# Uncontrolled pendulum swing



## Dave1960_Gorge (Mar 18, 2021)

I have had a few dents from tree work in the last 12 years: cracked knee cartilage, rotator cuff damage, pruning hook hanging from my forearm — but I went for a ride just last Thursday that put me in the hospital till Tuesday.

ANSI Z133, 8.1.25: “The tie- in position shall be well above the work area so that the arborist shall not be affected by an uncontrolled pendulum swing in the event if a slip”.

Now, if you are doing a pruning or removal of a hardwood with a low wide crown, you have to address the unavoidable, which I though I was doing, right up until I snacked I to the trunk.

Ash, around 40 by 50 ft, actually had pruned it about 5 years earlier. Had poor firm after regrowing from ice storm damage. This time the homeowner wanted it way down, because they were eventually going to remove it but not just yet. So it was basically a removal but leaving about 15 ft of trunk and some low branches.

Moving right along, I was down to three spars, one with a pulley and load line and two with climbing ropes, each hitched to a ZigZag. Limb walked out the big low limb cutting branches; plan was to rig down the last three and then chunk it on the way back. My two ropes gave me nice stability: I could walk out, jabbing a spur here and there, working both ZigZags with one hand and flipping my wire core lanyard around the mostly vertical branches as I went. 

Last branch: this time my lanyard was looped on a stub... you see where this is going. The second I pushed over the 30 ft branch, I fell back and seemingly at the same time felt my helmet smack into the main trunk 15 ft away. 

I lowered myself another 6 ft to the ground, and decided to call it a day due to the bell ringing and my left leg feeling funny. 

Long story short, I drove myself to the ER 3 1/2 hours later with my leg out the window resting on the rear view mirror because it wouldn’t bend, and was as hard as wood.
On the mend now, after 3 operations; 6-8 weeks and I might be climbing. Compartment Syndrome is no bueno; if more time has gone by before surgery, could have lost my leg.

If only I had choked the limb instead of looping the stub, I wouldn’t be trying to run my business from bed with my leg up.
Because I was paying into Workman’s Comp (as the owner of my LLC) state OSHA is involved. Guess I’ll see what happens.

looks better now.


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## farmguywithasaw (Mar 19, 2021)

Dave1960_Gorge said:


> I have had a few dents from tree work in the last 12 years: cracked knee cartilage, rotator cuff damage, pruning hook hanging from my forearm — but I went for a ride just last Thursday that put me in the hospital till Tuesday.
> 
> ANSI Z133, 8.1.25: “The tie- in position shall be well above the work area so that the arborist shall not be affected by an uncontrolled pendulum swing in the event if a slip”.
> 
> ...


Holy ****


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## Dave1960_Gorge (Mar 19, 2021)

farmguywithasaw said:


> Holy ****


Indeed.

Got another call from OR OSHA:
they are asking that I write up an accident report ; I take that as a good sign. Rules are less strict for small companies with a few employees. Not saying I did not put effort into safety and training, but larger companies need to keep proper written records of all of it.

I have concluded that I need to put more effort into encouraging groundies to recognize practices that are “ pushing the envelope” and tell me. I actually had mentioned that to him, with the example of my life line in a top I am about to cut. 

This particular guy was a new guy and first day on the job ( just the two of us). He actually asked later: “Did you mean to do that?”

So a ways to go with him! He did hump that brush like mad, so part way there.


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## mike515 (Mar 22, 2021)

Maybe I'm not reading something correctly but it sounds like YOU need to put more effort into yourself recognizing practices that are "pushing the envelope". Are you saying that you expect ground guys to tell you when you're doing your job incorrectly? Don't get me wrong....safety is everyone's responsibility but you are responsible for your job site and everything that happens out there....no matter who does it or how small of an action it is. It's you who failed. I don't want to sound like a **** but I am a **** about safety because I'm trying to save peoples lives. I am just like this with my guys because it matters. You control everything on your job site....or you don't. This never should have happened. I hope you don't get a big fine for it.


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## Dave1960_Gorge (Mar 23, 2021)

Appreciate the comment. I spent the last two weeks beating myself up over what happened. I was angry. Pissed.
But then you accept it and it’s not likely I will screw up again, at least in the same way.

I have told my crew that we all are responsible for safety. It is just a way of thinking, and if something is off, anyone can stop the show at any time. No assumptions that the more skilled guys _always _know what they are doing.

