Tree Critter
ArboristSite Lurker
I saw a video a while back of a guy doing a removal of a good sized pine. He obviously had just enough knowlege to be dangerous to himself, and everyone around him. The video starts with the guy makeing a topping cut, and as the camera pans down, you see that his friends on the ground don't have a friction device, they have the bull rope wrapped about 6-8 times (per the climbers instructions) around a nearby tree. The camera pans back up to see the top 10 feet or so of the tree break loose and slam into the side of the tree. I think I remember hearing a few choice words from the climber as the camera pans back to the guys on the ground who are trying to get the rope unbound so they can lower the top. The camera comes back on for the second cut, and as the second piece (also about 10 feet) comes off it slams the tree and barely slows down before you see it, and the rigging do a free fall into a storage building. Everyone is quiet for a few seconds, then you hear "????!!!". The camera comes back on and shows the remains of half of the ALUMINUM biner the guy was useing to attach the block to the sling. The biner had deep gouges in it where the steel plates of the block dug in on the first cut. It was found stuck in the ground where the ground crew was standing around without hard hats. Nobody was injured, but the climber just couldn't understand why that aluminum biner had failed. After seeing that, I don't have much use for aluminum biners anywhere it might get gouged, or become work hardened.