RC0

We were supposed to bring this dead fir down to about 50ft, which would make it’d be forever out of falling distance of the recreational zipline course on the site. It was also agreed that we’d chunk it down in sections not long enough to hit the zipline should one fall a stray. We set up a 5:1 way down in the gorge and redirected it up to the trail where it’d be easier and safer to manage. Took a lot of setting up and messing about, and seems as we didn’t get to the job until 4:15 pm....it was actually about 6:00 before I started to climb the tree. Spurring up a long-time-dead Douglas fir like that can be quite treacherous, as huge sections of bark can come loose and hit you like an avalanche. Its thick and heavy as hell....I know a few guys/fallers have been killed when cutting at the bottom. Anyway, I got up there with the best of intentions....clear what remained of the limbs and stubs, free the grandfir that’s be resting on it for years.... but it got really bad (rotten) over the last 40ft....the whole thing stood about about 130. Too risky a job to start cutting up there, as nice an idea that it was to leave a big wildlife tree. I got down and we tipped it from the bottom. Used the same rigging system we’d intended for the chunks. Lost about 10 ft of the pull-line but it was 9:00 now and time to get out of there. Some photos, and you can always count on Scotts shaky hands to mess up the money shot. Having said that it was pretty dramatic when it went. Some embedding to do. Thanks

Looks like the big dead one is on for tuesday afternoon.....the live one is being left until september I think. First we have to go up to Lake Cowichan to finish the big maple I posted a few weeks back....assuming the birds have gone, then on to the Sooke. Safe to say it'll be a late finish. And welcome Mr P from Toronto

Dont be sorry Jeff, I didn't know whether the thread was a joke or not. So, if somebody asked you to like this or that, but you looked at it and thought it was weak, would you still 'like' it? knowing that others might then be looking at the stuff you 'liked' and think WTF? So why not just start a 'add your facebook here' thread....then 'like' it or not, no comeback ? Of course I dont care:biggrin: but would just seem a little more genuine. No offence BTW, I wont be starting facebook any time soon....but for someone like myself who's not involved or in the loop, just seemed like a bizarre thread.

Im being serious Jeff, do you get rewarded, money or something?

Im not on facebook. Am just curious what the 'like' stuff is about? Why do you need to 'like' each other?

Thanks No special ropes Pete, just what I have. It would be nice, and save time at the start for sure. But you can imagine they were pretty static by the time they were fully loaded:biggrin: Peter I didn't get on with client at all that first meeting....but he watched the whole time and knew what had gone on by the time we'd finished. Still near killed him to shake my hand at the end, but he did. Arborworks, there's no video mate. I was fully focused on the job for this one.

And thats it. Lotta fuss for one tree, but thats the job sometimes. Cheers

the last of which were set high in the old growth. So one last climb to the top....its about 6pm now, and what a view.

Probably took an hour and a half to de-rig everything and pack all my stuff back to the truck.

tipping the logs 90 degrees to the lean to miss a maple down below. An extra deep face-cut meant a little extra sawing but saves any physical exertion in getting them to fold the right way. Probably took about 15 short logs to get the prop-tree down.

Adam had since come back from picking up his bucket truck, with which he was able to pick the logs out of the creek (he has a winch on the boom) and lift them onto the driveway. Meanwhile, I got up what was the prop tree to chunk it down.

The pole was still sitting hard in the rigging judging by the tension in the line. So I had to gradually reduce the log, but keep 2 tensioned lines on it the whole time which meant gradually moving them down, re-tensioning, dropping a log, in sequence etc. But for each time a line had to be re-set, and pre-loaded on the ground, I'd have to come down to do it. so I probably had to climb down about 10 times, and back up again, until the tree was short enough that the roots were able to support it without the rigging (see photo)

Until, finally.....................................................it let go

A $hit load of stuff at the bottom of the old fir now. But I still wanted to retain the load share between the 3 lines, so resisted the temptation to go crazy on the newest addition. We just moved from one line to the other, probably gaining a few inches at a time, all the ropes creaking under load at the knots....

The next morning, there's 4 of us there, including Adam (company owner) his brother and Tyler again. Back up the old growth first thing, this time to rig it right at the tip, and leaving nothing to chance set it as a 2:1.

For the next couple of hours we just worked the two lines, achieving probably no more than a foot at a time gradually pulling the tree back in an attempt to separate the two. Problem was whatever we gained the prop tree just went with it in straightening up....an I'd set the rigging lines purposely low in anticipation that when the tree did eventually separate, I'd then be able to significantly reduce the top weight remaining on the failure-tree without having to re-set the rigging line further down. As it turned out, I'd set it too low and try we did, even now with an extra 2:1 set on the last strand of the 5:1, so now we got 10: 1 and probably 2000lb of pull on each line, I couldn't pull the son of a bitch free. Then Tyler (ground guy) had to go a little after 5 so I was psssed off at the whole thing. I wanted to drive home having got a result, and I hadn't.

