when I was just testing everything out and put my weight on the line my feet keep wanting to swing out instead of staying under me
You mean your basal anchor is in place, the vertical line is over a crotch, and you start to climb the rope (no spurs), and your head goes back, feet front? You probably need to put weight on the bottom of the rope...set it so it's floating slightly off the ground when all your weight is on it, and put way more body weight on the legs than arms. (I never tried SRT BTW) (see
)
That's not a tree for a novice climber IMO
What's hard about climbing it? It just looks harder to rig because that large branch over the building has nothing above it (to redirect limb walking, or positive rigging). I guess you mean climbing that top branch? I would hope you can cut it somewhat large.
here is the tree I want to cut down
Can you show angles showing branches are over things you don't want destroyed or aren't over them? Is that large top one over the building? Is this a practice tree? ... something you can drop whole, but you decided to climb it anyway?
Also, it's only one picture but it sure seems like there's room to fall that tree whole.
If you decide at some point your climbing practice is over, and it's time to drop it whole, just remember that if you chop off lots of branches on the side it leans towards, but not the opposite, maybe it now really leans the opposite way than what it looks like.
And what knot will you use for the ascender?
And do you have a pruning saw? (way lighter obviously, and great for practicing vs a chainsaw, and probably essential anyway... I have a Silky Sugoi 360) And a top handle chainsaw? (remember top handle is more dangerous...aim so kickback doesn't go towards your face.) What's the bungee double snap cord for...a chainsaw? I think it's not ideal for that...should ask others about it though. I bought a specific lanyard for my chainsaw... (
https://www.treestuff.com/buckingham-tear-away-chainsaw-lanyard/) which also has rings so you can hook it close to you instead of only dangling low.
And do you have a ground crew? At the minimum, you need someone to know whether you're doing fine. But you'll want someone to help keep your load down...send heavy things up later, and work the rigging and tagline. And make sure they know a few knots (bowline, double bowline (for awful ropes where bowline loosens easily), alpine butterfly (for awful or too different sized ropes where slip knots and quick hitch loosen easily), slip knot (best for carabiners,snaps), and quick hitch (best for 2 ropes)).
And you mentioned bowline... which is commonly used for rigging, and maybe not ideal for life support; maybe you should use a more secure knot, like a double bowline (still easy to untie), or a running alpine butterfly (
) (sacrifice some ease for security, but still easy enough to untie vs. eg. figure 8 loop).
And I'm not very experienced or professional BTW... something like you perhaps. I have a lot of trees and decided to take care of them myself. I will climb with spurs, and take out whole trees and not prune anything. I plan to just cut whole trees whole or piece by piece before it gets dangerous (eg. high around buildings; I have no power lines, roads, or other things to deal with). I'm using MRS old school with just friction hitches, no ascender hardware. (and I love positive criticism, and would appreciate any, but I don't mean to hijack this thread)
And left safety for last... the others already covered the warning side of it, but not so much the detail. I think you should listen to what has been said, but you don't necessarily have to fear for your life and stop ... Just be as careful as you can be, and don't push it past your abilities.
So here's a long dump/ramblings of all I can think of at this moment: know your limits, and don't do anything you aren't sure of until you go further (like higher up, or cut larger things). And make sure you can always go back (eg. apparently some people find it easy to climb with spurs and flipline, but then can't figure out how to descend...so they say to practice going down right away, when you're just a few steps up; and I can imagine situations like let's say you're on a MRS and somehow you get lots of friction on the line, and so you can't descend... avoid that [especially avoid adding slack and therefore a risk of shock load in your attempt] or have a plan of how to get out of it.). And especially always have multiple attachments so if any fail (or a branch breaks), you're still secure in the tree (for broken branch, it means another branch below it catches you... ideally, you're around the trunk on a branch, not just a branch), and your connection to the tree is above you, never below... you don't want a shock load. There's no belayer like in rock climbing... you never should have to handle a drop like they do. And when you cut, consider having the lines separated so if you somehow cut a rope, it doesn't cut more than one. Steel core is supposed to help with that, but people seem to say they can fail at the joints from metal fatigue, and unlike knots, are hard to inspect and notice early. And plan ahead... consider where the branch goes if things go wrong...does it hit you? your rope? your basal anchor? I find climbing is simple...but rigging is more complicated (my favorite video about it:
...one thing where I made mistakes not mentioned in the video is if you want to raise a branch or hold it from falling, you have to tie really far out from the cut...branches are heavier than they look, and too close kills your leverage). Practice small and low so when things go wrong, the result is a lesson you (and the roof of that building?) will survive. And one last note, remember that unlike MRS, with SRT and a basal anchor, the crotch/branch up above takes almost 2x your force (less only from angle and friction)... you and the anchor both pull down. So if you have an idea of how thick it has to be, remember to adjust that.