I have been climbing seriously for 12 years. Only serious injury (knock on wood). That does not mean there haven’t been close calls known and unknown.
Yes, responsibility is ultimately mine, but I wasn’t thinking about how it would feel to have 49 staples in my leg for two weeks when I screwed up. I didn’t think about that at all — and that was the problem.

I just put the story up because I thought other climbers might stop and think for a second about their practices . PNW ISA wants me to write a piece and I will. 

Don’t give a rip if someone out there feels “superior” to me because they would never do something that stupid. And that was just the attitude that could have killed me, if a smidge here or there had been different—-or stopped the thing from happening.

Peace


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## mike515 (Mar 23, 2021)

Dave1960_Gorge said:


> Appreciate the comment. I spent the last two weeks beating myself up over what happened. I was angry. Pissed.
> But then you accept it and it’s not likely I will screw up again, at least in the same way.
> 
> I have told my crew that we all are responsible for safety. It is just a way of thinking, and if something is off, anyone can stop the show at any time. No assumptions that the more skilled guys _always _know what they are doing.
> ...



It sounds like you learned something from this. I'm glad you are healing. I hope this never happens to you again.


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## Dave1960_Gorge (Mar 23, 2021)

Hope that happens. Safety has to be the number one consideration. But you are also thinking about the job plan, training the new guy, the clock, and how that next 30 ft branch is gonna lay down flat with its butt to the chipper like the last one. My two ropes and lanyard made me as stable as sitting in a desk chair. The ground was “only” about 16 ft down. Weather was perfect. I felt good. And yet...


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## mike515 (Mar 23, 2021)

Dave1960_Gorge said:


> Hope that happens. Safety has to be the number one consideration. But you are also thinking about the job plan, training the new guy, the clock, and how that next 30 ft branch is gonna lay down flat with its butt to the chipper like the last one. My two ropes and lanyard made me as stable as sitting in a desk chair. The ground was “only” about 16 ft down. Weather was perfect. I felt good. And yet...


You're right. That is some of the stuff you're thinking about. But all of that is your job. The situation doesn't really matter to me. I never think about the clock. If you blow it on the bid....you just maybe blow it.....but you need to be thinking about what is in front of your face right now.


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## Dave1960_Gorge (Mar 23, 2021)

Hope that happens. Safety has to be the number one consideration. But you are also thinking about the job plan, training the new guy, the clock, and how that next 30 ft branch is gonna lay down flat with its butt to the chipper like the last one. My two ropes and lanyard made me as stable as sitting in a desk chair. The ground was “only” about 16 ft down. Weather was perfect. I felt good. And yet...


mike515 said:


> You're right. That is some of the stuff you're thinking about. But all of that is your job. The situation doesn't really matter to me. I never think about the clock. If you blow it on the bid....you just maybe blow it.....but you need to be thinking about what is in front of your face right now.


you hit it on the nose.
Paying attention to what is in front of your face is key. Literally , thinking about what is right around you and staying in the moment is how I improved my skills over time and stayed in one piece.

That is why it is maddening to me that I continued my approach on that limb as I worked farther and farther out from under my tie- ins without changing the fall protection system to adapt, given the height of the tie- ins.

I was trying to fill in reasons for why I did that. None of the ones I listed are valid reasons. I really can’t recall what I was thinking, but I can assume it wasn’t considering those two variables at the time as determinative of my next action. Somehow that had become disconnected.

It’s like the punchline you give to a joke about someone’s bad decision that ended up biting them on the butt: “I didn’t know that would happen”, when it is obvious to a reasonable person that it could, with a high probability. 

It’s funny when it has a minor consequence, and YouTube is full of clips of people juggling their phone over a railing ( and dropping it), jumping over a low obstacle ( and tripping), firing a gun with a loose grip ( and getting a black eye. So I have joined the club. Those people didn’t want those outcomes, but they got bitten.

I suppose it is worse for me, because I knew better and the possible consequence was worse.

Need to go plug in my portable negative pressure machine to recharge it—- the warning beep is probably what woke me up. I get to walk around with it hanging from my neck for another week until the staples come out. Tubing goes from what is essentially a little aquarium pump, that is working in reverse to keep the dressing sucked down over the 24 in incision, down my pants. It helps to keep the wound closed and bacteria out; in the hospital, the tube was inside the wound, and helped drain it. And you don’t get to wear pants there. I got to watch my “precious bodily fluids” fill a reservoir for days.

Just putting this out there ( along with the pic a while back of the open wound draining ) to bring home to whomever reads this what the consequence may be for a climber ignoring what is vitally important.