Back up the tree to start hacking, being mindful of the boardwalk way down below, but especially cautious about the snag thats holding the trees together. When I get up top I realise that its got a good hold on it so I'm pretty safe to do what I'm doing. So I carefully de-limb both trees and make my way down again. Bare in mind that its a five minute walk back to the truck, lots of gear to carry over initially, and set-up etc, and Im having to talk the young guy through everything that we're doing. So by now its mid afternoon already.

So the the first day I'm with just one other guy. He's a good solid worker, but has a very limited knowledge of rigging tree's, let alone something serious like this situation. He's also a little young and I'm wary about that. Thank God there was an old growth fir to the left of the failure-tree, and a good sized cedar set further back in the woods sort-of directly behind the lean. So I got up the cedar first, to set a block and rigging line. Then the Big fir to put my climb line and another rigging-block and line etc. I was able to get across a big limb on the old growth to access the failure-tree, a little bit of cutting to make way for the rigging lines to be tied. Back down after to pre-load the lines via 5:1 and secured on lowering devices. Obviously the groundworker doesn't know how any of this works so I cant just stay up there and ask him to do it on his own.

I got called to look at this tree about 3 weeks ago. The tree company who were bidding on the job didn't really know how to deal with the situation and suggested I should come take a look first rather than just turn up to do it. I'll add the photos to separate posts so that way I can add text to explain whats going on. So you have one Douglas fir, which has come up at the roots and managed to snag another which is holding it up. Both trees are between 90-100ft and the failed tree is holding on to the other by a very strong and hook-shaped limb right near the top. These were pretty slow growing firs, looked about 120 growth rings at the end....so heavy, gnarly and dusty stuff to deal with. The prop-tree is clearly under a lot of stress as its bent over pretty bad under all the added weight. Both trees are stood on the edge of a 30ft deep gorge with a creek that runs down to the ocean. They are both well within falling distance of the home-owners property and are both heavily favoured to fall that way. On the far side of the creek there is a boardwalk that the guy built and very much wants to keep it in one piece. The higher portion of limbs are hanging over the boardwalk, but the wind is favorably blowing down-stream to the ocean.

Think yourself Lucky people have the good manners to acknowledge your work even Ben. Put that vid on treebuzz and it'd probably be met with a wall of silence. Bugging or not.

The logs dont have to be on the level with the falling cut Ben....the stick just has to hit the logs before any other part touches the ground. Sometimes that means making the cut a little bit higher. The logs getting blasted out everywhere, rarely happens. Easy to assume that but is often a non-event. Next to a car or window, you probably wouldn't. Its all good mate, you're the only one who was there. Just tryin to bug you.

It'd definitely go, and miss all the other trees....even though its a really bad slope to be standing and sawing such a big lump....probably 7-8 ft dbh. But they want to keep it at 50ft and thats that. Also, they want us to bring it down in sections short enough so they wont be in falling distance of the zipline if one were to go sideways....which is fair enough considering they'll probably be in use on the day. The wood still looks about 4ft across where it collapsed, and no matter where you stand on the ground you just cant see clearly whether its good or bad up there. 3120 all the I think, probably the lewis (chainsaw) winch to tip the logs.

pics when it was going dark on the phone, so not very good. Looked at this job last night, and its definitely on, just a matter of the timing. Its at sooke zipline park. Two old growth firs. The first is just major deadwood and hazard prune. lots of big hangers and broken limbs up there. Its somewhere around 220ft by the looks....could be more but its hard to tell stood underneath. Long initial climb up there, but straight forward after that, I hope. The second is dodgy. The tree's of a similar age by the looks but lost its top at about 140ft at some point in the the last 30 years....and appears that when that happened it destroyed all the live limbs on the way down....thats what Im thinking. Anyway, its dead now for some time and they want it brought down to about 50ft so out of falling distance from the zipline. The top consultant here in Victoria told them to get it out immediately....that was probably a couple of years ago. Big wood up there. I'll keep you posted.

The Dadio liked it? Then you've got nothing to worry about. Carry on!

That must be the breaking limit of the line....even though it only looks like a 5/8. The force that hits the sling is just the same as what is on the falling log in this case....so it depends which is weaker - the rope or sling (factoring in the type of knots). Look's like a running bowline on the rope, the the strength is halved right there. Timberhitch is not to clever either, especially where you set the pull right against the bite as you did ( I realise you didn't want to squash your portawrap). But probably thats a bigger sling than the rope, so I'd guess the rope would be the weakest link all things considers. But with that said, like Tim pointed out, you nearly lost the sling on the tapered stump....instead of cutting in. Im not trying to sound nit-picky, but you could've still felled the log but perhaps put a few more things in your favour at very little cost. A mound of logs at the far end even (nothing in between) would've lessened such a violent bounce on the rigging. Little things mate. Your best video yet though:thumbup1: