Who is this climber?

yes indeed and a whole lot of other horribleness besides (cotton palms etc) but it is the roll and flick of the braided cable up and around big stems because of the materials and type of construction that makes it a easy option.
can't use on thin barked trees when pruning as they tear them up but just bonza for big takedowns.
you can advance it up the stem with the uplift action of your knees as you gaff on a smooth bark tree.
 
pretty awesome video! I saw sometimes a great notion interesting movie for sure, liked all the old trucks in it. I wonder if Mr. Beranek even knew the fella?
 
petes said:
True grit. I was feeling beat up after a long day but that video put things in perspective.
Click to expand...

gotta love it!

Hap must simply have been gorilla strong in his grip strength and over all. He makes something that is viciously hard look completely simple. And his mental toughness must have been extraordinary too, I sure as heck wouldn't want all that slack in the line between his harness and his hands, yikes!!!

He must have been an all around athlete to go with his skill and experience. I heard he would do head stands on top of the 100' spars at the old timber carnivals…


Aaaaaalllll Maaaannnnnn
 
I believe this is Hap as well.

1_a_1_a_Uncle_Hap_in_Spruce_AA.jpg
 
He passed away. Rather surprising though, given those pics and vids. He must have had 4x more energy than most normal folks. From what I've read, he was as nice and friendly as he was a tree wizard.
 
MikePowers321 said:
I believe this is Hap as well.

1_a_1_a_Uncle_Hap_in_Spruce_AA.jpg
Click to expand...

This is a photo of the Klootchy Creek Spruce being pruned in the 1960s. This tree, which died in 2008, used to be the largest known tree in Oregon and a major tourist attraction. This is the one that is just off Hwy 26 when you are going to the coast from Portland, and you can still go see the stump (it was ripped in half by a windstorm and then cut down to about 15m some months later.) Some land managers got worried about all those huge dead branches falling and killing a tourist, so they hired somebody to prune them off.

I'm not sure that this is Hap. I've done a fair bit of reading about this tree and other historic big trees in OR, and am thinking I would remember if it was him in that photo. That said I don't know who it is. If anybody is interested, the Oliver Matthews collection at the Oregon State University library in Corvallis is a wealth of information about OR big trees dating back to the 1940s, and that would certainly have more detailed info about this photo and its circumstances.

For what it's worth a friend's dad used to compete against Hap in some of the logger jamborees up and down the coast and apparently Hap was the guy to beat. He was the real deal.
 
That shoulder harness in Spar Tree was rather interesting.

The guy pruning the spruce, is he carrying a pneumatic or hydraulic saw, that musta been crazy heavy with the line trailing.
 
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