Working alone?

evo said:
For myself it’s not always tree rescue, I sometimes rappel down 2-300’ bluffs which are nearly vertical in some spots. A rescue from this situation would be incredibly complicated and likely involve the water crew on the beach for a boat ride.
I’d like to think that there is a certain skill level involved, with the highest level being that unless entirely incompassitated or unconscious one could self rescue.
There is a line between rescue and recovery, I’d like to see detailed stats of how often what type of response is needed in which situation.
Take the poor bloke with the saw lanyard around his neck inverted. A good chance the reason why it took so long to get him down was that there wasn’t a rush.

A ole timer I worked for on some felling jobs didn’t really need my help, he just called me a paid witness.
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I would just put a skidder cone on your noggin and winch you up with a grcs. ;)
 
Raven said:
For you business owner climbers and solo crane removal guys - more power to ya. You made that choice on your own and have no supervisors to hold accountable. I admire that spirit and I sometimes wear that hat myself but I wish we all could have at least one minor employee or apprentice on site to assist/respond.
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Agreed on all counts. When I was an employee I would occasionally do chainsaw work solo but that was not common. Sending someone to load wood or do some ground pruning is fine but liability is too high otherwise. Earlier this winter I did some climbing removals and felling around camps solo on an island. Working alone is fine, never rush and be ok with walking away from a project. My biggest worry was having outboard issues in January...
 
I'll add to this that I often work alone, almost all of the time these days. I think a sena unit is a great tool for anyone working alone as you can press a button and tell your phone to make a call.

I've had one close call recently, I was at home about 250 feet from the house loading my mini skid into my chip box for the first time and one of the ramps kicked out from under me. I was able to feather the controls to keep the mini from flipping over and called my wife who was inside the house to come out and help. Without the SENA I would have either gotten hurt or wrecked the mini.

As previously mentioned its important to know what you can handle single handedly and to hire help for the ones that you need it. I've got 2 jobs lined up now where I'll be hiring a climber for one and a tremek for the other.
 
Ever witnessed a person get hit with some serious kickback? Not a pretty picture, and without some quick assistance from others, bleeding out can be a a very real concern.

Working Alone. No thanks.
 
rico said:
Ever witnessed a person get hit with some serious kickback? Not a pretty picture, and without some quick assistance from others, bleeding out can be a a very real concern.

Working Alone. No thanks.
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How does kickback happen to experienced saw users, @rico? Serious question, because I understand that it might, and that it only takes one time. I'm always working to put myself in circumstances where I won't have kickback that can hit me, and so many of us succeed in doing that for our entire careers. Are we good or lucky? How does it happen to the guys who are good?
 
John Vivian taught me how to really climb. He was a seasoned pro and the best climber I have ever worked with. I started working for him as at the end of a long hot day he was ripping a poplar block to load it and touched another block with the tip of his bar. BOOM kickback to a FATIGED pro. Nearly lost his thumb.

It can happen
 
colb said:
How does kickback happen to experienced saw users, @rico? Serious question, because I understand that it might, and that it only takes one time. I'm always working to put myself in circumstances where I won't have kickback that can hit me, and so many of us succeed in doing that for our entire careers. Are we good or lucky? How does it happen to the guys who are good?
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I can't answer that Colb. Fatigue, lack of focus, lazy, bad luck, fate? I can think off 3 guys I know that have been severely cut from kickback. 2 local guys I have known for years, and one I witnessed up close and personal, in Alaska. The 2 local guys grew up working in the woods, and are both extremely good at what they do. The man in Alaska was some dude on my crew. He certainly didn't seem green, but his incident was brutal. If he were alone in the woods, it most likely would have ended very badly.

I have stuck myself with a saw a few times my life, but like you have managed to stay clear of the dreaded kickback. We should probably both go knock on some wood right about now, if we know whats good for us! 1-2-3 Knock on wood.
 
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Worth it to read our Worksafe.govt.nz stuff here in NZ. It's a refreshing way to make safety part of the job.

In terms of Arb specifics we have a good practice guide that's aligned with our Worksafe. I'd recommend a read for anyone. Arb NZ GPG. To shortcut reading, no working at height alone (2.11).

