# Another dead climber suffocated beneath Wash Fan Palm fronds.



## jomoco (Nov 26, 2014)

Too many rookie Palm climbers have met their fates unexpectedly climbing under Washingtonian robusta Palm frond bags. Probably killed more climbers than any other tree species in CA.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-tree-trimmer-killed-san-diego-20141125-story.html

My condolences to his friends, fellow crew members and family.

jomoco


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## I'llbearealclimberoneday (Nov 27, 2014)

Wondering if the guy was just spiking up with a flipline. There is a good video on how to set up what is basically an SRT anchor and climbing line, but sends it up with a pulley and DRT line attached. A dedicated price of 3 strand works well. I'll look for the vid, it may help some one who doesn't know.


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## imagineero (Dec 2, 2014)

It's a shame for sure. It's something I think about every time I do a Washingtonia since I've read about a few similar fatalities. We don't have all that many washingtonias, a lot of bangalow, cocos, Phoenix etc. The washingtonias are just awful to climb, people usually have them done from the ground by polesaw and they leave a lot of the boot on, then once they're too big to do from a polesaw on the ground they just leave 'em till they're huge with a lot of skirt :-(

I try and pull whatever I can off them with 2 or 3 8' Jameson poles with a hook on the end, which is quite a lot most times. From there you're in misery land trying to spike up the awful things, never being able to get a good set on the boots and having to recut them from the ground up basically. What a mess. I always take a line with me and choke it when I get up near the skirt figuring worst case scenario I could ease off my flip line and get out of there. 

While I haven't read detailed case reports it seems most of the fatalities occur when the guy is pinned backwards and is unable to ease his filippine off. I'm gonna guess they all had Gibbs or similar on their lines which can't be released under load. Having a device that can be released under load (prusik, cinch, art thingy or whatever the hell the petzl one is) gives you a bit more chance. Using a choked rope gives you a little further chance again, and using an all rope filippine always adds the potential of being able to cut it if you need to which is going to be a lot more difficult with a steel core.


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## I'llbearealclimberoneday (Dec 3, 2014)




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## MJ tree service (Dec 3, 2014)

Simular acidints happen here in Phoenix Arizona every year. Sad way to go, with a easy solution to the problem.


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## imagineero (Dec 3, 2014)

What's the easy solution?


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## MJ tree service (Dec 3, 2014)

The plan of attack is attack. So just hump up that palm get a good hold of the dead fronds and start tugging down on them,and when It breaks loose just slide down with it. Lol


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## jomoco (Dec 4, 2014)

For me as a punk teenager trimming them in 1973 it was extendable forty foot aluminum ladders.

But the ladders were used only briefly, allowing access to the green fronds of the head, where I used a chain as a lanyard.

Never even started the saw till I was chained around the head, and my brothers had retracted and removed the ladder.

Talk about one handing a chainsaw? Lord yes. Cuttin down spiraling with A Homelite dual triggered Super2 in one hand, while flipping the chain lanyard down with the other, nonstop to the ground, even with forty feet of skirt.

We even cheated by putting the ladder on top of the truckbox to gain an extra 10-12 feet. And yes I've rode loose wash fan bags down to the ground like a cowboy, yeehaw!

Did nothin but SoCal palms the whole first decade of my long career as an arborist, and they ain't even real trees!

But they can sure kill yu real quick if you let them!

jomoco


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## MJ tree service (Dec 4, 2014)

The way I learned to trim palms with a lot of dead is to shoot a line over the top and go up srt. I use a wire core lanyard and start with hand sawing the green fronds first to make a better tie in. I switch over to drt and start shaving the dead off.


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## sac-climber (Dec 6, 2014)

I'llbearealclimberoneday said:


>



Good luck lowering anything with all those wraps on that porty.


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## sac-climber (Dec 6, 2014)

imagineero said:


> What's the easy solution?


A spyder lift....


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## I'llbearealclimberoneday (Dec 6, 2014)

sac-climber said:


> Good luck lowering anything with all those wraps on that porty.



Pffft... 9 wraps is probably the magic number to lower a chipper 

Looks like they used a webbing sling for the base anchor, where most people would want something a little heavier. Not as good as a bucket, but better than just a flipline and spurs


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## MJ tree service (Dec 7, 2014)

What's trick when you hit a hornets nest


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## jomoco (Dec 7, 2014)

That's easy, yu point your saw's exhaust at em, rev it up a few times pointin right at em.

