Question for all you other climbers about removals. Sorry the picture is poor I had someone take it while I was driving. If the homeowner asked me to remove that pine, how would I go about getting the top safely on the ground? I know up to the last 20 feet of the trunk, I could limb it with the handsaw and drop the branches in a controlled manner. My question is, what is the safest way to get the top 15 feet of the tree safely on the ground? To me, it looks too skinny and too brittle to climb really high. That is a lot of wood to just cut a notch and drop into the yard(and risk it not going the right way). My only thought is to use the pole pruner to take as many branches off over my head as possible(to minimize weight), then cut the top out of it. Is this something you guys would rig? My question is at what trunk diameter do you guys stop climbing for fear of it getting brittle and breaking out? And what is the plan of action for getting the top 15 feet of the tree safely on the ground without damaging anything or getting hurt. I know with a bucket truck this would be easy. I also know that you can either rig sections of the trunk down or do snap cuts so I am pretty comfortable with that. But how to get the top 15 feet out of the tree safely really has me stumped. Let me know if I can clarify anything. Thanks for the replies in advance.