treemandan
Tree Freak
Srt accent into conifers is one of the most dangerous things we do out here in my opinion. It's interesting that all you guys sight inexperience and poor judgment as the culprit. The one thing in common is you all come from areas east of the Mississippi.
Often times with Douglas firs and western red cedars they are so dense you really don't know exactly what your tip is like. Binoculars are of little help with trees this dense. Even if your rope is over several branches once you break the t.i.p the inertia will break the remaing branches below. With trees like Western red cedars, every branch grows strait towards the ground,its very easy for your rope to creep out on the ascent.
You can take precautions like using a flipline on the ascent and spending more time getting a stout tip but most of us are pressured by our employers to just "get up that tree"
With alot of climbers unaware that srt doubles the load on the t.i.p, company's pushing production and zero tolerance of spiking accidents like these will become more prevalent. Criticizing the climber is not going to save any lives.
Very well to point out the differences in the trees from here and there. I was going to convey that myself in my earlier message. I sort of did but not in detail like you.
I did my best to picture the scene in my mind and came up with pretty much the same thing but I added the fact that one is utimately to blame for his own misfortunes BUT yes, there is more to it.
For one, there are high power scopes which to use to see the TIP. I understand completely why they are not a mandate but if I was out there in those sticks I think I would have one.
Its true I only needed a scope to see my TIP once or twice in my life. We have it easy over here in comparison but I have to say I see all those rec people climbing them pretty good. As an arborist I have to wonder about the geefy smiles on their faces cause the thought of falling don't come easy to me.
Anyway, the point is that there is a way to climb safely and there isn't. If the guy is actually a climber then he probably knew he stood a chance of falling. Don't ya think? Hmmm? It would be different if he was a trainee. Don't ya think? Hmmm?
The reason I am so interested in this is obvious being a user of srt in the same manner. I went up some hairy stuff though I had to pull out and re-insert a few times.
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