beastmaster
Addicted to ArboristSite
This may be of help for some of you So. Cal. climbers. Almost had a bad accident in a palm. The job was for spikeless trim and skin. I have skinned my share of Washingtonia's. I don't know what these palm are called but their common. They self shed for the most part. There was the problom.
Spending a while trying to big shot a line up(that could be a whole nother thread)and over, went with a less then perfect shot. SRT up and removed a few dead fronds and seed pods. My rope was over 3 green fronds against the base. I decended for lunch, going back up I felt a sicking feeling as my rope was slowly(not that slowly) moving down. I luckily had a safety line around the palm and pulled it tight and dug my knees in. This avoided me from falling 40ft. (these palm were maybe 75ft)The three fronds were all hanging downward.
The problem: The single rope ascend puts twice your weight on the tie in. Also these were not washingtonia's witch are quit strong at the point of attachment where the fronds connect to the palm but this common self shedding type palm, "well sheds", and that was what it did with my attachment point.
Solution: I climbed one using a slow Japenese Technic using two ropes attached by a running bowlines, one for my foot and one attached to my saddle, works but is pretty slow. To come down I used a running bowline on my climbing line around the base of the palm, and descended with my gri gri. The Gri gri is pretty easy to work off of on a single rope(had to still skin them) I hooked my throw line, line with a carabiner to the bowline at the top of the palm(As learned from this site)before descending and easily pulled my climbing line down from the top of the palm when finished.
Lesson learned: On this type of palm I think I'll use a 32ft ladder and then spike up the back side rest the way.
Call me an idiot(been called worse) but I hope someone learns something from this post. Beastmaster
Spending a while trying to big shot a line up(that could be a whole nother thread)and over, went with a less then perfect shot. SRT up and removed a few dead fronds and seed pods. My rope was over 3 green fronds against the base. I decended for lunch, going back up I felt a sicking feeling as my rope was slowly(not that slowly) moving down. I luckily had a safety line around the palm and pulled it tight and dug my knees in. This avoided me from falling 40ft. (these palm were maybe 75ft)The three fronds were all hanging downward.
The problem: The single rope ascend puts twice your weight on the tie in. Also these were not washingtonia's witch are quit strong at the point of attachment where the fronds connect to the palm but this common self shedding type palm, "well sheds", and that was what it did with my attachment point.
Solution: I climbed one using a slow Japenese Technic using two ropes attached by a running bowlines, one for my foot and one attached to my saddle, works but is pretty slow. To come down I used a running bowline on my climbing line around the base of the palm, and descended with my gri gri. The Gri gri is pretty easy to work off of on a single rope(had to still skin them) I hooked my throw line, line with a carabiner to the bowline at the top of the palm(As learned from this site)before descending and easily pulled my climbing line down from the top of the palm when finished.
Lesson learned: On this type of palm I think I'll use a 32ft ladder and then spike up the back side rest the way.
Call me an idiot(been called worse) but I hope someone learns something from this post. Beastmaster
The way I see it, palms are good for training climbers. I don't want to do any palms either, and as long as I'm on the exec. side of things, I have the option. They are nasty work, unless they are regularly maintained. True grit. I use a gas mask in the filthy ones these days.