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## mike515 (Mar 24, 2021)

Dave1960_Gorge said:


> Hope that happens. Safety has to be the number one consideration. But you are also thinking about the job plan, training the new guy, the clock, and how that next 30 ft branch is gonna lay down flat with its butt to the chipper like the last one. My two ropes and lanyard made me as stable as sitting in a desk chair. The ground was “only” about 16 ft down. Weather was perfect. I felt good. And yet...
> 
> you hit it on the nose.
> Paying attention to what is in front of your face is key. Literally , thinking about what is right around you and staying in the moment is how I improved my skills over time and stayed in one piece.
> ...


I hope you get back to 100% and keep kicking some ass. I will say that I have done this job for a long time and when I'm training people, I tell them that the most important thing is to be able to predict what will happen next. We don't have to compare who is better at doing this or that. The last thing that you misjudged in front of you is what is going to kill you or gravely injure you. One of my sons told me a week or two ago that he couldn't believe I'm still alive. I'm kind of the older guy now who does all of our most dangerous stuff on any of our crews. There is no secret. I'm not that much better than anyone. I'm just very good at predicting what will happen because of experience.


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## Dave1960_Gorge (Mar 25, 2021)

Thanks for the thoughtful reply Mike. 
Just sent my report to OR OSHA. May the gods in Salem have pity on me!

Writing the report forced me to do some analysis of my actions and comparing them to the ANSI Z133 standard (I figured that was a good idea anyway). The instructions were to describe the accident, and how it could be prevented in the future. If I had moved a false crotch along that limb with a third climbing line as fall protection I would have been good. 

My positioning lanyard was in effect being used as that once I was out from under my two climbing lines on the spars— and there were TWO MORE things wrong with that. 

Every time I moved, I had no tie in while I was clipping and clipping my lanyard. Then, at the end, I was at or above the rigging point of the spar (the stub), with my lanyard ( fall protection system) just draped behind it. 

I am still amazed I was being so unsafe. And I felt really stabile out on that limb.


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## Dave1960_Gorge (Mar 27, 2021)

Don't mean to flog this to thread to death, but I was able to get out to the site and take some pics and measurements yesterday -- mainly because I could bend my left leg now to 90 degrees and get it into the Jeep (pretty small cabin in that old Cherokee for a 6 ft. 3 guy). Not ready to work the stiff clutch n my 79 F-350 dump just yet.

The pic shows the scene pretty well. I tied flagging on to 8 ft. sticks at 1 ft. intervals; its being held where I was standing, and you can see the two stubs at the end of the limb; the longer one was the last branch I cut, and the _shorter _one was the one I had my lanyard looped on. Given I was about 2 ft. away from the short stub, my lanyard was at a slightly downward angle or it wouldn't have been on the one foot stub at all. 

My feet were at just over 14 ft. off the ground, and 16 ft. below the two spars which were at 29 and 30 ft. off the ground (measured those with a laser range finder). Horizontal distance to the center of the 20 in. trunk was 10. 5 ft., and 11.5 ft. to the spars. The south spar (30 ft. tall) was 4 ft. from the center of the tree, and the west 1 ft., but after doing the math, they were essentially the same distance away. You can see the rigging spar with a sling and pulley on it.

Given that I was tied in at about 3 ft. above my boots (at 17 ft.), my center of mass was 13 ft. below the taller 30 ft. spar 11.5 ft. away. I ended up with my head a little below the limb fork (9.5 ft. off the ground)-- first thing I remembered after the fall was looking at my ropes looping up and over the limb; this put my feet about 3 1/2 ft. off the ground, and my waist 6 1/2, for a vertical drop of about 10.5 ft. The swing was interrupted by the trunk a at 9.5 ft. from my starting point, 2 ft. short of the bottom of the pendulum swung, so I was at near maximum velocity. Leaving it up to my cousin to calculate the foot pounds or whatever and what the force was exerted on my thigh as I decelerated in the space of a few inches. Like they say, its not the height of the drop, its hitting the ground that gets you. In this case, I doubt the ash moved at all; might as well have been a brick wall. 

So, question: 

At what point would you guys have rigged a false crotch as you advanced out on the limb? 
That was my idea for discussing prevention in my self report to OR OSHA. 


And, do you think you would have done this (or have done it) in the past?


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## Superfuture88 (Mar 27, 2021)

Dave1960_Gorge said:


> Appreciate the comment. I spent the last two weeks beating myself up over what happened. I was angry. Pissed.
> But then you accept it and it’s not likely I will screw up again, at least in the same way.
> 
> I have told my crew that we all are responsible for safety. It is just a way of thinking, and if something is off, anyone can stop the show at any time. No assumptions that the more skilled guys _always _know what they are doing.
> ...


