Marc

Awkward job ? not really pretty straight forward rigging job, personally if i was worried about headstones i'd of rigged that limb in 3 smaller pieces use slings i could be slinging the next bit as the piece was lowered the groundcrew would have a more manageble piece to deal with so would of dealt with it quicker getting the rope to me quicker and next piece on knock it off move down set sling for next bit and so on quick smooth and controlled. Horses for courses though we all have our own way of doing things, looks a nice job CTS be good to see more pics.

I'm kind of the oppostie, although it all depends on the situation as such i've not done to much big rigging, I like to leave some top on my rigging point for the dampening effect. By weight out of the top i mean more sail area/weight, once all the sides are done the last bit on the top in the wind is what i hate, so i like to get rid of a little first, plus it stops me getting pulled about when i lanyard into laterals had some fun on big crack willows recently getting near pulled in half, would of been much worse if i hadn't thinned out the tops first! When its not so windy i'm not to bothered, for me its probably more of a confidence thing, i know it won't break out but to have a little weight and sail of my anchor helps me to focus more on other things. We all have our own stratergies.

You got yourself a better groundy then

Good job Peter, i was once told by an old school climber that if your ropes going at a permenant 45 degree angle its time to get down!! Out of intrest do you take any height out as soon as possible when its blowing like that? Or is it just me being a wuss.

It looks like a good harness,

Tim thats a tidy and usefull set-up, particularly like the knut with snap for adjustment i'd always just used a prussik will have to try this out, can't see why you cannot have the rings praticaly closed to stop rope contact with the stem and keep friction down, the taper should stop it slipping down i've never had that problem.

Its usefull to know the technique, like all things there is a time and a place to use all these different ideas and the more you know the greater ease and safety you can carry out a variety of tasks, no 2 trees are the same they all present different challenges. When chokering a stem i wouldn't do this with the idea off being able to descend a long distance like Tim has mentioned the hitch will just jam solid although you could install a fig 8 or large ring with revolver to buffer the load to the hitch then you could descend all the way to the ground (i must see if i can make this compact enough to use all the time), in my opinion in a situation where you may have an accident being on a chokered line and lanyard will present the rescue climber with a slightly easier situation to deal with?

Thats the great thing about using srt, you just leave the line in the tree most of the guys i work with can gett up on an srt rig, we all use similar set-ups so are all familiar and can can use quickly others systems. On a pole though, I don't bother with a running bowline takes to long to tie/untie is a pain to move down past lumpy bits etc the same with an adjustable saver. I just choke the stem with a karabiner not exactly best practice but with a suitable round profile biner is in my opinion safe enough. As for rescue on a pole its certainly something i need to think more about, in the scenario i place myself if i had to perform a rescue i'd just spike up install an adjustable saver as high as possible move to the casualty attach myself to them remove the lanyard then descend keeping them on the choked line only with most of if not all of their weight on my system essentially making their system choked single leg a back up. Choking is simple but far from perfect, its better than just chucking your rope round and clipping in as normal in my opinion as it makes life a little bit easier for the rescuer. Some intresting info to be found here on karabiner configurations treemagineers

i've also seen this happen bizzarely it hit greenhouse below but bounced off with no damage! Also personally i use dodgy karabiners for other things not supporting loads, o.k its not life support or rigging, but a falling saw can cause serious damage to person and property!

Discussion and an open mind, so many people i've worked with are fixed in there ways and do things in a very basic and simple way, and there is nothing wrong with that. My point is I often find we don't discuss jobs or how we are doing a task as a team enough, discussion can lead to new ideas better team work and safer work practices. I'm guilty of it, i was working for another company and there was one fairly inexperienced groundy who is eager to learn on a small fell he was given to do much advice was given on how to do it properly/safely what to look for etc, he got it down well enough, but then the way he went about processing it was poor at best and dangerous at worst and no one said a thing, not even me.

The honey brother set-up is a good start, only once you've worn out the stitched eye to eye prussik i'd just buy cord of the reel. I'm using ocean poly 10mm and get around 1 month but i don't always climb everyday, when i do it can need replacing sooner depends on the climbing. I also use a homemade ropeguide which increases wear a little more than a standard cambium saver.

Either that or cut it off at the trunk. Another thing i did when i first started was copy what i saw others do, not a good thing if you lack experience I was up an Ash just cut and drop job went to cut a heavy lateral off with just a top cut straight through only to get a big barbers chair, again fortunatly my positioning was good, lesson learned:blushing:

Tachyon with a knut using ocean poly 10mm tied wit the legs short, consistent grab, easy breaking/advancing, low heat build up for big swings or drops, hard wearing doesn't self tend though but i can live without that.

