# Kicked out at 10 feet-with major consequences



## ripplerider (Dec 2, 2007)

Hi-first time posting. I've been cruising this site for several years and really enjoy it. I'm recuperating from a fall I took about 6 mos. ago from a power pole. Maybe this isnt exactly the right forum for this but since I've done tree work for approximately 20 yrs I thought I'd run it by you folks. The company I work for recently decided to get out of the R.O.W. business so after 17 yrs. in the tree business,15 of which I ran a crew,I found myself trying to become a lineman. This is what my company specializes in anyway.I still have my weekend tree service, so I'm not completely out of the tree life! Anyway,about 6 mos. ago I started up a 65 ft. hard-as-a-rock green power pole wearing another crewmembers spikes to try them out. Now, linemen are taught not to "hitchhike",which means to use your lanyard, until they reach the top of the pole. AT 10 ft. I kicked out without my safety around the pole and fell heavily onto my left shoulder, landing on hard-packed gravel.To make a long story short (too late for that) I was finally diagnosed correctly and was operated on for a torn rotater cuff. This was 4 mos. ago and I am still recovering.The physical therapy is pretty tough.I had just bought a chipper truck and chipper a couple of mos. previously with visions of expanding the weekend thing to full time but that's been put on hold for now. At least I've had time to study for the C.A. test, which I hope to take early next year.I guess if theres a moral to this story it's to be safetied in at all times, even if youre in a climate where it's discouraged.


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## treesquirrel (Dec 2, 2007)

ripplerider said:


> Hi-first time posting. I've been cruising this site for several years and really enjoy it. I'm recuperating from a fall I took about 6 mos. ago from a power pole. Maybe this isnt exactly the right forum for this but since I've done tree work for approximately 20 yrs I thought I'd run it by you folks. The company I work for recently decided to get out of the R.O.W. business so after 17 yrs. in the tree business,15 of which I ran a crew,I found myself trying to become a lineman. This is what my company specializes in anyway.I still have my weekend tree service, so I'm not completely out of the tree life! Anyway,about 6 mos. ago I started up a 65 ft. hard-as-a-rock green power pole wearing another crewmembers spikes to try them out. Now, linemen are taught not to "hitchhike",which means to use your lanyard, until they reach the top of the pole. AT 10 ft. I kicked out without my safety around the pole and fell heavily onto my left shoulder, landing on hard-packed gravel.To make a long story short (too late for that) I was finally diagnosed correctly and was operated on for a torn rotater cuff. This was 4 mos. ago and I am still recovering.The physical therapy is pretty tough.I had just bought a chipper truck and chipper a couple of mos. previously with visions of expanding the weekend thing to full time but that's been put on hold for now. At least I've had time to study for the C.A. test, which I hope to take early next year.I guess if theres a moral to this story it's to be safetied in at all times, even if youre in a climate where it's discouraged.



If your in a climate where your personal safety and well being is discouraged then you are among idiots. I certainly hope this is peer level stupidity and not pushed by company managers. 

Always be safe.


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## ripplerider (Dec 2, 2007)

Climbing the pole without using your lanyard until reaching your work position is S.O.P. with every power company I've ever worked around-and I've been on a lot of storm work with a variety of E.M.C.s and contractors around the southeast.


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## treesquirrel (Dec 2, 2007)

ripplerider said:


> Climbing the pole without using your lanyard until reaching your work position is S.O.P. with every power company I've ever worked around-and I've been on a lot of storm work with a variety of E.M.C.s and contractors around the southeast.



Please clarify...

Do you mean without a secondary safety lanyard or do you mean climbing itwithout the buckstrap.

I understood this post to be to climb with spikes only, no strap. This is stupid and reckless regardless of what the S.O.P may be with some power companies. I would find that SOP to be in complete disregard of insurance safety standards as well in an industry where OSHA is sure to be poking around.


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## treesquirrel (Dec 2, 2007)

Please do not misunderstand me. I am very concerned about any policy which would promote a risky SOP disregarding safety issues. That 10 foot fall could have been fatal if you had landed squarely on your head.

My personal and company policy is to be tied in ALWAYS. No exceptions.


