eek- what did this guy do wrong ?

[stephen44]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-xJWIUoe3c&feature=related

 

[John Ellison]

That might be called, 'biten off more than you can chew.

 

[Ed Roland]

Ask the man running that rope.

 

[tree md]

If you listen really close you can hear the rope guy yell "sorry" as the climber goes for a ride...

 

[FELLNORTH]

i think he had to change his shorts after that...
glad i dont climb

 

[Marquis]

If the groundie would of have let the rope run just a bit through his hands or whatever they were using, the whip might not have been so bad. Plus, that's really hard on rope and equipment when it's jerked and loaded like that.

 

[Plasmech]

Funny I was just about to post the same thing?

So what happened...the groundie did not take the slack out of the rope?

 

[Col2y]

the groundy held the rope tight instead of softening the drop (or letting it run) if you will, ill defend the climber about 75 percent but its important to make sure that your groundy knows what hes doing, and if he doesn't then you have to tailer your climbing style to him

 

[pdqdl]

This video has been pulverized in another thread.

Here was my opinion, but others had WIDELY different viewpoints:

http://www.arboristsite.com/showpost.php?p=1227355&postcount=17
&
http://www.arboristsite.com/showpost.php?p=1230242&postcount=27

It's partly the climbers fault (no damping material left on the tree), partly the groundies fault (they might have let it run longer), and partly bad luck (resonance with the spar and falling top section)

I think just about everybody on AS commented one way or another.

 

[pdqdl]

If I were to make a recommendation for this guy, I would tell him to do it all just the same, except for one thing: leave the last 10'-15' of branches on the tree, just below the top section that he cut off. Strip any branches on the side it was falling toward, so that it would not get hung up.

Top section falls, the trunk rocks left, then right, then stops at center. Easy.

Leaving a significant set of branches high up in the spar would act as a stabilizer for the oscillations of the trunk. They absorb energy by damping movement with their mass, and they add wind resistance to any movement. It would never have rocked back and forth so violently, and he would have been fine.

 

[TreeTopKid]

If I were to make a recommendation for this guy, I would tell him to do it all just the same, except for one thing: leave the last 10'-15' of branches on the tree, just below the top section that he cut off. Strip any branches on the side it was falling toward, so that it would not get hung up.

Top section falls, the trunk rocks left, then right, then stops at center. Easy.

Leaving a significant set of branches high up in the spar would act as a stabilizer for the oscillations of the trunk. They absorb energy by damping movement with their mass, and they add wind resistance to any movement. It would never have rocked back and forth so violently, and he would have been fine.

SO TRUE! I've been for a similar ride like that myself except I knew it was coming, and had already bear hugged the tree. In this instance there were no lower branches it was a stand tree that had been left on someones property during construction. It was decaying and did not have the heart to go higher, or drop the top onto wood any smaller. If you know it's coming it's not nearly as bad. You better make sure you're well tied in I hasten to add.