The just get it done attitude, know your limits and never pressure yourself to finish a job as quickly as possible, just make sure you come home with all your limbs intact. Speed will come with good experience and safe work practice. Its been brought up before but i don't believe accidents happen just because your working to hard or fatigued although it will certainly contribute i know that doesn't really make sense. In my experience accidents always happen due to poor judgement, or lack of experience. I also nearly hurt myself in a Seqouia, I hadn't been climbing long and hadn't expected the branch to be under so much tension, it nearly threw the saw out of my hands, luckily i was in a good position and learnt a valueble lesson.

I personally can't stand rope grabs, i have a cinch on my lanyard as its easy to give out slack even with my weight on it, on my flipline i have a hitch as its for me better, you can give out slack under load and if in the highly unlikly event (touching wood as i type) i have and accident on a pole the hitch is the weak point in my flip line during rescue situations. To be honest though i rarely use a wire core flipline these days. And Alex mate watch the tails on your ocean poly hitch cord i myself would make them longer as o.p for me anyway can creep more than other hitch cord. I'd go for a knute over a distell if it was me

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No made by tefalburger for New England I believe.

No work when the weather is bad! What is this all about??

I wouldn't think roping off or putting up signs would be viable in any school ground, just merely a reply in response to others suggestions that a flawed tree in a public place should be felled. With that view there be far fewer trees about. If i couldn't take a bit of sarcasim i'd of choosen a different job:001_rolleyes:

Seen the phots now, it doesn't look a particularly valueble tree,,,,, All my comments before hand were just alternative ideas, so many were quick to say fell it due to its location i just felt like saying the opposite without seeing photos! I could say more but i think the points have been made here already very well by others. Here is a pic from a national trust site, I looked at the tree from a not very safe distance and lived to post it here.

I think the same, Mister Tree is only asking advice and opinions, we have not seen the tree i'm sure if it was an immediate risk Mr tree would fell and replant without hesitation. As it is it sounds like he has spotted a potential problem and has noted it but doesn't believe it will fail in the near future but has reduced the trees safe usefull life. So to me the question is fell it now even though it appears (without seeing pictures!) not to be an immediate risk, or retain it but carry out some remidial action? I'm all for not taking drastic action if an alternative is possible, so without knowing the tree i'd still reccomend bracing not a fell and if possible plant a replacement now! ready for the future. Food for thought, i went to Longleat safari park during the bank holiday weekend the park was packed with visitors, anyone who knows the park will know its full of fantastic mature and veteran trees, most of the trees near the house are roped off or have signs informing visitors to not picnic or sit under the trees as the are old and liable to fall apart!! I've also seen this at several National Trust sites which have many visitors a year. Should these sites feel all there dodgy old trees in the intrest of public safety??

Spread butter over the most gunked up areas leave it for a bit to break up the sap, then using mild soap flakes (should be able to get them in Denmark) in a warm bath or sink scrub your line clean with a brush. Butter really works!!

I used to think like this, being an arborist i'm usually working on trees that have gone bad shall we say, failed unions, hazard beams, lifted roots plates, structual failures because of fungal pathogeons etc. Recently i'm fascinated by trees with historic defects, wish i used my camera more to take photos of these trees, trees do have an uncanny ability to adapt and stay standing even with defects we class as a serious hazard, like Matt say there are shed loads of trees around with included unions that will outlive us all. Somtimes its good to get out into the woods to look at trees that have had little human intervention, often i see trees that anywhere else would be served a letter of condemenation. Obviously though in the urban enviroment its different you can't just leave trees to naturally do there thing. Lessons can still be learned from how trees adapt and continue growing in other areas it can and does make you look at trees differently. Its been mentioned the financial implication of retaining a tree that will need constant monitoring, i'm all for retaining a tree as long as possible, financially it makes more sense for us! Being a school they'll need to have there tree inspected regularly anyway along with the rest of the trees on the site, given that its a Hornbeam and not very vigourous i'd say put a strong non invasive brace in at the appropiate height if the union fails and the brace is installed appropiatly then it should catch the limb, also replant now with a view to fell the tree in the future when its replacement is a decent size, space permitting.

We have to compete with the poor out of towners to you know, plus rich people get rich by being tight.