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## bigbadbob (Dec 2, 2007)

I am a lineman and we are not allowed to climb without a pole-strap. Why would you not use one? Any new guys learning to climb must use a new belt called a pole-shark, it will stop you sliding down the pole if you cut out. 
http://www.buckinghammfg.com/linemen/pcpshark.html


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## coydog (Dec 5, 2007)

The linemen in Seattle are taught to climb without a safety (until in position).


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## Magnum783 (Dec 8, 2007)

All the new AF lineman are now being to taught to climb tied in all they way up. The AF determined that it was too dangerous for them to be free climbing.
Jared


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## TDunk (Dec 8, 2007)

I have to agree with Tree and Mag on this one. I've never climbed anything without being tied in. I don't like to critisize other people's work habit's, but that's just down right dangerous.


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## l2edneck (Dec 8, 2007)

Magnum783 said:


> All the new AF lineman are now being to taught to climb tied in all they way up. The AF determined that it was too dangerous for them to be free climbing.
> Jared




Wonder how many "reported" injuries it took for the to come up with that.

Darwinism at work....

Glad to hear yer ok.


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## mudguts (Dec 10, 2007)

The utility I work for taught us to free climb.(hands and hooks) After 94 reported falls over a 15 year period and a company/lawyer think tank in Frisco, it was determined to be an unsafe practice. Now, not only do we have to belt climb, we must be belted around the pole 100% of the time.


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## turnkey4099 (Dec 11, 2007)

Curious here as I have no iron in this fire.

Ignoring the safety aspect, what is the advantage to free climbing? There must be something.

Harry K


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## Tree Machine (Dec 11, 2007)

I can't imagine an advantage other than saving a few seconds at the base of the pole.
I've climbed dozens of poles, but not hundreds. I will free climb and tie in at the top only if the pole has step irons, solid hand and footholds. As far as a pole-pole, I can't conceive a reason for not using a buckstrap from the ground, up.

Heal patiently, Ripple. Like any good accident, it was preventable. Thank you for sharing.


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## mudguts (Dec 11, 2007)

turnkey4099 said:


> Curious here as I have no iron in this fire.
> 
> Ignoring the safety aspect, what is the advantage to free climbing? There must be something.
> 
> Harry K


I thought free climbing was safer because you always have your hands around the pole. If you cut out, you can hug the pole while burning it, whilst trying to cut back in. The belt climbing they teach now, your hands are holding your belt and it's harder to get your hooks back in. This is just an oppinnion I share with some of the other lineman I work with. We hav'nt had any falls in months, so it must be working  

Sorry if I ventured off topic from the original post ripplerider, I hope you have a full recovery sooner than expected


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## John Paul Sanborn (Dec 12, 2007)

mudguts said:


> The belt climbing they teach now, your hands are holding your belt and it's harder to get your hooks back in.



I learned gaffing as a radio operator in the USMC, we had to buck strap up and down, though they taught "combat dismounts" that I would never try as a 42 y/o.


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## outonalimbts (Jan 6, 2008)

*No buckstrap or lanyard, CRAZY!*

I have been climbing all of my life, when I was a kid, I would scale any tree without any equipment... 

Since I was trained to climb poles in the army, I haven't ever climbed without some sort of attachement! I can't imagine that any responsible company would have a rule that minimizes the safety of personnel... That said, I personally wouldn't climb any higher then I mind falling uncontrolled from with out a safety. Worst that will happen if I kick out will be that I will get some splinters and knocked out as my face- slams into the spar at 9.8metres per second, I may even slide quickly until my safety binds...

Of course, this has occasionally occurred when on a spar at an angle of more then 15 degrees, if I have lost my footing and flipped to the back side, I have done the "slide for life" many times, it is a better wake-up then any Starbucks coffee  

You must always be able to make your own choices when it comes to safety no matter what your training dictates! I used to tell my squad in the army, "nothing is worth getting hurt over, you may die for a good cause, but injury can last a lifetime".

Be good and always be careful, we work in the #1 most dangerous profession in the world!

