Getting back up there

[Jonathan O'Leary]

Hey guys and girls,

 

need some help and advice, had a limb fail a few weeks ago on an oak I was taking down, not high, about 20ft. Was just a normal limb removal, put undercut in, then top cut, limb ripped out almost snapping my leg, got myself down, limped to the van and almost passed out. Went to hospital and it turns out I got away lightly with a hair line fracture to my lower leg. Strapped it up and got told to rest it up.

 

Fast forward 4 weeks and returned to the site the accident happened to re start the job. Started as normal, good mood and laughing and joking with groundie as norm, started to climb and then went to pieces, was getting flustered, started feeling sick, even shaking a little.

 

Any one have any tips or advice for when they've had a fall, know I need to get back on the horse.

 

Thanks

 

Jon

[Matt_Oldfield]

Feel for you man, its always tough when something makes you feel that way but you yourself know your capabilities and you know you can do it! Maybe make yourself feel more comfortable by getting out on the branches, get a good safe work position where your not in the way, and take smaller bits off to start with, less likely that it will rip out and even if something does go wrong, if the pieces are smaller there is much less chance of injuring yourself! Take the next one in more smaller bits and concentrate on getting your cuts perfect and you'll soon build up your confidence to go bigger again, if you have to go slower for a week to get there then that's what you have to do!

 

Out of interest how far out along the branch were you cutting and how did it get your leg?

 

Matt

[ClimberGuy]

Hey guys and girls' date='

 

need some help and advice, had a limb fail a few weeks ago on an oak I was taking down, not high, about 20ft. Was just a normal limb removal, put undercut in, then top cut, limb ripped out almost snapping my leg, got myself down, limped to the van and almost passed out. Went to hospital and it turns out I got away lightly with a hair line fracture to my lower leg. Strapped it up and got told to rest it up.

 

Fast forward 4 weeks and returned to the site the accident happened to re start the job. Started as normal, good mood and laughing and joking with groundie as norm, started to climb and then went to pieces, was getting flustered, started feeling sick, even shaking a little.

 

Any one have any tips or advice for when they've had a fall, know I need to get back on the horse.

 

Thanks

 

Jon[/quote']

 

 

Jon, Tim here. I registered for this forum for the first time just to be able to answer your post. It took awhile for the process of accepting me as a member to work itself through, so maybe you no longer have the issue.

 

I've never taken a fall yet, only been climbing about a year or so. My contribution here is that I took a psychology course a long time ago in which the subject of overcoming fears was covered. People have fear of all different kinds of things. I think the approach for overcoming the fear is the same no matter what the fear is.

 

The phrase that was used in the course was "systematic desensitization". What this means is that if someone has a fear of some particular thing, the way to overcome the fear is to start slow, at the beginning. In your case, I would think this would mean to attempt to climb away from a work situation, in which you might feel pressure to perform and to attempt to go faster than you feel comfortable with.

 

I would say you should set up for a recreational climb somewhere familiar, and have a friend around just in case, for safety's sake. Get your line set up in the tree, and see if just doing that much begins to generate anxiety. Attempt to identify the point in the process of climbing at which you just begin to feel anxious, and then back off.

 

The idea is to try to push the limit of where you begin to get uncomfortable a little bit further back each time. Trying to go in too fast is what will trigger a panic response. You just need to listen to what your own guts are telling you. Hopefully, by pushing and backing off, pushing and backing off, eventually you will resume feeling comfortable in the trees once again.

 

The other thing that occurs to me, unrelated to the psych course I took, is that the event of getting your leg pinned was an unexpected result. I like the advice the other guy gave, about taking smaller bits and fine-tuning your ability to make good cuts. What I would add is that it seems to me that the unexpected nature of the way the limb fell might be a large part of what has you feeling anxious. So, I would say it might help to slow down before each cut and attempt to figure out what the likely outcome of a particular action will be. It's like trying to play chess, figuring out the next move of an opponent before he makes it. Anytime I'm climbing in a tree, I attempt to previsualize the outcome of each move I make. If something happens in a way that I did not expect, even slightly, I feel like I lose points. This causes me to gain experience and add data points, hopefully enabling me to predict more accurately in the future. It also increases my level of focus on the task at hand.

 

I know from the way that you talk about your work that you have a world of experience more than I do. So maybe it's presumptuous of me to try to provide any advice. The main thing I was attempting to impart here was the concept of "systematic desensitization", which might hopefully prove helpful.

 

Best of luck to you.

 

Tim

[Ian Clarke]

Low and slow.

The idea of a rec climb sounds good.

it will take time to bulid your confidence back up.

as others have said take smaller pieces.

Its better to finish late rather than have a repeat.

I knew a climber who pulled his arm out of his socket and he re covered to being at 95% of the level of climber he was before but you will always be more cautious.

 

sorry for the bullet point nature of the post im not great at putting all that info in to a nice readable paragraph

[Mark Bolam]

Some good advice on here.

 

Or get some headphones on playing Meatloaf, Bon Jovi and Survivor's 'Eye of the Tiger'.

 

 

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[wood cutter]

I have had the odd slip over the years and can say that it does knock you, the unpredictable nature of the job is also a bit concerning as there is no guarentees on the out come.

 

Just think of one thing at a time and the rest will take care of itself.

 

Good luck .

 

 

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[Tucky]

Some good advice on here.

 

Or get some headphones on playing Survivor's 'Eye of the Tiger'.

 

 

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Such a great image of you getting out the truck, quick warm up before dressing gown off to reveal boxing shorts and a harness.

Tucky

[chrisj]

It'd be fun seeing him trying to clip on wearing boxing gloves though.

[Jonathan O'Leary]

Hi all,

 

wow thanks for all the replies, tried to just push through it at the mo, and its very very slow going, my groundies a great guy, but I can tell he's frustrated as much as he doesn't want to.

The idea of a rec climb sounds like a good idea, might see about sorting on out next week, or hope a conifer job comes up lol.

To a certain degree think I was trying to rush the tree down as six big trees to take down and this one was the small one. Lesson learned now though.

The one thing I have noticed now is I'm thinking about every move I make, before this it was a sub conscious process. Hopefully in a few weeks this will have faded back to nothing again.

 

LOL loving the idea of climbing in silky chainsaw boxers shorts lol

 

Thanks all, every reply holds exactly what I needed, help, advice and as always wonderful humour that did make me chuckle about something that a few days ago had me worried I may have reached the end of my career in and up a tree.

 

Jon

[Mark Bolam]

Where are you Jonathan?

I'm sure there are plenty on here who would be up for a rec climb.

 

It's great climbing something biggish with no pressure. I've got quite a natural fear of heights and found this always helped me after I'd lost a bit of confidence after prolonged periods of hedge cutting or small stuff.

 

 

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