I'm glad you posted. I learned from your mistake. Not easy to own up and be honest about what happened and your part in it.


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## Dave1960_Gorge (Mar 27, 2021)

Superfuture88 said:


> I'm glad you posted. I learned from your mistake. Not easy to own up and be honest about what happened and your part in it.


Thx!


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## old CB (Mar 27, 2021)

Dave1960_Gorge said:


> you are also thinking about the job plan, training the new guy, the clock, and how that next 30 ft branch is gonna lay down flat with its butt to the chipper


There's your mistake right there. Sorry to pile it on, but when you're operating in the tree, your life hanging on a rope and you have a saw in your hand, every other thing on earth needs to be put out of mind, secondary to your immediate situation. With every move on the limb & every cut you anticipate, you need to KNOW: if I do this, what will be the reaction--of the saw, the rope, your body in its new location, etc.

Glad to hear you'll be okay.


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## mike515 (Mar 28, 2021)

Dave1960_Gorge said:


> Don't mean to flog this to thread to death, but I was able to get out to the site and take some pics and measurements yesterday -- mainly because I could bend my left leg now to 90 degrees and get it into the Jeep (pretty small cabin in that old Cherokee for a 6 ft. 3 guy). Not ready to work the stiff clutch n my 79 F-350 dump just yet.
> 
> The pic shows the scene pretty well. I tied flagging on to 8 ft. sticks at 1 ft. intervals; its being held where I was standing, and you can see the two stubs at the end of the limb; the longer one was the last branch I cut, and the _shorter _one was the one I had my lanyard looped on. Given I was about 2 ft. away from the short stub, my lanyard was at a slightly downward angle or it wouldn't have been on the one foot stub at all.
> 
> ...



I understand that you are trying to give as accurate of a description as you can but the answer to your question doesn't really rest with all these measurements and calculations. There are a number of things you could have done differently. Having 2 ropes or 10 ropes doesn't matter if none of them save your life. Just looking at that pic.....you should have removed that limb much earlier in the climb while you still probably had some better options above you. But having your scare strap in the proper place would have saved you....even if you didn't have a rope at all. Don't over-think your mistake with a bunch of math. You just need to be tied-in safely and plan your climb a little better so you don't create this kind of a situation.


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## Dave1960_Gorge (Mar 28, 2021)

mike515 said:


> I understand that you are trying to give as accurate of a description as you can but the answer to your question doesn't really rest with all these measurements and calculations. There are a number of things you could have done differently. Having 2 ropes or 10 ropes doesn't matter if none of them save your life. Just looking at that pic.....you should have removed that limb much earlier in the climb while you still probably had some better options above you. But having your scare strap in the proper place would have saved you....even if you didn't have a rope at all. Don't over-think your mistake with a bunch of math. You just need to be tied-in safely and plan your climb a little better so you don't create this kind of a situation.


No disagreement with your take on it. If the climber sees that a bad swing or fall is possible, they have to fix that by changing the tie-in arrangement. A false crotch where I was working would have been a good choice .

There wasn’t a good tie-in point above the limb except for the spars, so I planned to do the rest of the tree first, take apart the low limb, then chunk the spars off to the side.

My plan from the beginning should have included changing the support system once I was out on the limb a ways. Or I should have recognized the problem later on and fixed it then. 

Coulda shoulda woulda


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## Dave1960_Gorge (Mar 28, 2021)

Superfuture88 said:


> I'm glad you posted. I learned from your mistake. Not easy to own up and be honest about what happened and your part in it.


Thx! Not fun turning away work and putting off jobs I already have. Found a contract climber but he only has two days a week. I draw from three ground guys but they only have a few days a week . I was used to trading off climbing and ground work with my regular climber but he works for other outfits now.

still better off than the alternative


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## Walkdog (Mar 28, 2021)

I made the very same mistake two years ago, at 40-50ft up, and twice as far out a limb - chose an unsafe branch stub to tie into, rather than getting the lanyard under the main limb I was reducing, and the dynamic movement of taking the tip popped my lanyard off and sent me swinging all the way back to the trunk, 200t flailing in one hand. Got away with only a scrape on the elbow, but it could have been so much worse.