Adam:greenchainsaw:


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## Nailsbeats (Jan 6, 2008)

coydog said:


> The linemen in Seattle are taught to climb without a safety (until in position).



I will second that. In lineman school this is what we were taught. Right or wrong this is how we were taught to climb trees as well. Free climb to the top, tie in lifeline and go to work. Only on trees you can get your arms around of course. 

The advantage to free climbing is speed. You can go around limbs much faster. I feel much more in control when I am free climbing. It is no doubt more dangerous and requires ideal conditions.


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## Mitchell (Jan 18, 2008)

*short falls*



treesquirrel said:


> Please do not misunderstand me. I am very concerned about any policy which would promote a risky SOP disregarding safety issues. That 10 foot fall could have been fatal if you had landed squarely on your head.
> 
> My personal and company policy is to be tied in ALWAYS. No exceptions.



Being unsecured 10 to 15 feet up may not seem to death defying, hower falls from that hieght can be worse then higher falls. It just about the right height to rotate and land on your head.


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## Highclimber OR (Jan 18, 2008)

over the years I have seen a couple tree guys climb without a belt and lanyard. Mostly skinny alders and stuff like that. I thought to myself "never", at which point my dad(40 year climber) said "see there Joe? That's real stupidity hard at work". He then reiterated that a rope or lanyard at all times is the only way to ensure safety. In my 13th year climbing I must say that advice has served me well.


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## Slamm (Jan 31, 2008)

Wow, 5 or more years ago I owned a company that wrecked out older analogy cable lines, and we never used the lanyard until we were in position. We climbed 40 poles or more a day for weeks and months. I'm not saying it is safe, but I wouldn't know how to climb a pole with a strap, LOL, we just never did it.

Most of us got to the point were we would/could run or jog from one pole to the next and never break stride and "run" right up the pole to change traps or drop the old line.

Except for a few out of shape company lineman, I don't think I have ever witnessed a lineman climb a pole with the strap.

Interesting,

Sam


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## oldirty (Jan 31, 2008)

Slamm said:


> Wow, 5 or more years ago I owned a company that wrecked out older analogy cable lines, and we never used the lanyard until we were in position. We climbed 40 poles or more a day for weeks and months. I'm not saying it is safe, but I wouldn't know how to climb a pole with a strap, LOL, we just never did it.
> 
> Most of us got to the point were we would/could run or jog from one pole to the next and never break stride and "run" right up the pole to change traps or drop the old line.
> 
> ...



not for nothing but i dont think that climbing a pole has a damn thing to do with tree work or climbing a tree for that matter.

other than going up and down there is almost no other similarity.

personally though if i were to be climbing a telephone pole i would still want to be tied in one way or the other. thats just me though


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## tree md (Jan 31, 2008)

Not gonna say I have never free climbed because it would be a lie. It used to be standard practice for me to climb the spar and get into the first major fork without tieing in. Indeed, I have been known to climb to the top before tieing in when I was young. I stopped that practice in my mid 20's when a friend of mine fell 10' while climbing a spar without his lanyard and was paralyzed at 22 years old.


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## ropensaddle (Jan 31, 2008)

mudguts said:


> I thought free climbing was safer because you always have your hands around the pole. If you cut out, you can hug the pole while burning it, whilst trying to cut back in. The belt climbing they teach now, your hands are holding your belt and it's harder to get your hooks back in. This is just an oppinnion I share with some of the other lineman I work with. We hav'nt had any falls in months, so it must be working
> 
> Sorry if I ventured off topic from the original post ripplerider, I hope you have a full recovery sooner than expected



I would rather fall than hug a pole while burning it, splinters with
wolmanizing suck and infect. I would use a strap and would not care
who thought it chicken, better a live chicken than a dead duck!


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## Kneejerk Bombas (Feb 6, 2008)

I don't climb a lot of poles, but when I do I take an extra wrap on the pole with my lanyard. Poles are smooth and if you gaff out, you just slide down the pole.
I worked with a guy who saw me do this and he was amazed. See, he came from a cable TV installation background and never saw an extra wrap taken on a lanyard, but he did see a lot of injuries from guys sliding down poles.
Most of these guys are self taught, monkey see, monkey do.


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