Break away lanyard?

[TheJollyLogger]

Welcome coltree. Imho, you make a very good point. Common sense always trumps slavish obedience to guidelines. ANSI and OSHA both have an unattainable goal in mind, to make tree work 100% safe. Never gonna happen. My personal viewpoint is to use their guidelines, but not as a replacement for common sense. Every tree, and every situation is different. I have broken every safety rule in the book, but always for the better good. At the end of the day, it's your ass on the end of the rope, and you have to make the call on the safest approach to a given situation.

Having said that, you'd better know the rules, and the reasoning behind those rules, before you start deciding a particular situation warrants breaking one or more of them.

Cheers, Jeff

 

[coltree]

Noted, Jeff. I'm almost always on my chainsaw lanyard. Thinking more explicitly about it, in sketchy situations I use a "breakaway" lanyard that is weaker than the climbing line going to my TIP (in the case when it is placed away from the wood of concern, e.g. another tree or another branch), so that when stressed it breaks before my climbing line breaks. In that sense, perhaps it is still a lifeline attachment point as defined by ANSI... I'm always wary of setting my steel-cabled chainsaw lanyard. My two biggest concerns are avoiding the circle of death, and the strength being potentially greater than climbing line... Love to hear others thoughts on similar issues with the stronger lanyards, and what is really meant by "breakaway" lanyard. It looks like there is a separate definition of breakaway depending on if it is being used for breakaway work positioning or breakaway life support. Maybe I'll start carrying a third lanyard, or make my hitch tender convertible...