scotspine1

cheers again Nick, tidy up took a long time yes, don't usually make idiot piles, but needs must on this job. Darrin, the tree used to have a treehouse in it, hit a hidden nail with the ms200 on the very first cut, but seeing as there was some fat branches I just got the 560 up anyway instead of sharpening the ms200 or changing the chain. On the two ropes thing, yes I've seen some highlines/floating anchors/TIP set up with two ropes and a link in the middle above the tree. I agree there could be less bounce, never tried it though. Joe, the breakaway lanyard/flipline had a weak link between the carabiner and side D, here's a clue Rab, you're spot on the tree was A1 condition wise (could've rigged big lumps off it) and the highline was me just creating a situation where I could double the price, worked a treat as well

Older trees.....yes.

I climbed each tree Rich, you need to find appropriate branch unions to feed the line through, and get get the rope isolated/routed really well otherwise when you take up the slack from the ground all the lower branches and other surrounding trees are interfering with getting the line really tight. The line needs to be right in against the main stem with those conifers as well. It took about 1 hour to set up the highline and about half an hour for the tree itself.

Adam, Craig Tree Services is the youtube name. I agree about finding the right trees. Paul, I'll always work upwards first starting with removing the lowest branches. There's some exceptions to that like if the top of the tree is riddled with big deadwood or I need to reduce the top where I'm anchored into if it's windy etc. Mark, Honey Fungus in tree, the other two big leads had broken out prior to us arriving. It was originally a big triple stemmed tree (with an old 1970s/80s cabling lagbolt steel cabling system in it)

cheers folks rope was running through the DMM Hitchclimber pulley, Petzl William ball lock on the highline. The krab gives you just the right amount of friction to keep the anchor in place, but if you want to move it along the line - you create slack and just kind of whip it along the highline until you find a good place for it. huge amount of bounce, the distance between the Spruce trees was about 250ft+, but we took as much slack out the system as we could using a quick 3:1 and a Port a wrap. The Port a wrap is not being used as the main anchor, there's another hitch system/sling about 6ft up holding the line. On the other tree a running bow.

Recent storm damaged Beech job from a place where we do a lot of work. When I arrived at this tree and saw the crack it was a fell, no debate. Spoke to the client told him we'd need to fell the tree and he'd lose a lot of his old Azaleas and rare Rhodies plus a few other rare mature small trees. He asked if there was any other way to bring the tree down, so I went back up to the tree and decided to give a highline a go. Only the third time I've used one in 18 years of climbing. Set a static Kernmantle between two 70ft Norway Spruces this allowed me to work on the Beech safely and bring it down causing minimum damage to underplantings. I was also using a breakaway lanyard of my own design for work positioning in the tree. Hopefully the pics and vid paint a clearer picture. [ame=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlEniHedlx4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlEniHedlx4[/ame] .

Dont get me wrong I think the X Rings are great and would use them all the time if I had them, I was talking about a question mark over a specific application. Does this help? I'm talking about snatching/catching this section to a dead stop as soon as the timber hits the rigging - at the point where everything pinches up tight - greater force between A and B, less force between B and C because of the friction at the X rings (B)

If you think about how the rigging line flattens out on the rings under load in the same way it flattens on a portwrap/drum brake etc - when you catch/snatch a section of timber or a big branch the effect of the X rings is to act like a brake so percentage wise the amount of force being applied to the section of rope between the timber and the rings is much greater than the force being applied from the x rings to the lowering device. This is one of the reasons why pulleys were introduced into our work in the first place, to allow the force to be dissipated along the entire length of the line. Anyone whose done a lot of big natural crotch rigging will know exactly what I'm talking about. It's not about the strength of the X rings, its about how the friction created by the rings affects the strength of the rigging line when you have to catch sections of timber or big branches/tops.

I agree Pete on the catching issue. There's still a question mark for me on the X rings for those situations where you have to snatch a decent sized section of timber or a big branch, over a roof etc. A situation where you can't let it run. In this scenario the amount of force on the rope between the section of timber and the x rigging rings would be much greater compared with a rigging block/pulley because a pulley allows the force in the rope to be dissipated along the entire length of the line down to the friction device. With the X rings the majority of the force is being taken by that short length between the timber/branch and the X rings.

nice work Rob. Anyone looking at those vids can see you're a good climber. Generally speaking the trees you would be working on in the UK would be smaller than the trees in Atlanta. But there is some areas where you would find smaller companies that specialise in bigger tree work if that's what you wanted to do. An average small tree company in the UK will do a wide range of work, from small shrubs and hedge pruning to medium/large removals and crown reductions etc. Good luck with your search.

