work position on hazard tree

[limbsurfer]

When working on a hazard tree (e.g., tree in danger of failing, tree hung up in another tree, tree on a house) and you are tied into an adjacent tree is there a safe way to lanyard into the hazard tree for the sake of work positioning?

 

[Mark Chisholm]

Interesting post. I've talked to a few people (like Tom D) about this and we all thought of different "load-release" lanyard ideas. Maybe a tear-away style attachment. Anyone?

 

[tophopper]

There was a recnt discussion of thi over at AS. A break away lanyard needs to be used in this situation. Ive used throwline incoroporated into the lanyard in this case, strong enough to hold you for postioning, but weak enough to break if the tree failed. Ive thought about this before also and one thing I thought about was a medium to large sized key ring. they're cheep and you could easily test a few to see what their holding and breaking strenghts are.

 

[klimbinfool]

how about incorporating a quick release snap

 

[TreeJunkie]

This became a real concern for me down in alabama as i was piecing out this layed out pine. It was hung up on another tree. I knew from the get go the tree might fail thus never lanyarded in the thing. Instead i chose a second tie in w/ the tail of my rope. This allowed better balance and additional safety, whether it be a slip or even had i cut my primary life line.
The only reason i chose to climb up for this was to strip the brush off of this tree. The idea was to help minimize other tree breakage and to keep anything from hanging up in other trees.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

Slipped anchor hitch in bight on D; that JP recomended for throwline tie is what i've used, though, never had to pull trigger in emergency. Once, attatched snap to saw, so that if i dropped it, it would trigger release.

Never had to really test total emergency function.

 

[davespencer]

When I went paragliding a while ago we were using a tow winch to get up to altitude. They had a neat breakaway system on the winch attachment where they had a 9 inch loop of really thin spectra and they just folded it in half again and again until they had a known breaking strength X a number of loops to hook into, it was adjustable to the weight of the pilot.

Dave

 

[Mark Chisholm]

That's interesting. So the sling would break when X lbs of force was applied?

 

[Merak]

Maybe monofilament fishing line between a couple biners?

 

[wct4life]

I've thought about incorporating a break-away chainsaw laynard. If I remember correctly, they're designed to "break" at #200. Haven't tried it, just another idea.

 

[knotable]

A lurker attempts to contribute! /forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The article posted here, http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/writing/explode.htm, discusses "Six Exploding Knots". Might one of these knots help or perhaps spark an idea? /forum/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[Mark Chisholm]

Thanks for joining Knotable! Now let's go see that link.

 

[wct4life]

[ QUOTE ]
A lurker attempts to contribute!


[/ QUOTE ] Welcome. Any and all thoughts are appreiciated(sp) /forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Mark Chisholm]

Not a bad concept in some scenarios. Leave a ripcord and yank it in an emergency. Hmm. Sounds pretty cool, just make sure to keep that ripcord away from evrything else.

 

[Norm_Hall]

How about a lanyard (straight piece of rope, no prusik or ?)with a snap on 1 end and tie a slip hitch to the "D" on the other end. I've done it. It works.

 

[theXman]

Hmmmmm, interesting topic, nice.

Have to say I don't know a slip hitch. Guess I'm not one to know all the 100s of different knots like a lot of you do. Use maybe 6-10 knots.

Now, if you don't have a break away lanyard for this situation and you use a lanyard anyway. I'm stating the obvious I guess but: in that situation, make sure you at least don't use a steel core lanyard.

The rope lanyards cut very easily and fast when under tension.

I had to do this many years ago when I just started climbing. Topping out and dropping some difficult trees for a logger. Tied in the top (big red oak), came down and when out on a big heavy lead with a lot of horizontal weight. Put my lanyard around the lead, (probably didn't need to), undercut or cut a tight notch. Then when I started cutting the back cut it started to go pre-maturely (of course). The holding wood was very thick and the limb naturally started to split down the middle (the part I'm spiked into and have my lanyard around), as the splitting yanks me up against the log I swipe the lanyard with the saw to cut it. Cut it like nothin'. Could have been bad if I had freaked out and didn't think fast.

now-a-days I would have bore-cut and I probably wouldn't have put the lanyard on in that situation.

 

[Mahk_Adams]

I had two instances recently where I had to bail out off/was ejected from the tree. Both were uprooted trees lying on a house. One went up, the other went down--well, sideways actually, because it was supported with a 5/8ths double braid to prevent it from falling and hitting the house when the last bit on the roof was cut. Both were expected so I was not using my lanyard.

In one case I had a good tie in to another tree and had a grounds worker hold my rope when I made the cut so that if the tree did swing (which it did) he would prevent me from slamming into the tree where I had my climbing line. It was a one story house so I was only about 15 feet off the ground.

In the second case I was tied into two different trees that were on either side of the uprooted tree. This was a two story house and the ground dropped off steeply away from the house so it was about 20 or 30 feet off the ground. We removed two big pieces with a 65 ton crane. The tree did not move much and since at this point there was no danger of hitting the house and I was over a wooded area I just ripped pieces and let them fold back under me. On the last cut (we were going to leave part of the trunk for wild life) the trunk stood back up so I just leaned into my climbing lines and stepped off.

It's fun when you know it's coming.

Mahk

 

[Mahk_Adams]

This is a very dead 39" tulip poplar that leaned over a lake. The climber is tied into two different trees--one at about 85 feet, the other at about 110 feet. The idea is that if the removal tree falls apart he will swing between the two tie points in the two other trees.

 

[Mahk_Adams]

There is a transfer line tied to the top of the piece and a lowering line tied at the bottom of the piece at the climbers waist. In this pic he has made his notch and is about to make his backcut.

 

[Mahk_Adams]

Those last two pics were a little bigger than I wanted, so this is just a tad smaller.

The piece is in the air at the bottom of the pic. Note that the climber is holding one end of his lanyard. He made his notch, then made his back cut to the point that the piece was about to fall. He then hung up his saw and unclipped his lanyard. He held the snap of the lanyard with one hand and pushed off the piece with his other hand. If he needed to bail out he would just let go of his lanyard.

He used this technique for this piece and everything above it. When he got to the next piece on this lead we felt that it was solid enough that he did not have to unclip his lanyard. He took the next piece and then we had to stop for the day. The climber unfortunately hurt his knee jumping across a stream and wasn't able to do the rest of the tree. I finished the remainder of the lead that he started and then the second lead using the same technique.

I have thought about a breakaway lanyard, but in this case it probably would not have been a good idea. There was probably 175 plus feet of rope between the climber and each of his tie in points so there was a lot of drag pulling on the climber and hence, at times, the lanyard.

Mahk