They get all dizzy n drop like flies!

But yu gotta be quicker n they are?

Taint easy, and depends on whether or not they actually live there?

Bee suits are in every pro's tooltruck, for when he gets old, feeble n slow.

jomoco


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## jomoco (Dec 7, 2014)

Since rainfall, humidity and bird populations, and bacteria n fungus, all play into the how, when and why these fatal wash fan frond bags'll slip down vertically, and crush the life out of the climber, unaware of their growth characteristics over that particular species' lifespan, here, in SoCal, where most of these tragedies occur.

Now my mentor and idol as a young teen climber in palms and hardwoods was Rich Magargal, a local climbing legend here in San Diego, recent recipient of the Bob Bichowsky Arborist Lifetime Achievent award, by The San Diego Professional Tree Care Association.

Just one of Magargal's areas of expertise is palms, date palms, fan palms, slicking dates, peeling fans, for decades, learning their anatomies, and particularly their growth characteristics over their lifespan, in SoCal.

The reason that info's so valuable to have and teach to others in the industry's?

Well it's because age and maturity of wash robusta's, that kill so many climbers here? Is the key indicator of a loose bag that's cocked n ready to slip vertically.

It's important to understand that when a wash fan's left alone by man? That same bag of fronds slips vertically, but only on fairly mature wash fans over the 35-40 plus feet point in their life. Younger trees with no asymmetrical variations in frond uniformity are quite dependably safe from any vertical slippage hazards.

The point I'm making rather clumsily here's that old pro's can recognize imminently dangerous wash fans about to slip, just by looking at their bag uniformity, combined with their age n height.

They stick out like sore dangerous thumbs, about to get hammered, to pros like Magargal, who's written and lectured at seminars, on this exact subject.

jomoco


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## jefflovstrom (Dec 7, 2014)

jomoco said:


> Since rainfall, humidity and bird populations, and bacteria n fungus, all play into the how, when and why these fatal wash fan frond bags'll slip down vertically, and crush the life out of the climber, unaware of their growth characteristics over that particular species' lifespan, here, in SoCal, where most of these tragedies occur.
> 
> Now my mentor and idol as a young teen climber in palms and hardwoods was Rich Magargal, a local climbing legend here in San Diego, recent recipient of the Bob Bichowsky Arborist Lifetime Achievent award, by The San Diego Professional Tree Care Association.
> 
> ...



At the same time, I can not even count how many full skirts I have done all over San Diego during the late 70's into the late 90's.
50-60 feet, the bugs, the vermin, the pigeon blood and etc,,,
We are smarter now.
Jeff


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## jomoco (Dec 7, 2014)

You talkin bout that red bar lubricant we used to use Jeff?

Stuff got all over everything!

I've got a picture of me beneath a big ole wash fan bag, upside down, having lifted the first few fronds of that bag, scaring a mother pigeon that flew at me, hit me right between the eyes, giving me a bleeding third eye, whereupon I did a backflip through my way too slack chain lanyard, upside down discombobulated n bleedin, before I regained my wits n composure, and took bloody vengeance on that skirted thang with my dual triggered Super 2.

Taken by the customer just giggling and laughin at my arboreal expertise!

jomoco


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## jomoco (Dec 7, 2014)

Here it is!




jomoco


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## Highclimber OR (Jan 23, 2015)

Thank God no palms here. I feel for you guys down there, reminds me of the bull palms from Australia. Nasty!


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## imagineero (Mar 13, 2015)

I've changed the way I'm doing washingtonias lately. Especially big ones. I'm firing a line over the crown and base tying it off then wraptoring up them. No matter if it's a trim up or a removal, you save yourself having to spur up there which means not having to retrim all the boots if they haven't been done properly, it also means you can stay outside of the skirt. You can SRT up just as effectively without a wraptor.


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## jayk (Jun 13, 2015)

That's horrific. Fortunately not many of these in the UK.


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## ropensaddle (Jun 13, 2015)

Total rookie here no palms here so a huge clump slides down unexpectedly? Is srt the antedote ? What is appealing to me about it from a marketing perspective is any high traffic areas must be maintained must be work galore there


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