Cheers Gerard, have read a bit about grafting but never seen it done.

Rob, try and find a couple/or 3 good companies who are looking for climbers, then come over for a week or 2 and arrange to climb/work for a few days with each of them. I wouldn't gamble on finding a company then making all the arrangements/visa etc for 12 months etc then get here and find the company is sh*t and the staff are maniacs. I know the 2 week visit would be expensive but long term it would be better for you if you found a good place to work with decent people.

Ti, can we see this tree on google streetview? Why does the client want it gone?

Ti, have you discussed a crown reduction option with the client? Any pics? Cedar of Lebanon?

Anyone here made the switch from the Multislide to the Click? I've been using the Multislide for a long time now and just about to re-new with the 'Click'. I know it's basically the same harness but anything I should know about? any little annoying niggles with the Click? I take it the quick release legloops are fine? Multislide Click -

Safety Steve, Is this what you want to do? Elcoat Ltd - Strategy, Governance & Operations .

The UK 'safety industry' works using techniques very similar to the US Military's Psychological Operations or PSYOP for short. Like PSYOP the UK H&S mafia conspires to exploit people's insecurity about safety. They operate by manipulating the business owner's objective reasoning in an attempt to create a perpetual atmosphere of worry. They'll often attempt to strike terror into your mind about the possible outcomes of non compliance with H&S. This approach helps reinforce a behaviour that is favourable to their bank balance. It basically justifies their existence and allows them to sell safety programs etc. In-house safety reps within big companies fall for this hook line and sinker. For them it's nothing more than an arse covering exercise and why wouldn't they? they're not spending their own money afterall. The con then gets transferred to the end line client who works on the assumption the large company is 'safer' than the small business owner down the road. The whole thing is a clever confidence trick. The small business owner and self employed person should be very wary of the con being attempted on them and do his/her best to limit the impact of the H&S person's unhealthy interest in the minutiae of legislation and industry guidelines. Remember, the more the 'safety industry' can manipulate business owners and the self employed into believing their work practices are inherently unsafe the more money they make.

Most of the people people in the 'safety industry' are parasites that feed off the labour of people doing real work and real jobs. They are the legacy of the collapse of the British Empire. Once upon a time you had about 100,000 British ex-pat bureaucrats over seeing the colonies, telling the natives what do etc. After WW2 and the forced break up of the British Empire all the pen pushers had to reluctantly come home. Over the next few decades with the help of the communists they set about re-creating the stifling bureaucracy of the colonies here within the United Kingdom, and their victims would be us - hard working business owners and the self employed. In short they created the monstrosity that became today's despotic empire of nonsense - the Health and Safety Executive. In short if you need help with 'safety' you're either A - someone who shouldn't be doing treework ie you dont have a natural aptitude for assessing risk or natural empathy for what the job requires. or B - someone who is easily parted with their money.

FWIW, I reckon David Driver saw a thread here in early 2011 made by a member who suggested using Antal rings in treework. David Driver saw the thread and ran with the idea. I think Antal rings were introduced to the marine world in 2009, an arbtalk member makes the link between the antal rings and treework early 2011.....2013 sees David Driver introduce them to the treeworld re branded as x rigging rings. That's how it looks to me. TC .

I thought the Arb Association are already involved with FISA? they were supposed to be responsible for the upkeep of the arb related AFAG guidance and FISA would be doing the AFAG guidance on forestry side. Probably both would be covering guidance that crossed into forestry and arb. This would mean someone like Paul AA Teccie or Simon Richmond acting on behalf of the arb industry, surely they would keep tabs on excessive amounts of training and refresher courses being demanded by FISA knowing full well that the arb industry has loads of small specialist companies that can't afford to be financially overburdened with repeated training costs?

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.

who'd climb the tree below to dismantle? I'd be happy to do it, I wouldn't need a MEWP, however I wouldn't force another climber to climb it if they weren't happy to do so or didn't have the experience required. 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.

all joking aside if I was the owner manager of that company I'd be finding work that was within these guys skill level and bringing in top quality subby climbers for the difficult trees, the usual fulltime climbing staff can do the groundwork/easier trees etc on the days the subby climbers come in. That way everyone's happy.

when ah were a lad we used t'climb 90ft dead elms wit no ropes and nuttin but a frayed British Telecom pole belt for safety, no harness neither, just clipped yon BT belt into belt buckle and hoped for t'best, raining as well it was, and windy, blowing a gale it was, like Ilkley moor on a wild December morn, them were the days Steve, them were the days.

what was dangerous about the trees? the snow on top of the limbs? what was to be done to the trees? removal? pruning? was it the work to be carried out that the climbers thought was too dangerous or the condition of the trees themselves?