant vector force on the stem downwards to keep forces in compression on the stem by having a guy line tensioned and tied off to the base of one of the cedars behind it if possible.

Sometimes jobs like that are just a pain the arse no matter how you choose to do it. One climber clearing out a good speed line route from the maples in front towards the gravel road could be the best use of time while another is getting setup to speed line out the entire tree. Having a good setup and pre-slung branches is going to be time consuming yes, but it's also way more predictable/manageable than a chunk of stem wood with brush on it. I don't have any concept of how close to the road and how deep the ravine/intertwined the trees are for the path of material, but if the tree is really that tall you'll be able to get a lot of material out smoothly before the maples become a huge issue (that is if you have a longer distance of travel in the speed line vs a steep angle getting past the maple canopies).

Another thought, getting all the limbs/brush down to the ground and stacked/oriented for winching up the ravine vs trying to get through a big tangled mess, find a way to set a high redirect in a maple for the winching piles to move freely uphill without getting snagged repeatedly, unhook redirect when they are uphill enough for a direct route to the chipper.

Big cuts big results, but sometimes dropping conifer pieces with wood and brush can be a total PITA with challenging terrain in the mix. My two cents.
 
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snunyabizness said:
did a walkthrough today for an upcoming job next week. it's a big fir, shaped like the letter s, pushing 175' maybe 200'. forested rural Woodland, Wa. Owner says it's making noise and scared of it. They want it reduced to a 50' spar. chip and remove all wood. There's nowhere to fell the tree. It's completely tangled with monster cedars on the backside and mature maples on the other, on the side of a gravel road following a creek ravine, homes less than 200' on both sides. the base on a steep bank about 15' higher up above the road. We have to keep it from falling down into the creek if at all possible. Rigging the countless branches will clearly be a suckfest frustration battle. So I want to spend a few hours clearing open the road and use it for the drop zone where we can process the material. use a redirected winch pull line and butt tied vertical speedline in the hopes of keeping everything landing down on that road. starting directly with the top and then work back down all brush intact going big.

the vertical speedline choked off on top and locked off portawrap at bottom. rigging ring sling tied to the piece butt.

what size rigging rope is appropriate for this?

any vector forces concerns if the piece takes a nosedive or goes in oddball directions?

any gotchas or good tricks?

All advice greatly appreciated thanks!
Click to expand...
Pictures would help so much. Is it visible on Google Maps/ earth?




A tree that size will have lots of hazards. Climbing, or at least a drone inspection, will be prudent. Tangled with big maples means deadwood issues are likely. Both inspections would set you up even better for success.

Seems like a job where taking a groundworker out with you to set up the site and find/ mitigate hazards as necessary before a bigger mobilization is worth considering.

PPPPPP
 
Sounds like a hard to predict tangle/ hanger fest possibility of VSL with limbs on. If you'll be processing each piece as it comes down, it sends that the ground crew will be working under increasingly damaged limbs that will be away from both climber and ground crew.


2 climbers working together or on opposite sides of the tree working independently into 2 drop zones???

Branch structure and number are big unknowns.



How steep is the hillside?



Why the unconventional approach?

I've done similar to this technique once in a redwood over concrete and asphalt. More of negative rigging without freefall due to branch entanglements.

Bushy and open-grown. The limbs from the top logs became crashpads for the bigger pieces.
 
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