moron in the tree

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

treeman82

Addicted to ArboristSite
Joined
May 2, 2001
Messages
3,956
Reaction score
88
Location
connecticut
i gotta ask you guys something. i have been climbing for the past 4 years now. i am a pretty good climber. not great, but i am good. people who see me work say i am a good climber, if not great. and they are very impressed with how i keep their rooves safe from damage. well. i have a friend who is gettin into this stuff. he is 1 year older than me. last year i brought him to a job. it was in november? or october. he told me that he could chunk the wood out of a tree that was right next to a building. all wood had to be lowered. top was about 50 feet up. and tree was about 2' at the base. he went up about 20 feet. fell flat on his a$$ on the roof of the building. he was fine. but said that he didnt know enough to do the job. before he went up there he said no problem. well i went up. first piece i lowered was 1' in diameter maybe a bit bigger and 10' long. got the stick down to the ground in about 2 hrs. with some breaks for whatever. they had to clean up and what not. anyways. my buddy is now working for a tree care company. they have him climbing. i took him one day so he could make a couple bucks. just easy stuff. kid couldnt even tie a running bowline. took him about 5+ minutes to get it right. the tree company he works for he said had him climb the first day he worked with them. a friend of his, who isnt even as good as he is. which really doesnt say a lot for him. they had him climb the first day too. i dont get it. :alien: are we as arborists really so desparate for climbers that we will endanger the lives of younger people. if they cant tie a knot, or even get up a tree without falling. why, how, could they be of any use up there. when you have a tree over a house, why would you want them up there? i dont get it. could somebody please explain it to me.? how do you guys test / train potential climbers. i got one guy right now who i am gonna start to train. i think he shows promise. however everything he does for now, he will be on my ropes being belayed. but for a company to go and just let a kid climb, that is pretty dumb. if i wanted to... not to make life rough for the kid, but just so the company doesnt wind up in a massive law suite, call them up, they know my clients i am sure. my clients are dealers who will vouche for my ability. and just tell them to watch themselves. kid tells me they had him up there 100 feet on a crane, with an 088. taking wood out with the sling. why would anybody do this?
 
When we trained, ground men to be climbers. We set them free with there own crew, After 18 months of training.That does not mean they could do all aspects of tree work.I would have to say it would take many years to learn. The best climbers never stop learning.
 
Sounds like he exaggerates too. When was the last time you wre in a tree where you needed an 088 at 100 FEET! MAYBE for the last 10'-20', but I've done over 150 crane removals and never even needed the 026 till I was at 50' highest!
And yes, tree companies are desparate for decent climbers. If you tell them you can climb, good chance you will be hired on the spot and sent out the next day with a crew-AS FOREMAN! At least that has been my experience.
 
that is horrible, they dont give you any kind of test at all? what happens if you just tell em you can climb to get the job. get out there and fall out from 50 feet up? not good for the first day.
 
Too many people assume climbing is easy....falling IS easy, or getting stuck. Ever had to do a rescue on a freaked climber? Whatever knowledge of knots he/she had vanishes, equipment begins to rain out of the tree,...ugly. A young climber can gain a lot of knot-knowledge, rope skills, and general confidence taking a short rockclimbing course. Most community colleges have them. Inexpensive, they gain skills, and provide some background upon which to build for tree work. Rock & tree work differ but share a lot of the basics and you don't need to wait for a special tree course away from home.
 
I know of a guy who BS'd his way into an r'brist position at a local big design/install/maint. company here. First big jip he thought he could drop a tall cherry with a basal cut, no rope. Fell wrong, peeled gutters, siding and damaged a few wall boards. He got promoted to sales real fast.

I've heard some horor stories about first days on ROW crews in this area. A-hole forman making the FNG's try top work right away.
 
About 10 years ago I was at my buddys place, we were out on the deck drinking beer. Across the road is a high school. The council guys came out to trim this big oak tree on the school grounds.

The younger of the 2 guys was about 20, and he was strutting round with his (way too big) chainsaw in front of the school girls, looking like Schwartzenegger with a tennis ball under each arm.

We were laughing at him for a while, then we went back to drinking beer.

Suddenly my mate said "check out that egg over the road"
Yup he had the ladder up against the branch and he was busy with his chainsaw cutting the branch between the tree and the ladder :D Doh!

Unfortunately he survived the ensuing gutsa from about 15 feet or so, but that is the closest I ever came to seeing a Darwin :)

John
 
this is pathetic though. i mean why would you want somebody working for you who cant even tie the knots when they have to be tied. and then when they do get tied, you are not sure if you can trust the knots. this is a person in the tree. not on the ground, but in the tree. i really am tempted to call the company owner up and tell him to watch these guys. i really am. i told my buddy that if he doesnt start shaping up around me, that i will do it.
 
At the very least, your friend should get the tree climber's companion and read it until he memorizes it. Also, I hear Mc Donalds is hiring and you don't even have to tie any knots :rolleyes: Sounds like he will hurt himself eventually :eek:
 
he isnt a very good friend (always askin to borrow stuff & returns it all busted up) my little sister likes him though. i told him that if he helps her out at all, or whatever, i will make life tough on him. (current boyfriend is a major loser) he doesnt believe me, and wont listen. its really tempting to call up his boss and warn the guy to the things i have noticed (falling out of tree / not being able to tie simple knots)
 
If the boss is worth a sh--, he already knows. If he doesn't already know, or care, then they probably deserve each other. Knowing when to clean your OWN side of the street instead of trying to fix everybody else is quite empowering. :angel:
 
if some one that is applying for a climbing position answeres yes to the following question don't hire him.

question:
in your last job were you required to say "would you like fries with that?"
 
ive been in the biz a little while now and im just learning to climb! as a owner there is no way id let a kid go up. my younger cousin works for me, hes 19 , wants to go up real bad, i explain to him that im stilll learning and untill im good enough to train ( What about 20 years!) hes humpin logs! i would hate to see what happens to your buddy, if he dosnt get hurt somone else will.
i had a 044 in a tree yesterday about 20 ft. high, chunkin meat with a 20"bar just about killed me! o88 NO WAY!
 
Yeh, I've worked with a 064 in a tree and that hurt!

I've asked a few guys who work big wood and they say the 088 is for stumps only. They would not want to buck with an 088 much less climb.
 
i agree those big saws are for chunking stuff up. i ahve a mac 300 and that damn thing is too heavy to do much more than cunk stuff up. i tried to limb with her ond day and i ran out of gas before she did....
 
no kidding! the only reason i took the 044 up was it had a small bar and i was cutting pretty big wood (for how hi i was anyways) but if didnt have a secure place to cut would have never tried! like you, when i was done, the saw was still full of juice!
 
Back
Top