JC Ramsey "Precision tree"

[Spc Adams]

JC Ramsey 06-2003 St simons Isl, Ga

JC fell 3months ago. He fell 30 feet and landed on his head. They dont know how it happened he was kicking a stubb and somehow his rope flipped off its tie in point. . JC is now paralized from his neck down. He fell 80 feet when he was 17, recovered and continued climbing. JC was the man the local companies would call when it was to big a tree for their own men, to complicated for the bucket truck or generally to difficult a job to work their experienced crews. JC was "The man".Ive climbed for about 20 companies. I've seen Pro's and shows. Arborist and John boys all do trees. JC rocked he was the most Effecient tree man I've ever knew.Every move he made up there was pure genuis. We both owned companies and work together for over 3 years side by side in the trees.I'm really gonna miss him up there. JC now resides on the beautiful coast of Georgia.

 

[geofore]

JC

Tell or help JC read www.ssa.gov if he is disabled it will help him know what he needs to file and the bullsh*t he'll have to go through to get disability. I know, a friend, Neil rolled his pickup comming out of his driveway on icey road, went over the hill and stopped when his pickup hit a tree. He had his seatbelt on. He will never walk again and SS turned him down the first time he filed for disability. JC should be on Workmans comp for the first 500 weeks but you need that to time to go through the SS paperwork. Neil can use two fingers on one hand and uses dragonfire to talk to his computer and it writes what he says. SS does not make a ruling until you are disabled one year. So turn RC onto their website if he doesn't have a computer they may even get him one if they want him to try to do some kind of work to show he is disabled. They asked Neil to use a computer and run a buisness from home, SS is way out of line on some things but they would like to see everyone as productive. There aren't a lot of home buisnesses a quadraplegic can do if they are a roofer or truck driver or carpenter like Neil was. I don't know that they won't ask JC to try to run a tree service from home. Turn him on to their web site, it has a lot of good info.

 

[Spc Adams]

Thanks Geo,
JC's sister is watching after him. He pushes a wheel chair with his mouth and gets along just fine. Some feeling in his fingers as well.
We had a agreement of the shovel to the head technique "clank" if either of us ever got in that position.
He'd alway shake his head and say. "Robert, 8 years and aint been hurt bad yet? *shaking his head* Your due to get hurt." I've always done trees safe as I could by the book is my motto. But I know he is right. In our industry I feel there is a myth of safety that's just not talked about much. We accept it. We do a job for America just like a fireman just like a policeman and were ???? proud of it. Climb on!

 

[xtremetrees]

I am Spc Adams
This is an update.
I talked to JC's groundman while on a 5 day pass.
He said, " Yeah it was JC's job. We were doing good, he'd just got a chipper and chip truck no more sawing down brush."
Howd it happen I said, "Well". "It was a leaner and JC was kicking a stubb, lost his balance when the stubb didnt give. He was tied in as he lost his balance he began trying to hug the tree as gravity pulled him around, the rope flipped off its tie in point and down he came. I walked over to him and he told me to roll him over, I did. Then he said he felt like his feet were up in the air I told him they were on the ground. "Put my feet down," he said.
The groundie felt guilty because he did not prevent the accident. I told him man, we do crazy stuff up there you did what you could do thats all you can do. I'm sorry that youve lost your carreer too but it certainly wasn't your fault bro.
So now you know the rest of the story.

 

[MasterBlaster]

It can happen in a second, to the best of us.

A sad freaking story, for sure.

 

[geofore]

update

Thanks for the update. Don't know if this will help but if you do become disabled and still want a life full of things you can do but need to find things mechanical or otherwise to help you get it done check out http://trace.wisc.edu they keep a list of more than 18,000 products to aid the disabled. It's worth a look.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I've come close to similar, slips. which is why I use my climbing line as a second flipline while worknig a spar down.

Keep it low and choked. So what it takes me a few more seconds to step down, i like redundancy in my system.

 

[Lumberjack]

Originally posted by John Paul Sanborn
Keep it low and choked. So what it takes me a few more seconds to step down, i like redundancy in my system.

Excellent post and point. Any time I am toping a tree, or blocking it down I put my flipline at an upward angle, at least 3-4" from the edge of the cut, and then my climbing rope at a downward angle. If I am useing SRT then i choke it as low as i can, about the same heigth as my waste. Any time that I am doing it on a skinny tree, or a real flexible one I will make a wrap with my lanyard, and do my best to keep pressure on it throughout the cycle.

I never want to go through what he is going through.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Carl, that is the positive position of the lanyard. Horizontal positon is neutral, and below that is the negative.

Don't you have an adjustable lanyard?

 

[OutOnaLimb]

It makes me think about something I heard when I was in Jump Master School. "The sky even more so than the sea is terribly unforgiving of even the slightest mistake" Earnest Hemmingway.


Kenn:Monkey: