Marc

I hope its not to bad Matt and just a simple fix.

Did'nt you forget to mention a Tautline as well, suppose thats just a modified clove hitch anyways.

Thanks for sharing the photos Sohner, just been sat here eating my breakfast looking through them, now I got to go to work and i'm late.

I occasionally take wraps round the tree, its usefull to know. I have a "rope of shame" especially for such occasion, I even lower myself in the tree by taking wraps round the branch, but i'm only talking about 1 piece and I cannot be bothered to setup a lowering system. I'm a true pikey at heart. Still prefer using our GRCS though, and Reg your ropeman soon got the hang of letting those bits run, took us a while to adjust to the ali drum on ours, I put this down to the larger surface area of the drum giving more friction than a capstan.

Frans I don't really know anyone who takes wraps round the tree anymore. For basic lowering a capstan is practically as fast as a Hobbs/grcs which was my point. Now after having seen Reg's video (I had not seen it when I posted) I think it illustrates my point nicely. With the Hobbs he was able to winch and lower a chipper down a embankment to get it into position to make the job that much easier, rather than I assume chuck the brush up the bank or get a vehicle stuck in a field. Also the ability crane/lift piece's off in the tree and lower them in a controled manner. All this takes a little extra time to set-up but in the end makes the job more smooth and controlled. There are more possibilities, but its not nescersarily quicker than using a capstan.

I may be wrong here, but having used mewps and a grcs block for all types of treework I would not say they are massive time savers. I always hear this come up about how much quicker is a grcs/hobbs at lowering a tree or how much quicker it is to use a mewp. It always seems that this is a deciding factor, i,e how much quicker can I do it and will it earn me more money. And I always have to say its not any quicker, it just opens up a whole load of possibilties, some of these possibilites mean doing certain jobs more effceintly and to a higher standard. Or by giving you an edge by being able to take on jobs without the need to hire in equipment or by doing something ineffciently. We bought a grcs as an alternative to a tirfor/portable winch, it allowed us to do trees that other tree crews could not do in the past because they were difficult. We did them not massively quicker than the hard way, but a damn sight easier.

A prussik is basic and simple, nowt wrong with that, for all my fancy gear and techniques I wish I was as good as some of the climbers i've worked with who still use a prussik.

Yes its best to get your line set above a convient limb to make changing over to your normal climbing set-up. You can buy a dedicated footlock line, which in time a good idea as when you start climbing bigger trees you can leave it in as an access line which is good practice. I'm currently footlocking on my climbing line then switching over in the tree. I'm mainly talking about using doubled rope, not single line as thats something I have'nt gone into yet. I'm using Kong double ascendors at the moment but will move onto a knot soon, I just found the ascendors easier to use to get my footlock technique sorted. I use a munter hitch if for some reason I want to decend on a fixed double line, or a Fig 8, although I hate carrying a fig 8 on my harness, a munter will work with most wide topped karabiners. I always knew footlocking was a good idea but have to admit I only started doing it this year, and wow what a time and energy saver. Its good your thinking about other techniques and effcient canopy access, you don't have to learn everything at once just keep an open mind to what may help your climbing in the future as you progress.

Good advice, I struggle to find Zen when throw lining, to often all I find is rage and frustration, which only makes things worse. My only advise to you Jim is if your really want to get good at throw lining, (which is a very good thing imo) is also learn to footlock, it will open up far more oppertunities to you and speed your ascent no end. For example you wil not be stuck with trying to find crotches close to the trunk, and you will not have to set-up a cambium saver on the ground.

My favourite term of the moment is veteranise or veteranisation. Just sounds so much more scientific/sympathetic than top it.

Makes sense, In 3 years of doing tree work I have never stopped learning, and still have so much more to learn. I think i'm now only just about qualified/capable in most of the work I do. They is just so many variables so much to learn, so many ways of doing a task, many very wrong, with so many ways to hurt yourself, the only way to become a fully qaulified arborist is good experience, i've come on leaps and bounds, and its mainly from the people I work with, forums like this and a keen mind to keep pushing myself forward. I'm not knocking the NPTC system, but it never prepared me for commercial aboriculture, for example its taken many hundreds of fells of many different species with many different variables to get truly competent and qaulified. Most of what I know now about doing a job safely, effeciently and productivly I was not taught on an nptc course. I'm not knocking the nptc system, its a good foundation to progress upon.

I did'nt realise an NPTC was a qaulification? So you can become a fully qaulified climber in 4 days? And fully qaulified to fell a medium tree in 3? Or fully qaulified to use a chainsaw in a tree in just 1 day (as i've seen some nptc centres saying they can get you through your certificate in just 1 day)! Its a competency test, just there to give you some basic foundation on how to do this job with out killing yourself, to then build upon this with real world experience. But I think that maybe a few to many incompetents are slipping through the net.

