Climbers disciplined for refusing tree

[Marc]

 

On Graham McMahon and Tahune Day 3, the most important thing you should take from that video is that it was he himself who did that tree, he didn't send an employee up there, he carried the risk on his own shoulders.

 

Precisely and a hell of a lot of prep went into it, making it a throughly well thought out and excecuted job done in the safest possible manner given the circumstance by a very experienced climber. Not some boss sending you blind to the job with a few notes along the lines of -Heavy rigging kit, couple of ratchet straps and a big saw cut into 6" rings and stack on site.

 

And as for the honey video come on Stephen leave it out mate what relevance does that have with living in the UK and earning a living, hoping to earn a good pention and buy your own home to retire and spend the rest of your days in?

 

Bollocks to heroics! It's not like I am fighting for queen and country or trying to save my comrades and possibly earn a medal.

 

 

Scotspine that Beech dismantle, did you feel a hero doing it? Was it one of those jobs you consider only a Johnny big balls could do? Or was it just another day at the office?

I have a feeling it was just another day at the office for you.

[Tom D]

Precisely and a hell of a lot of prep went into it, making it a throughly well thought out and excecuted job done in the safest possible manner given the circumstance by a very experienced climber. Not some boss sending you blind to the job with a few notes along the lines of -Heavy rigging kit, couple of ratchet straps and a big saw cut into 6" rings and stack on site.

 

And as for the honey video come on Stephen leave it out mate what relevance does that have with living in the UK and earning a living, hoping to earn a good pention and buy your own home to retire and spend the rest of your days in?

 

Bollocks to heroics! It's not like I am fighting for queen and country or trying to save my comrades and possibly earn a medal.

 

 

Scotspine that Beech dismantle, did you feel a hero doing it? Was it one of those jobs you consider only a Johnny big balls could do? Or was it just another day at the office?

I have a feeling it was just another day at the office for you.

 

 

Thats the point I think, I have never done a climb where i genuinely felt unsafe, just a few that made for a more interesting day. Scotspine knows his stuff and if he thinks something isn't climbable then it isn't. I suppose the issue is when an inexperienced guy walks away from a tree that an experienced guy would have done no problem.

 

 

 

I have walked away from things, not often but I have done it. One was a wind blow similar to this one, it was twice the size and on a longer slope, the client wanted it tidied, but you'd have needed a 13 tonner and even then it would have been dodgy.

[Rich Rule]

Precisely and a hell of a lot of prep went into it, making it a throughly well thought out and excecuted job done in the safest possible manner given the circumstance by a very experienced climber. Not some boss sending you blind to the job with a few notes along the lines of -Heavy rigging kit, couple of ratchet straps and a big saw cut into 6" rings and stack on site.

 

And as for the honey video come on Stephen leave it out mate what relevance does that have with living in the UK and earning a living, hoping to earn a good pention and buy your own home to retire and spend the rest of your days in?

 

Bollocks to heroics! It's not like I am fighting for queen and country or trying to save my comrades and possibly earn a medal.

 

 

Scotspine that Beech dismantle, did you feel a hero doing it? Was it one of those jobs you consider only a Johnny big balls could do? Or was it just another day at the office?

I have a feeling it was just another day at the office for you.

 

Nail on the head there Marc.

 

I seem to recall Graeme or Angus explaining the thought process behind that job and that the first time he climbed the tree he only dared to climb so far as it felt unsafe. Went away and planned, planned and planned some more. When he came back he executed the plan and as you can see it went well.

 

He didn't turn up blind and do the the job for a half arsed company who threatened him disciplinary action for coming down the first time.

[scotspine1]

Scotspine that Beech dismantle, did you feel a hero doing it? Was it one of those jobs you consider only a Johnny big balls could do? Or was it just another day at the office?

I have a feeling it was just another day at the office for you.

 

Marc, it wasn't my job, it was pics copied from another forum years ago. The tree is in the US somewhere.

 

Done many similar though, as most experienced climbers here will have many times probably .

 

I don't think a tree like that is a big deal if you've got the experience and there's no place for machismo or johnny big balls in treework. As tree surgeons we do a lot of low risk work but we do a high frequency of it, add machismo into the mix and it's only a matter of time before you attempt something really stupid and turn low risk into high risk.

 

That said, you can never eliminate the risk of injury or death from our work, only reduce it.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

Fair play, you're a better man than me. After numerous successful attempts at "sabotaging" the weekly shopping trip (multiple expensive and completely unnecessary purchases. Deliberate time wasting, mild disagreements etc..) It was decided some time ago that it was better all round if I remained in the car while the missus went in on her own....

 

I know it's a submission, and suckling at the teat of the corporate devil, but we are on a weekly Tesco delivery now. Saves best part of half a day at the weekend and avoids the potential for 3 year old melt down!

 

The chocolate run was an individual effort, just me, on a mission!

 

That said..... I feel your pain!

[Stephen Blair]

Marc I don't know about relevance but here we have a man climbing a bigger tree than any of us will likely come across in our careers with nothing more than a home made strop and an axe in a pair of home made pants!

Doing our job is not being heroic, it's doing our job.

You either do it or not, some like to blame others and make excuses why they didn't.

Personally I beat myself up for being a failure and only when I achieve the goal do I feel good about myself.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

My guys refused to do a job last week, but it was because there was so much dogshit in the garden....

 

In the past I have tended to do the nasty ones myself, partly because I like the challenge but mainly because if you ask someone to do something they don't want to their mind won't be in a good place and that makes them more likely to screw up..

 

This was the last nasty one I did..[ATTACH]174801[/ATTACH]

 

The view up:

[ATTACH]174802[/ATTACH]

 

The view down:

[ATTACH]174803[/ATTACH]

 

Felling the stick:

[ATTACH]174804[/ATTACH]

 

Dog poo = show stopper! If they can't be bothered to clean up, I don't want my kit caked in dog dumplings!

[Marc]

Marc I don't know about relevance but here we have a man climbing a bigger tree than any of us will likely come across in our careers with nothing more than a home made strop and an axe in a pair of home made pants!

Doing our job is not being heroic, it's doing our job.

You either do it or not, some like to blame others and make excuses why they didn't.

Personally I beat myself up for being a failure and only when I achieve the goal do I feel good about myself.

 

Fair play to the guy in the video, there is a clear line between circumstance of surroundings, in the UK this is not how we do it nor is it how we should do it, we should always look to minimise our risks and do the job in as safe and proficient manner as possible an in doing this raise the profile of our industry as a skilled and professional one that deserves recognition and better rates of pay.

 

I just felt the video lent nothing to the topic at hand.

[Robert_S]

to answer Mesterh, every tree is climbable, humans have proved this! maybe not by me, but if it stands and is made of wood, someone will get up it!

as far as objects are concerned beneath, then there has to be a desicion made to avoid, move, protect or replace that object.

Its all part of the assessment when you look at the job.

If i get to a tree and the most important thing is to get it on the ground, then thats priority.

Would i make th same desicions if i worked for someone else? no!

 

 

That was a great video

[Mountain man]

Why do people say stuff like "raise the profile of the industry" to what end?

If you want a difficult tree dismantled you don't phone a bricklayer do you?

And why the hell do think we "deserve recognition" if you want plaudits become an actor or something.

I do a job, I get paid (rather well as it goes)

As far as rates of pay goes, you get what you get, don't like it, get another job..

(In reply to Marc btw)