scared of the wind?

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Greg

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Over the last 2 weeks we have had some pretty high winds for good portions of the day +20mph. On one of the worst of those days I did a pecan tree removal that required no riggng, but had to be limbed and topped to fit into the drop zone. Only one time the wind caught me off guard and actually moved me, but I was just hanging in my saddle, no big deal, kinda cool.
I later heard from a customer (price shopper) that she got a price from another tree guy that day because it was too windy for him to climb he was out doing estimates. Another guy at the wood yard said his climber didn't want to climb in the wind.
I thought these guys must be trying to get out of work, you can't be scard of a little wind. If a tree is so bad that you can't climb it in some wind you probably shouldn't be climbing it at all.
Greg
 
Wind can be fun to work in, and can be your friend if it's in a favorable direction with the work you're doing. But it can also complicate the work, naturally.

I've been 100 feet up in conifers with gusts to 40 or more, now we're gettin' a ride!
 
Wind, it either is helpin you work, or it is trying to make your job impossibe. Being up there with the wind is fun, but it sucks to have to rope everything down because the wind is blowing the falling pieces somewhat unpredicatably.

What is really fun is a tree that grew up in a forrest (perferable on a top of a hill) and they cut the forrest down and left that one tree, which has very very little taper to fight the wind. You get up to the top, and it is like hangin on top of a wet noodle.

Wind is fun, it is God's air conditioning.
 
When the wind drops down to 20 mph in North Dakota, half the people fall over. Actually "wind" doesn't start until abou 40 mph, anything less is a breeze.

Bob (still standing)
 
"Wind is the most dangerous thing for us climbers." Kenny Ledford.

Kenny taught me to climb trees in a place called Highlands NC. Its a resort town at elevation 4118 feet above sea level.

Monster hemlocks and 8 folks to hug tulip popular trees are common sights .

I heard and then seen more limbs break and fall in the woods close to me from wind than anyother thing nature throws at them.

Wind is just too unpredictable for me while working aloft. Wind sail effect and my aditional weight can add up and add up quickly.

I dont fool with it its too unpredictable. Not only in the trees its just as dangerous for ground personell as well. For example I was knocked clean to the ground by a teenager who was limbing a white pine some 100 yards away!. I was coiling up a 200 footer and WHAM! That limb sailed all that way and knocked me clean to the ground. That was in 94' I learned well then to keep my head up far away from a climber in the wind.
 
I will work in the wind, however I try to be selective as to what I will and won't do. Going out on limbs to access the tips is a no-no when the wind is blowing. Doing an easy removal where everything can be bombed, or chunking down wood, no problem.
Bout a month ago I was working in Somers up on a hill. I was up about 60 feet in this dead ash tree. Thing wasn't even 12" diameter at the base. Man my knees were knocking up there feeling that wind moving the top around. Another time I was doing a big pine tree removal. All I had to do was blow out one top and then I could get down to working on the wood. The wind took that top over backwards and almost took my head off. I had a tag line and a guy on the top, but I don't think the wind gusts cared all too much about that.
 
The wind was my friend today. I was removing a ~2000 board foot fir, which was 11-12 feet from the primaries. Many long branches extended out over them, requiring mid tying and swinging. The wind was lightly blowing from the SE, which helped, and helped for all the lowering and smaller ones that I free dropped. Then, near the top, it got gusty, up to 25 mph max, and the direction changed to SSW. So I had to lower several small branches that I could have dropped in calm conditions. I timed the gusts and dropped a few little ones, then lowered a 20 foot top, making sure I stopped it before it reached the wire height.

A big tree, it took 5.5 hours and produced 15 yards of chips, woulda been more, but we made firewood out of the branches down to 4 inches or so to save space in the truck. Going back tomorrow to drop the 44 foot butt, meet the log truck, and give a 110 foot codom fir a light prune and install two Cobra cables.
 
We get some pretty strong winds, so far this year the record in the city has been 182kmph (about 115mph I think). Only in really serious wind in big trees do I start to think about doing something else with my day, I have got motion sick in big Eucs with all the movement to and fro. Tree machine has had a taste of our winds.

Had some pretty bad pull offs on my climbing line as limbs im tied in to move more than the branch Im walking on, hate that.

I was bringing down a macrocarpa in a storm, the winds were so strong that I had sand come through my sunroof although I was 3 blocks from the beach. I cut a limb that was about 2 fit thick, just a top cut and the saw jammed as the wind was actually pusing the limb UP. :eek:

Contract climbing job, I really shouldnt have been up there.
 

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