Dangers of top roping

[Tom D]

Another mistake is being tied in twice, (tree police alert) I do a lot of tip roping of timber on multi stemmed trees, and I will undo my lanyard as I make the final cut. This allows you to get out of the way if necessary. Having the limb correctly pretensioned is the most important thing though.

 

Nothing wrong with tip roping if its done properly, far less shock load on your gear and the rigging point.

[Mark James]

Would would have been is reasoning behind not taking less timber why cut so low down?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

my worst mistake was when butt roping very lapsed poplar pollard stems, one of the first ones went down a treat, then cantelevered of the head and picked me out of the unions and wallpapers pasted me up 10 ft of back stems in a pinch move.

 

I was very bruised and very sore, and very glad to be alive.

 

we all make mistakes

[Pedroski]

<snip>

either way the section was too big for the situation. and that was the climbers choice/fault

 

The climber mentioned this in one of his posts as well. The groundie had been telling him to take down bigger and bigger chunks, and the climber admits that he shouldn't have just gone and done so. The climber is the one who is up there with the chunks and knows how proper big they are and where they are tied. Could have been much worse - very lucky people.

[Tom D]

Nothing wrong with taking off a lump that size, you just need to get the rigging right. A peice half the size could still have come back at him if it was not allowed to run, and a piece half the size would still have been big enough to hurt him.

[John Shutler]

Nothing wrong with taking off a lump that size, you just need to get the rigging right. A peice half the size could still have come back at him if it was not allowed to run, and a piece half the size would still have been big enough to hurt him.

 

agreed

we take bigger, with far more controll with our grcs

[gibbon]

If it was slung differently or they guy filming was on a tag line it could have been avoided, but the groundsman was ultimatley to blame. As soon as that piece started swinging he should have dropped it a few feet, but he didn't. Responding to things like that's the sort of thing that makes a good groundy If it had run out a bit it would have lost some momentum and might not have gone so far. Sounds like the groundsman was running the show too. Hope they learnt something.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

If it was slung differently or they guy filming was on a tag line it could have been avoided, but the groundsman was ultimatley to blame. As soon as that piece started swinging he should have dropped it a few feet, but he didn't. Responding to things like that's the sort of thing that makes a good groundy If it had run out a bit it would have lost some momentum and might not have gone so far. Sounds like the groundsman was running the show too. Hope they learnt something.

 

we often have to compensate for groundies, thats the fact, but agree, I value a good capston user above anything at work when rigging.

[Peter]

I have been chased around a stem by a lump of wood the size of a house a few times.

 

Sometimes you can step cut it, climb up a bit higher than the top of the work piece, and kick it off from a safe vantage point.

 

Top roping is a valuable technique that should not be discounted, as with any rigging technique it should be properly planned and executed to avoid mishaps.

[Le Sanglier]

adryad;586847]we often have to compensate for groundies

 

[/b], thats the fact, but agree, I value a good capston user above anything at work when rigging.

 

Agreed, for me the climber always is in charge, everything is down to him.