Danger Danger... advice sought.

[tramp bushler]

OK. I've been thru the thread now. . But my advice is still the same. Unless your independently wealthy. If you can walk up to the tree with a spare saw you have plenty of time to get the powerheads off. . You could walk around the tree. No spring boards. No 50+° slope. Tree grew up out of the ground not out and up. . When you were facing it up I thot yourface was kinda shallow, and so it turned out to be. . Steep and deep. And on one that is split like that use a conventional face. Seriously, a conventional face. . If your gonna cut in Alaska you will have to daily deal with trees that make this look easy.
I may be gettin after ya, but, I'm telling you the truth. .
You did good in that you got it down and are alive and healthy.

 

[bitzer]

Dead nuts right Glen!

 

[northmanlogging]

OK. I've been thru the thread now. . But my advice is still the same. Unless your independently wealthy. If you can walk up to the tree with a spare saw you have plenty of time to get the powerheads off. . You could walk around the tree. No spring boards. No 50+° slope. Tree grew up out of the ground not out and up. . When you were facing it up I thot yourface was kinda shallow, and so it turned out to be. . Steep and deep. And on one that is split like that use a conventional face. Seriously, a conventional face. . If your gonna cut in Alaska you will have to daily deal with trees that make this look easy.
I may be gettin after ya, but, I'm telling you the truth. .
You did good in that you got it down and are alive and healthy.

Thanks Glen,

There are a number of things I would do differently if faced with again.

Had a second saw already there, I had spent the better part of the morning falling smaller stuff and had to walk out and pack the 066 in... figured I would go ahead and leave the 461 there until all was done. If the second saw was not there I would have unbolted and swapped out to a second bar and continued on...

As it was the tree jumped a good 10 feet from the stump and missed the saw completely which I'll admit is mostly luck.

 

[tramp bushler]

Believe me every faller that has cut timber for any amount of time has had to say bye to his saw too many times. I've had 3saws go down the mountain stuck in the butt of a tree. All of which lived long afterward Thank God!! .
The good thing about pulling the powerhead off is it gives you a little time to look and listen. With a problem tree like that its best to have only 1 powerhead in the danger zone.
Its bad enough to pretzel a nice bar and chain. But add a thousand dollars of powerhead in and that throws away a weeks pay. Or the better part of it. . One of the reasons Jordan ( CoastalFaller) said to leave trees near it wasn't just to have a driver. But to have something to hide behind. . The trees I hate to fall the most is the road fringe from a strip that will be logged uphill. Nothing to hide behind and decks of right of way logs to dodge.

 

[tramp bushler]

With snags, steep and deep with a cleaned out face and on really bad snags a conventional face. I almost got it one time in Shoal Cove because I thot I was smarter than guy that taught me that . .
There are just a whole bunch of problems with falling snags.

Oh and another tip. Avoid trying to hammer red cedar snags. . They will split up lengthwise but they are hard as hell to knock over. Then after you've torqued the s### out of them and prolly left some extra widow makers in them you have to go fall them. Better to just bite the bullet and go fall them once you have them opened up.

 

[HuskStihl]

This is one of the better threads I pollute. Seeing real fallers have to fight for their saws and lives is an amazing eye opener to sub-firewood hacks like me. Much respect for NM having the integrity to put this here