Had a close one this Sat.

[JNGWC&Tree]

Got a call around 5:00 pm Saturday to do an emergency removal on a Ailanthus Altisimma with 2 codominant ascending leaders 12 inches each next to a house and fence. The client had cut 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through the lead closest to the house with a chainsaw and broke the chain. There was no face cut and the client had cut from the wrongside of the natural lean destroying any possible hinge wood in the process. The remaining wood was on the house side of the leader. The leaders forked about 5 feet from ground level with everything below being a solid trunk about 20 inches in diameter.

Everything was going well:

A. Gaffed the second lead after wedging the kerf of the client cut one and carefully limbed the client cut leader removing a lot of weight/tension off of the remaining wood.

B. Secured the client cut lead 2/3 up with a ratchet strap and blew the top reducing the remaining lean and leaving me a nearly vertical spar.

Here's where it went wrong. I had set a climb line around a good crotch in a second A. Altissima next to the one I was working. I was using it and gaffs/flip line together, but had also used it to descend and ascend to fix a tangle and in nearly all my work positioning. I tied a correct Blakes Hitch, tested it, and used it working in the tree. I had gotten vain glorious I suppose, seeing the work done, and went to head back to the ground and finish the work. All was going well until approx. 40ft AGL. My BH failed and I did a free fall into the client's fence.

Very close inspection of the BH immediately after showed no deviation from my on site Tree Climbers Companion diagram. I also could not duplicate the malfunction once on the ground (this is with the original failed hitch, not a newly tied one). I have been using the Blakes only a couple of months but I can not figure a good technical reason for the failure, especially having used it throughout the work, and before anyone says it I did not freeze up and just do a grab and hold zip down the tree, the hitch failed. The hitch was set correctly when work began and the rope is clean Yale 1/2 inch 12 strand.

Any ideas? Until then back to the old Taut Line Hitch. I switched to the Blakes for the smoothness with a micro-pully.

I'm fine by the way, the fence I shattered hit right on my spur pads. I'm pretty sure that combined with the steel shaft of the spurs saved me broken bones. I just have some nasty bruising and a lost Sunday afternoon doing fence repair. The rest of the job was smooth sailing.

 

[The Lawn Shark]

Did you loosen the B-hitch any for ease of movement prior to decending?
I've never heard of a B-hitch failure, not saying it did'nt happen. Just first time hearing of a failure with no signs of why ie:stick jammed in hitch,loosened and then not set again,burnt hitch,ect,ect,ect.

Glad your ok.

 

[JNGWC&Tree]

No, set it in the beginning and did not loosen it. I would completely attribute it to my mistake if I could have found some scorthing/melt on the line, pinpointed an error in tieing/setting the hitch during the immediate post fall inspection, or located some debris. Having tied and tested the hitch, and then having used it during the work, I just don't have an explanation.

I just don't get it.

Agreed, I have never heard of the BH failing as such either. This was completely unexpected and made for a surreal slow motion experience.

 

[moss]

Agreed, I have never heard of the BH failing as such either. This was completely unexpected and made for a surreal slow motion experience.

When you were descending on the Blake's did you have one hand belaying the tail of the rope below the hitch? If you did you would be able to catch yourself even if the Blake's didn't hold.

I'm going out on a limb and saying that you didn't have a hand on the tail of the rope, and something (could have been some part of your gear/harness etc.) hung on your hitch and prevented it from setting.

I've had a friendly argument with an arborist friend who says he never puts one hand on the tail of the rope when he's descending on a hitch. Interestingly he's climbed Tautline for 30 years and just recently started climbing on a Blake's. I wonder if some of what you do on a Tautline doesn't work for a Blake's.

It's possible to descend on a Blakes without belaying the tail but it's kind of sketchy. With a hand on the tail you can take some friction off the Blake's, behaves much better. With an eye-2-eye split tail it's easier to to descend with hand on the hitch only, but for long descents you still want to belay the tail
-moss

 

[JNGWC&Tree]

Moss-
Interesting comments. You are correct about the tail, I did not have a hand on it. With the Taut Line I've never done this and neither has the 30 year veteran climber that taught me the trade. But I think I will start as this is just a good practice. I am blessed to have walked away with simply a life lesson on pride and descending on a Blakes. I am not done with the Blakes, but I am going to have to play with it low and slow some more before I go back into full time use of it.

 

[tree MDS]

Moss-
Interesting comments. You are correct about the tail, I did not have a hand on it. With the Taut Line I've never done this and neither has the 30 year veteran climber that taught me the trade. But I think I will start as this is just a good practice. I am blessed to have walked away with simply a life lesson on pride and descending on a Blakes. I am not done with the Blakes, but I am going to have to play with it low and slow some more before I go back into full time use of it.

I never took to the blakes (only tried it a bit though).

I went from using the taughtline forever, right to vt finally a couple years back (aka suicide knot). I havent tried it yet, but I seem to hear the distel is a better/safer alternative.

 

[moss]

Moss-
Interesting comments. You are correct about the tail, I did not have a hand on it. With the Taut Line I've never done this and neither has the 30 year veteran climber that taught me the trade. But I think I will start as this is just a good practice. I am blessed to have walked away with simply a life lesson on pride and descending on a Blakes. I am not done with the Blakes, but I am going to have to play with it low and slow some more before I go back into full time use of it.

Definitely, glad everything worked out. My friend hates the Blake's, can't tie it with one hand like he can a Tautline Since you're climbing on a 12-strand Tautline might perform better anyway. If you try a Blake's on a 16-strand you'll find it performing much better.
-moss

 

[treemandan]

I keep a long tail so I have a bigger target to frantically grab at in these odd situations. I still use the old taughtline mostly, no pulley, no frills. Don't get me wrong, if I can see that using the VT with the Hitch Climber will be more beneficial I will.
And Hell! They talk about banning guns!? What about those chainsaws? What a mess you walked into.

 

[tree MDS]

The vt and hitch climber do help to enhance the "cat like prowess" effect dano. Have you tried it yet?

 

[mic687]

I use a Blakes all the time and they will get slippy from time to time. I always test the knot before decending and use my figure 8 for long decents. I do not like pulling on the hitch without holding the tail and only do this when limb walking requires it, and I always have my hand on a branch before I slack the line. I find redressing the knot from time to time works well and it is a good hitch when cared for properly.

 

[moss]

Just pointing out that you guys are not talking about the same thing when you use the word "tail" and maybe a little confusion is creeping into this thread. Pun intended.

Yep, duly noted, I'm talking about the tail of the climbing rope below the hitch, not a split tail.
-moss

 

[Blakesmaster]

I always hold the rope below the hitch with the hand I'm not working the hitch with. It gives peace of mind if you know what I mean and I know you do.

But that's the hand the running chainsaw is supposed to be in. lol

 

[Blakesmaster]

I had gotten vain glorious I suppose, seeing the work done, and went to head back to the ground and finish the work. All was going well until approx. 40ft AGL. My BH failed and I did a free fall into the client's fence.
.

Don't mean to get too light-hearted here though. I'm glad you're okay. This is the part I wonder about. You said you used your BH to descend, work and ascend so it most likely was correctly tied. After you decided your work was done and went for the ground did you once again make sure your hitch was set by putting all your weight on it while still tied in with flipline or did you just bail onto it willy nilly like I've been known to do from time to time?

 

[freeweight]

i was taught the taut line ,but after seeing the BH i had to try it and found i like the 5/3 better than4/2 ,now on descent i find when i stop i slide an extra 3-4in so i tried the 6/4 and always put weight on it before taking safty lanyard off

and it is tied right ,im using "true blue" rope at the moment,what am i doing wrong here