Safety in cottonwood

[TOlsen]

I have been climbing for a few years now. Here in south Texas I mostly get hardwoods and the occasional pine. I have several cotton wood trees coming up, and have no experience with them. I'm removing the smallest on Wednesday (see pics). It is showing signs of distress but appears to be solid.

Obviously a hard rule can't be given because there are so many factors, but generally what do y'all feel is a safe diameter to climb to in cotton woods? I'm hoping to get some safety advice before I get into them.
Also I've heard they have very little holding power and not to try and pull anything against its natural lean. What's your advice?
Sorry the pics arnt high quality.

 

[TheJollyLogger]

**** me naked. Dead or green?

 

[haphazard404]

Tie in as you would any "soft" tree, from my experience it's pretty strong for a soft tree. What may catch you off guard is that it may be heavier than you probably expect. Take your time, treat it as you would with any soft tree and you will be fine.

 

[TOlsen]

**** me naked. Dead or green?

It is green. It does show some signs of distress, the bark was damaged at the base which I think is finally catching up to it. Being winter its hard to tell the actual condition but I believe it is still very green.

Thanks for the reply Hapazard404, I guess my main reason for asking, is the comments I have see about cotton woods and poplar being deceiving in terms of strength. besides conifers we really do not have many soft woods in my area. Im sure I will get a feeling for them once im done with these few trees.
Ive been spoiled with post oak and hackberry which even when dead are normally quite solid.

 

[CanopyGorilla]

We have an overabundance of c-wood here in Mantana. Cottonwood is scary ****. I generally keep my highest tie in point about 2-3 times larger than I do in maple, lochust, elm, etc. The holding wood thing is true. You can PULL them against a lean, but I wouldn't expect to swing something around with its holding wood. Crotches tend to be unreliable as well.

 

[Crusherclaw]

Cover anything breakable within reasonable distance . There will be lots of dead flying debris if lowering tops.

 

[crotchclimber]

I've tied in plenty of times to 3-4" trunk wood for my climb line and position off smaller with my lanyard, which has broken a few times. Make sure what you're tying into has a strong union. Your tree looks like it has a decent tie in on top. I've climbed worse, where the central leader has died/been removed or there is no good high tie in point. Beware of watersprouts in cottonwoods as they are very weak and you should never tie into one. Looks like some of the leads on your tree were topped.

As far as holding wood, leave lots since it breaks easily. We usually lift backleaning branches with our skidsteer.

 

[TOlsen]

Thanks for the tips! That makes me feel a little better as else where I've read to never tie into anything under 10". I think the best tie in is a crotch (circled in red (pic is lower quality than original posted above)) with about 6" branches, which look strong to me. With that tie in I should be able to reach everything else comfortably. As long as I can lower the two tops off it once everything else is gone, i don't see any other challenges. Good info on the watersprouts, a couple leads were topped or damaged I belive, I'll keep that in mind while working them.

Crusherclaw, I'll be sure to cover the AC unit behind the house, thanks!

 

[Crusherclaw]

AC units are not something we have to worry about up here

 

[treebilly]

They tend to shatter upon impact with anything alive or dead. That crotch should be plenty good. With a good rope man there is very little stress on the rigging if you have the room to let them tops run. The weight ought to be better this time of year since the sap isn't flowing near as much. I've had them rain on me in the summer time

 

[DR. P. Proteus]

It is green. It does show some signs of distress, the bark was damaged at the base which I think is finally catching up to it. Being winter its hard to tell the actual condition but I believe it is still very green.

Thanks for the reply Hapazard404, I guess my main reason for asking, is the comments I have see about cotton woods and poplar being deceiving in terms of strength. besides conifers we really do not have many soft woods in my area. Im sure I will get a feeling for them once im done with these few trees.
Ive been spoiled with post oak and hackberry which even when dead are normally quite solid.

If its alive and considering its leaves have dropped I would say you really shouldn't have to much of problem. I still would choose a large point for my line and find a stout hunk to put the rigging pulley.

When they are in full leaf they are dangerous, I don't know how these things stay up. The upper wood is very brittle, any sort of compromise to its delicate balance and it will break. Any sort of weighted horizontal branch it like a white pine bow but worse.

If the trunk drastically compromised that could also be more of problem than it might be for a tree of higher wood strength. If its been standing dead then all the water has seeped into lower trunk sections causing it to rot from within. You might see just a dead perfect looking trunk, that is not so. They look unassuming, even dead branches that look safe and are safe with heartier trees will break at the crotch real easy.

 

[JeffGu]

Some of these trees, cottonweed, dead ash, honey locust... have nice, spreading and easy to climb form. But, prone to breaking, barber-chairing, etc. so I ascend SRT and switch to using two DdRT lines for positioning out away from the main stem. When I lanyard in, it's usually just to keep me in position for a cut (such as off to the side of a limb to make face cut) and my weight is on the two climb lines. Very little weight on the lanyard, as it's just there to keep me from drifting out of position. I use a cheap, easy to make breakaway link (shown below) on one side of the lanyard... if the limb fails and falls away, it won't drag me with it because the link will fail. It's made from a 5mm quicklink (the long, wide-mouth variety) and a couple of ordinary hose washers, which you can get a whole package of for about three dollars. Quicklink goes on D-ring of saddle, clip end of lanyard into the washers. For my weight, I've found that two or three is about right.



This also works on vertical spars or stems that are prone to barber-chairing (like honey locust) and will keep you from the circle of death situation, since the washers will break before you can be crushed. Naturally, you would have to be tied in with a climb line, as well as the lanyard.

 

[TOlsen]

Thanks for the tip, I used a cheapo carbiner from harbor freight in place of the washers and that worked well. You guys were not kidding about these things exploding! It was like a firework show. Thanks for all the tips I felt like I was able to stay safe.

 

[haphazard404]

Great job! How big around was your tie in?

 

[TOlsen]

Great job! How big around was your tie in?

I ended up using two tie ins. One was a good 12" but it was low. Then I had a nice one higher up that was a crotch with 6" leads. It ended up being plenty strong, although after seeing Thoes branches explode I won't be using anything smaller than that on future cotton woods. Especially when they are weighted with leaves. In fact as mentioned earlier the crotches were quite weak, so the next tree I think I will use a loopie to instal a false crotch right below the natural crotch. That would have increased my 6" tie in to a 9" without sacrificing any height.

 

[Magnum783]

I work in lots of cottonwoods and could not imagine having two tools in my kit. The x ring rigging sling the one with the two thimbles one on either end and my Usaver both get used often.

 

[Superjunior2]

So were you able to get the poop smell off ya after that? Them things stink!