Case: Removal of a Split Tree

[TreeSensible]

Oak removal at Customer's lake house, bottom of longish ziz-zag staircase down to the lakeside. It's right next to the railing and doesn't seem practical just to drop it, not to mention it might now be safe even to do that. Looks worse from these pics-from-below than it did from above. Momentum. Inertia. Hubris. Hmmm. Maybe I should get input. Ideas appreciated. Main question: is it foolish to climb this? A self propelled spider lift would be great, but I don't have one so will be giving up the job if I decide not to climb it.

My ideas:
a. Get weight off it.
b. Tie in from a large tree above and then through the target canopy to come at it straight from below so not all my weight will be there as I reduce the top.
c. Maybe winch the thing up a touch (200lbs worth, my approx loaded weight) from the tree above. I can hear someone: "if 200lbs matters, dont climb it."
d. Strap it. Bind it. Never done that before. Seems like the most relevant once I get past thinking about taking the weight off.
e. Possibly avoid tying in to this tree at all since I have the tree above and good prospects for an anchor below. I have tied in off a line between two trees before, but it was sort of horizontal, and not between two trees at dramatically different elevations. Then again, I now have the GRCS so it could be a pretty tight rope to use.

I hope you think this case is worth a post. Cheers.

 

[mikewhite85]

Sketchy one for sure. Looks like half of the codom split? If so the stronger half survived. Impossible whether or not to say if you should climb it but if I were to do so I'd take every precaution possible and sell it that way. Otherwise there's no harm in passing it along to someone with a spider lift. Few things are really worth risking your life like that.

 

[old CB]

Given all your questions and doubt, you should not feel bad about walking away from this one.

You might think it through and make it work. But if you found yourself injured at the end of the day you'd regret your decision in a big way and for a long time.

Never feel shame about knowing your limits, or even suspecting so.

 

[treevet]

Put a ridiculously high price on it and then if you get it you can begin to get creative for safety while also happy to get it. Or have a guy on here named MDS do it for you.