Dangerous "unseen" high point attachment!!!

Blinky said:

What happened was the 3" co-dominant crotch split and one side gave way completely, later I found a 10" tear through green but coarse grained wood. So, for me, no more 3" TIPS in water oaks... I've used 3" TIPS in white oaks lots of times without a problem.

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Yeah binocs are good--they should be used a lot more, and bigshots a bit less. final thought is to aim lower when you are in doubt, for the sake of the tree. I've seen way too much collateral damage done by throwballs and bounce tests. This decay-prone species now has a 10" gash in the very crown. :bang: Attached is a pic of the tiny codom that split--2 1/4" at the widest point. The branch above the fork is 1 1/2" wide.

I have tied into some small stuff in my time, but never that tiny!

The good training for my newbie nephew was much more important than the gash, but the experience reaffirms my (and, I expect, his) skepticism about gear usage. Just ask my wife--I like to KISS.

Just getting back to this thread,...

It should never have become a spurs vs ropes thread, I am on record as saying that spurs are THE safest access method, but the spur it all crowd also have to accept that you would be asked off the job-site in many instances by either your employer or the customer if you set spike to tree.

I also TRIED (and possibly failed) to describe in my post how fatigue, nasty conditions, frustration and a poorly placed confidence in a bounce test on an unseen TIP conspired to create a near disasterous failure for me. It was related as a cautionary tale against the bounce test on the unseen TIP.

I am a fan of tossing low and advancing as I see fit, but Garry oaks are notorious self-lion-tailing trees and while you may have big branches at 10 or 20 feet there is often nothing else worth climbing until the crown.

So what would I do differently?

I'd wait for a minute, or ten or twenty for the rain to shift to see my TIP properly. Or if the weather is so massively crapulent that I can't judge the tree, the day is done.


RedlineIt