I'm begining to dislike petzl ascendors the teeth are just to agressive, I ripped the outer cover of my rope with a pantin recently, the pantin gets used so little these days, its easier to footlock. I'm using Kong double ascendors to footlock into the tree at the moment, but will try to move onto a knot soon, although the Kong's are easier to use. As for installing a rope guide from the ground I never bother, as 90% of the time I footlock into the tree then install the rope guide. I'd probably stick to a normal cambium saver if I wantted to install something fro the ground much easier.

The dryads saddle is in and old limb drop wound and seems to be contained. Ganoderma is a deffirent kettle of fish, it was wrong of me to mention hazard ratings, it just sometime's you have to go with gut instinct as well as common sense. Not all companies I know would of retained the Beech I pictured for so long, just pointing out alternatives can work. We have felled many council Beech tree like yours sometimes for them its the more sensible option rather than the future maintenance cost and regular inspection schedules.

I've gone back to the knute, as my new rope is hockling bad with a VT, got a lot of love for a well tied knute the fact it isn't finished with braids means it does'nt hockle/twist my rope so bad.

It can work, i'm sure this tree has a higher hazard rating, the option to fell this tree has been on the cards for a long time, I recently took pictures of all the defects, it has cavities, hazard beams, old braces and fungi (Polyporus squamosa). Its been reduced 3 times now, the 3rd time was on this visit and we only reduced the section over the path and bike racks. The soil has been aerated and mulched with great results, no mycor or feed has been used. The only problems with the work carried out is some sun scaled. The tree is showing signs of good vigour. A replacement has been planted and is doing very well its to the left.

No shame at all, I hated spikes to start with, but will always wear them now unless I have to top a tree,,, sorry I mean do a heavy reduction and don't want to leave spike marks. Spikes help to give you a better position, especially when you bring out the big saws and need to rig stuff down. But being able to do take downs without them is good to.

Big tracked platform, get pics, doubt its inonotus at ground level. Probably still climbable if it survived the winds this year.

I have seen far worse Beech than that one still standing, and the crown looked in good shape, its been my experience that Beech take very well to good crown thinning or reduction. You could of gotten a fair few years out of it, but its neither here nor there. It had a problem that would lead to its demise, and with safety first you felled it sooner rather than later. I hope a good replacement or 3 (to make sure at least one decent tree will grow) is planted soon. And where were your spikes

Was'nt your boss the groundie for the day? If I was you i'd have words, or sack him and take over the company. Look good though, nice parallel hinge on the cord on the ground. Only thing i'd add is get your self into a better postion when making those felling cuts, it won't do your back any favours when cutting like that over the years. And where are your spikes.

That tree is probably ten miles away from where i work. I wonder if the guy got a shock when some local tree outfit qouted him over a grand to fell and remove that tree, so he decided it must be worth something and is selling it on ebay. To me that tree looks like its dying. Quite often I get customers grumbling to me about the cost of a fell on certain trees i.e cedar, walnut and oak, they believe the timber is of such high value we should be doing it for less or even for free. Had one customer complain to me that her walnut timber was probably worth thousands and that my boss was a scoundrel for charging her so much.

Had a look at the site and my knot is not the same, it does'nt real comprise a knot, as when you take of the tension and remove the rope or karabiner from the loop it will practically fall out. A carters is tied by making a bight, get a length of rope from beneath the bight take 2 wraps around the bight forming a crossing part (like a fishermans/barrel knot) as you made the wraps this would of put a twist and fromed a loop in the length you bought up to form the wraps. Real simple real quick and never binds tight. You don't have to just put one on the rope, you can link 2 carters hitches with a single rope doubling the advantage.

I think your thinking of Inonotus hispidus, I think. The problem with Inonotus on Ash is the tree often shows no sign of ill health in the crown, the structure of the limb affected by Inonotus is more brittle than usual so can be prone to failiure. Even though the tree looks healthy. Usually easy to spot by fresh fruiting bodies on the stems, or by the black roughly diamond shaped pattern left when the fruiting bodies fall. Also a good place to look is on the ground for old fruiting bodies. But I could be talking rubbish, so if anyone knows better, please enlighten me. Be good to see those pics John, I have'nt come across dryadeus yet, sure i'd recognise it if I did though.

I only ask as i've seen Horse Chesnut with old invasive braces fail as it did'nt compartmentalise around the bolt and they just pulled out in the middle of summer, these don't like invasive bracing it seems. The Beech I inspected had almost swallowed the eye bolts and seemed to compartmentalise round them well. I'm no expert though.

The link does'nt work, be great to see if its the same one, as it unties real easy. I've not used the truckers hitch, it did occur to me afterwards that it may be hard to undo, but the vid is funny anyway, and shows the concept.