It was a hell of a ride...

[Firewood]

Hi Lads, first of all thejollylogger, while I don't know you I'm glad your still here,

Homeowner here with a dangerous habit of collecting chainsaws lol

So my question if anyone can answer, can you not hit the trunk with the back of an axe prior to climbing to assess soundness of the wood? Or Hammer a big screwdriver into the trunk and depending on how easy/hard it's journey is, kinda make an assessment from that?

Or, does each tree sound the same as they are still standing an the weight of wood above where your standing give you a false positive?

I've never climbed and I don't plan to but never say never either,

 

[TheJollyLogger]

Hi Lads, first of all thejollylogger, while I don't know you I'm glad your still here,

Homeowner here with a dangerous habit of collecting chainsaws lol

So my question if anyone can answer, can you not hit the trunk with the back of an axe prior to climbing to assess soundness of the wood? Or Hammer a big screwdriver into the trunk and depending on how easy/hard it's journey is, kinda make an assessment from that?

Or, does each tree sound the same as they are still standing an the weight of wood above where your standing giv e you a false positive?

I've never climbed and I don't plan to but never say never either,

I sounded it, and it seemed fine, but it was also 3 months into a long contract of 12+ hour days... would could shoulda... I've relived that day a thousand times...

As a contract or production climber you are doing multiple trees a day, usually, with a ground crew waiting on you... the pressure to " just get up in the tree" can definitely wear on you and maybe make shortcuts

 

[Firewood]

I sounded it, and it seemed fine, but it was also 3 months into a long contract of 12+ hour days... would could shoulda... I've relived that day a thousand times...

As a contract or production climber you are doing multiple trees a day, usually, with a ground crew waiting on you... the pressure to " just get up in the tree" can definitely wear on you and maybe make shortcuts

I hear ye my man, not an easy job by any means with those hours and I'm sure climbing, even for someone whose fit and used to it gets dam tiring, just a cascade of things that went against you sadly, least your still here and not a statistic!

 

[StihlPotlicker]

I took my axe and tapped the trunk up has high as I could reach and it sounded like it was hollow, I poked the base with a stick and the stick sunk in 3" into the base. You could see hollow spot. I almost didn't climb it, as you can see in the last pic it had shake really bad that is why it sounded hollow. I climbed and dropped some of the bigger climbs on the left of the tree in first pic, then changed my mind on direction I was going to fell it. and fell it down the driveway with the lean

 

[TheJollyLogger]

To be honest, most days I wish that day had been my last...