120' "W. Red" Removal - Rigging & Pricing VS a Parasite Obstruct'n (E. Ivy)

[NW ArborCat]

Spurless climbing Western Red cedars can be really challenging. In the lower half of the larger ones, the branches slope downward, so to put a climbing line over a branch to climb into the canopy is hard because it wants to slide off the branch. They also tend to be thick so shooting a throwline into it can try your patience.

Concise, but comprehensive for a single paragraph on the subject. Hahahahh! Last time I tried to line-set (using big shot & hand-throws) for a spurless climb into a dense, unpruned cedar:

After an hour I got so fed up that I threw my 30' lanyard up around a "fan's flare"-shaped clump of sloped limbs about 12' up, threaded it back down through the pell-mell snarl of low candelabra branches (using a pole as my needle). It's like staring into the tentacled maw of a frozen kraken.

Then I used alt-lanyard technique to achieve a desirable TIP. Did not achieve the fast-climb time I was going for, though :/ Not even close. But that cedar was 50% worse. Even w/out ivy.

Now for this customer's cedar, I feel ya on your suggestion, RBTree; I was considering to use big-shot, try to get the claw game to grab a stuffed animal prize, & go SRT. But w/ all this ivy & limited firing angles (shooting underneath is a no-go; too much visual snarl), I might hand-lob or pole-set a line on an anomalously low, level, lateral limb (it's kinda visible in one of the pics) I discovered on the backside, then alt-lanyard &/or throwline my way to the top. I absolutely adore these trees. ^_^

I'm anticipating perhaps as high as a 50% slowdown rate for getting through the ivy at the first 50% of the tree's height w/out reducing safety. It's a real snarl up there, but I think I'll be faster than that. Here's hopin'.

 

[NW ArborCat]

Climbing through ivy is a chore. Though, with that specific tree, it looks difficult to get a safe line set, I would try, with a Big Shot to power a line up close to the trunk, Test its set with at least two people's weight. Binoculars can help. Then climb the rope to the top, (SRT is best) , and reset, and install a lowering line for the limbs. Descend down, cutting the ivy vertically in a few planes and try to work it free...or, just cut the worst of the ivy foliage. Then, work back up, delimb and pull ivy... (It's much easier to remove ivy from the top down, but with so many limbs in the way, the task is complicated. . .

Thx much for your time & thoughts. Plz see my recent reply to BC Wetcoast RE: Climbing this tree in SRT, as I named you there-- Still figuring out the tricks to forum / posting tools. But I was glad to see you suppose that SRT approach. I was out late climbing a taller but similar (in sloped limbs) conifer in SRT yesterday to try improving my time on these types.

Gotta run. Internets running out again. More later.

 

[rbtree]

Good on ya for doing your part for saving the tree!!....Re the ex employer..... You won't, I will! My friend, and consulting arb extraordinaire Scott Baker has turned em in to the Atty General's office for their gawd awful work ethics and tactics..... Another bud who lives in a gated rural community has called the cops on their salesmen more than once, for sneaking through and doing their damned canvassing...... And they are lion's tailers of the worst kind.... sell work on trees that need nothing, or, perhaps end weight reduction, not clearing out the inner foliage that is there for a reason. And they're all about production... long hours, not enough pay, perhaps, except for the crew lead. I've had numerous people work for me that hated it there. Even Wesspur's Nice Guy Dave worked there long ago ....

dooo deee doodangdong...Evergreen TC...... poop on 'em