I strongly second Old CB’s comment about staying “in the zone” while in the tree. There is absolutely no room to be elsewhere mentally. It’s one of my favorite things about climbing, actually - it forces me to let everything else go. Time compresses on itself, there is no past, just the present. The future extends only as far as the next few chess moves in my pre planned match against the tree.

Also, a polesaw is your friend in these situations. In this particular case, with a small limb so close to the ground, you could have easily flung a running bowline around it towards the tip, and safely removed the branch from the ground, saving yourself the limb walk altogether...


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## Walkdog (Mar 29, 2021)

A couple more thoughts about safety:

After my uncontrolled pendulum experience, I quickly switched to incorporating a simple lowering/rescue redundancy into my primary basal anchor, whenever possible. Petzl Rig makes it pretty idiot proof, but a little portawrap or even a friction hitch can work just fine. Never have had to use it, and hope I never do, but the thought of dangling broken and unconscious from a rope, unable to get myself down to medical assistance is terrifying enough to hedge against.

I’ve also become a bit obsessive about cleaning up any and all sharp branch stubs in my vicinity before removing any dynamic pieces. As I regained my composure in the moments after my big swing, the good luck for which I found myself most profoundly grateful was having missed a spear-like broken branch less than a meter from my point of impact with the trunk. Would have skewered me like a grotesque human shrimp.


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## Dave1960_Gorge (Mar 29, 2021)

O


Walkdog said:


> I made the very same mistake two years ago, at 40-50ft up, and twice as far out a limb - chose an unsafe branch stub to tie into, rather than getting the lanyard under the main limb I was reducing, and the dynamic movement of taking the tip popped my lanyard off and sent me swinging all the way back to the trunk, 200t flailing in one hand. Got away with only a scrape on the elbow, but it could have been so much worse.
> 
> I strongly second Old CB’s comment about staying “in the zone” while in the tree. There is absolutely no room to be elsewhere mentally. It’s one of my favorite things about climbing, actually - it forces me to let everything else go. Time compresses on itself, there is no past, just the present. The future extends only as far as the next few chess moves in my pre planned match against the tree.
> 
> Also, a polesaw is your friend in these situations. In this particular case, with a small limb so close to the ground, you could have easily flung a running bowline around it towards the tip, and safely removed the branch from the ground, saving yourself the limb walk altogether...


Appreciate the comment. I was also training a new ground guy—- first day on the job for him. There was even some humor— once I was on the ground he asked if I meant to do that!


Walkdog said:


> A couple more thoughts about safety:
> 
> After my uncontrolled pendulum experience, I quickly switched to incorporating a simple lowering/rescue redundancy into my primary basal anchor, whenever possible. Petzl Rig makes it pretty idiot proof, but a little portawrap or even a friction hitch can work just fine. Never have had to use it, and hope I never do, but the thought of dangling broken and unconscious from a rope, unable to get myself down to medical assistance is terrifying enough to hedge against.
> 
> I’ve also become a bit obsessive about cleaning up any and all sharp branch stubs in my vicinity before removing any dynamic pieces. As I regained my composure in the moments after my big swing, the good luck for which I found myself most profoundly grateful was having missed a spear-like broken branch less than a meter from my point of impact with the trunk. Would have skewered me like a grotesque human shrimp.


I am now considering incorporating a rescue component as well. In the last 18 months, I have not had another climber on my crew. Don’t remember the exact name for the system, but there is one that is tied into the single line at the ground and if you get in trouble, the single live is cut and you are lowered to the ground with rope from a rescue bag.
I also remember a system with which the single line is set up through a pulley and tied off (with a prusik and biner?) so that you can release the single line under tension and lower the climber.

Of course, these set ups only work if the climber is on the single line and has a clear path to the ground.
I am with you in removing stubs! Especially on ponderosa pine; I use a hand saw and cut all these petrified little rippers off anywhere nearby .


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## Walkdog (Mar 29, 2021)

I’ve used all three techniques shown in this video:


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## pdqdl (Mar 30, 2021)

I have a much simpler method of ground anchor, and it is more reliable than any of those.

Put a bunch of wraps around the tree trunk, at least 4. Tie the tail off to the standing end with two half hitches or whatever knot you like best.
At that point, the wraps on the tree alone are holding all the friction, and the tie-off is just insurance against any creeping. Any groundie can untie the simple holding knot, and then begin unwinding the wraps until the climbers weight manages to overcome the friction and he can easily be easily and controlably lowered using the entire tree as the port-a-wrap.