Interestingly, I've read news articles here where lawyers looked world wide for good practice to contest that local people weren't following as good a practice as possible. This wasn't arb specific (expect maybe a chipper incident), but perhaps applicable if you were trying to prosecute or defend or deal with insurance.
 
It can be a fine line, and random events do happen. I am presently recovering from legacy injury sustained by a freak accident. Following story condensed for brevity (lot of other factors involved) and revealed for consideration of those wishing to climb solo.


Most of the way through a substantial pruning job, I was using a branch as a bollard (as have done on hundreds of occasions) and a wrinkle in the cambium ended up gripping the rope suspending a 450lb load mid air. As had no tools left to assist, tried to break it free by slightly loosening bollard wraps and still held load with cambium gripping rope on two inch section. Couldn’t get it loose.

Went to adjust wraps again with hand a substantial distance from the improvised bollard and load S uddenly let go, throwing a loop of rope closest to load two feet from the bollard around my hand, gripped the back of glove and drew my hand to the bollard 80’ into the tree with sun setting on horizon. Only my finger ended up caught but under heavy load.

Had to lift load with one hand to release finger leaving me with severe muscle strains.

Happened in an instant - and hand expected to have been a safe distance from the bollard given the size of rope loops on improvised branch bollard.

Underestimated stretch in the ropes capacity to throw a loop equivalent to three bollard wraps worth of rope even with a hanging tail. Was only approx two inches worth of slack on each loop.

Someone else available to organise a lift of the load after trapping hand would have saved an injury

Calling a climber would have been a night rescue. Cutting line would have damaged targets. Groundie was just then occupied elsewhere onsite uncontactable at the time so couldn’t send up tools.
 
rico said:
I can't answer that Colb. Fatigue, lack of focus, lazy, bad luck, fate? I can think off 3 guys I know that have been severely cut from kickback. 2 local guys I have known for years, and one I witnessed up close and personal, in Alaska. The 2 local guys grew up working in the woods, and are both extremely good at what they do. The man in Alaska was some dude on my crew. He certainly didn't seem green, but his incident was brutal. If he were alone in the woods, it most likely would have ended very badly.

I have stuck myself with a saw a few times my life, but like you have managed to stay clear of the dreaded kickback. We should probably both go knock on some wood right about now, if we know whats good for us! 1-2-3 Knock on wood.
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Not a failsafe but working alone and doing any cut with even a chance at kickback I keep twigs in my pocket that I hammer into the kerf behind the saw as a safeguard.
 
Chaplain242 said:
Not a failsafe but working alone and doing any cut with even a chance at kickback I keep twigs in my pocket that I hammer into the kerf behind the saw as a safeguard.
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Not a bad idea, but a majority of kickback seems to occur when dealing with brush. Tip hits something unexpectedly and boom. Blink of an eye and your done.
 
I'm just really surprised that this guy in the OP Works for a township if I'm not mistaken. I've never seen or heard of guys doing anything solo working for any town city or state, let alone it be a hazardous job like cutting. Exception being maybe a foreman or supervisor
 
Mowerr said:
I'm just really surprised that this guy in the OP Works for a township if I'm not mistaken. I've never seen or heard of guys doing anything solo working for any town city or state, let alone it be a hazardous job like cutting. Exception being maybe a foreman or supervisor
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We had a fairly big storm a few years ago and emergency services couldn’t get around easily, so they issued the police chainsaws like they were giving out candy, no training either...
 
TallTreeClimber said:
I text my mom or my wife when I'm doing dangerous things alone. I text a message that says "on rope 30 min" and that means that I'm on rope and if you don't see me text back within that timeframe, something is wrong and I need help.

I'll text 1hr normally, but if the situation calls for more caution, 15min or 30min.

That just let's me feel like I won't have to lay bleeding and/or unconscious for too long if an accident were to happen.
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Lol. Your wife must love those texts. I wouldn’t get past the first one.
 
dsptech said:
How far away from your Sena can your phone be?
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Usually my phone is in my pocket, or a zippered pouch on my harness. However the other day while splitting firewood I had my helmet on and listening to music, sat my phone down and walked away. Realized I'd left my phone behind when it started cutting out audio at 150 feet away.
 
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