Wedged Rope in Linden

B

Bart_

Carpal tunnel level member
Location
GTA
Had to pull some deadwood from a Linden, tried to pick a good crotch, got the throw line second shot, when I pulled up the rope it went hard like it was wrapped. Tried to reverse it out for a different crotch and the splice eye wouldn't come back through. So I was committed to either getting the rope installed or a second rope. I had to wrap the throw line on a stick and nearly break it (2.2 line) to get a foot and a half per pull, two hands.

When I went up the crotch that looked ok from the ground was a 6" and 4" spreading apart at a 10 to 15 degree angle. The rope was flattened from passing in the crotch. I knew I couldn't pull the rope back out and everywhere I looked were these tight angle unions. I found one lateral 2" branch that was the only place I was going to get my line back after descent. Not a good safety plan but there was at least a catch crotch 4 feet below. I hung off a loop redirect to change my tip and made it out ok. Well, I could have got out no prob but wouldn't have got my rope out.

So what do you do on a tree like this? I later remembered encountering a wedge special linden at another property. The solution there was to find the few and far between non-wedge crotches. I might say alternate lanyard DRT up, but you couldn't grind a DRT through a 10 degree crotch either and the whole tree was like that.

?
 
If climbing SRT, you could put a false crotch above the "climbing" crotch using a degradable twine (think cotton string or bailing twine). Tie a degradable "thimble" (think short piece of dead but strong branch) to it, and pass a throwline over it and down to the climbing line. That should enable you to lift the climbing line out of the tight union to retrieve it after you're done, and just leave the stick and string in the tree to come down on its own. I don't do much MRS, but maybe that same technique would pull your cambium saver out of the tight union.
 
One good trick for retrieving this from the ground is;
Shoot a second line in parallel but higher. Over the top of the tree even.
Tie both ends of the second throw line to a locking carabiner (smaller the better)
Snap the carabiner to the most clear leg of the stick line.
Hoist up the carabiner, sliding it up the stuck line to above the place it’s stuck. Hopefully you can then lift the stuck line out of the crotch and retrieve the whole mess.

The only reason you tie both ends of the second throw line together is to make it retrievable if it doesn’t work. You can skip this entirely but I recommend tying on a few throw weights or a third throw line, or do the end to end.
 
Thanks for the thoughts. My lanyard wouldn't even move DRT, and based on pulling up the SRT line, grinding it through DRT with my weight on it would be impossible. Every crotch in the tree was the same except a few outboard sticking orphan branches. Moss, I think setting a trunk cinch not at a crotch via throw line say 40' up is ? to me, I don't know if there's a way. It was a prune, no spikes.

One trick I've accidentally learned, on trees like this where your climb line refuses to go through the throw line crotch for whatever tree reason plus the weight of the climb line hanging down, is to accelerate the rope up the last say 2 feet towards the crotch quickly enough that as you slack the throw line, the rope trajectories upward from it's own inertia to get the rope end over the top by a few inches. Then you're just pulling rope over the crotch. That's how I got my rope in in the first place. Should've known trouble was a brewing when I had to do that.

For perspective, It was hard to unwedge my line after ascending, both hands right on site wiggling it and reefing on it. That was when I knew I was in trouble.
 
Bart_ said:
Thanks for the thoughts. My lanyard wouldn't even move DRT, and based on pulling up the SRT line, grinding it through DRT with my weight on it would be impossible. Every crotch in the tree was the same except a few outboard sticking orphan branches. Moss, I think setting a trunk cinch not at a crotch via throw line say 40' up is ? to me, I don't know if there's a way. It was a prune, no spikes.
Click to expand...

I was offering a solution for after you were up there figuring out what to do next. Basically saying do cinches/chokes whatever with your lanyard and main rope to continue and not have to deal with tight unions.

I have set choked anchors on a spar from the ground where there is slight lean, works well. I've done basal anchors over leans as well, all you need is a solid nub to keep the line on the trunk, once you load the line up it won't move. Not for working off of, once I get up to it I set an anchor that will allow me to move around the tree and unload/load the anchor without worrying it will jump off something and slide down.
-AJ
 
Thanks AJ, I was too quick on the read and didn't pull it all into context. A similar tree is english oaks. I once pruned one almost exclusively on cinched loop runners. That was a one off, tedious job.

Still, if you could figure out remote stubless cinch you'd be rich. Maybe a hundred-aire. :)
 
Bart_ said:
Thanks AJ, I was too quick on the read and didn't pull it all into context. A similar tree is english oaks. I once pruned one almost exclusively on cinched loop runners. That was a one off, tedious job.

Still, if you could figure out remote stubless cinch you'd be rich. Maybe a hundred-aire. :)
Click to expand...

I've gotten a couple from insane throwbag bounces that went the right way, other wise, fahgetaboutit!
-AJ
 
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