I know lots of old timers remember using wraps on a tree to provide the necessary friction for lowering large branches, long before the introduction of porta-wrap or other friction devices. The only drawbacks were that "wrapping the tree" was far too slow to use repeatedly during a large takedown, and really heavy loads could scar the trunk. Not good for the tree.
My anchor method is fundamentally the same, but a climber will never be heavy enough to rope-burn a tree and no amount of groundie panic/stupidity can cause the climber to fall uncontrollably except for perhap cutting the anchor rope with a chainsaw.

I am particularly not fond of the last method in the video, as it is pretty pointless to rely on a groundie reliably using a prussic for final control of lowering an injured climber when he must untie a porta-wrap before the prussic can be used. Too many safeties are likely to lead to confusion and accidents, and a porta-wrap is a far better friction device to lower a load than a prussic loop.


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## Dave1960_Gorge (Mar 30, 2021)

The method you describe would work, but I would be willing to bet ANSI would require some sort of hands free fail safe to stop the rope, like a prussik or Petzl slack tender.


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## pdqdl (Mar 30, 2021)

Sometimes I don't even tie it off. I just toss the rope on the ground, 'cause it isn't going to creep with that many wraps.

In the final analysis, all friction/belay devices are the last thing holding the loaded rope. If the belay point fails at the final grip on the rope, the climber falls. With my method, there is no fail point anywhere except the rope itself.


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## Dave1960_Gorge (Mar 31, 2021)

pdqdl said:


> Sometimes I don't even tie it off. I just toss the rope on the ground, 'cause it isn't going to creep with that many wraps.
> 
> In the final analysis, all friction/belay devices are the last thing holding the loaded rope. If the belay point fails at the final grip on the rope, the climber falls. With my method, there is no fail point anywhere except the rope itself.


I suppose you could tie a clove hitch after the last wrap; could probably untie that if need be.

I also started out townhouse clove hitches before I switched to the cow hitch with a steel biner at the end. Lost a big chunk of locust out of a loose clove hitch once, and I was sure I broke the concrete driveway. Must have been poured right; didn’t crack.


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## pdqdl (Mar 31, 2021)

I seldom use clove hitch except to send stuff up a rope to the climber. Same for cow hitch. When you have 4+ wraps on a tree, the closure knot becomes almost irrelevant, as the friction alone prevents any rope movement. 

How to lower logs by rope while wrapping around a tree used to be the big talent of a good groundie many years ago. They would know how many wraps were needed on a tree so as to allow some slippage, yet maintain control. Different trees had different holding capacity, some were slick, some were the opposite. Unskilled groundies put too many wraps on, and then yanked the falling log to a snapped stop. Really unqualified groundies lost control and crashed the log into whatever was below, sometimes being yanked off their feet or going for a ride on account of having tied themselves in to the rising line.

The same is true for today, only that skill is limited to a faster-to-use, and more predictable port-a-wrap. I'm sure that many folks on this site still don't use them, but they might yet learn what they are missing out on.


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## pdqdl (Mar 31, 2021)

Dave1960_Gorge said:


> I suppose you could tie a clove hitch after the last wrap; could probably untie that if need be.
> 
> I also started out townhouse clove hitches before I switched to the cow hitch with a steel biner at the end. Lost a big chunk of locust out of a loose clove hitch once, and I was sure I broke the concrete driveway. Must have been poured right; didn’t crack.


 What is a townhouse clove hitch?


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## Dave1960_Gorge (Mar 31, 2021)

Tying

spellchecker !


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## rarefish383 (Jun 10, 2021)

pdqdl said:


> I have a much simpler method of ground anchor, and it is more reliable than any of those.
> 
> Put a bunch of wraps around the tree trunk, at least 4. Tie the tail off to the standing end with two half hitches or whatever knot you like best.
> At that point, the wraps on the tree alone are holding all the friction, and the tie-off is just insurance against any creeping. Any groundie can untie the simple holding knot, and then begin unwinding the wraps until the climbers weight manages to overcome the friction and he can easily be easily and controlably lowered using the entire tree as the port-a-wrap.
> ...


I'm 65 and grew up with wraps on the trunk. That damn 3/4" bull line was a killer taking three wraps. I got a great climber to help me out on the occasional side job. When he pulled out the port-a-wrap, I started to fight it. He laughed and told me to just try it once. Once did it, I'm converted.


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## jsoukup (Jun 11, 2021)

How did you make out with OSHA? I remember reading a story a few months back, a farmer fell off his barn and died. Michigan OSHA basically fined his estate $12k. https://www.agdaily.com/insights/perspective-death-osha-fine-nature-modern-farming/


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