I've not ever seen one fail, but I've had a couple of terrifying climbs on them. Worst one was about 6 stories tall, and at the head it was only maybe 5 or 6 inches diameter in the trunk. It had a deviation about 15' short of the head, the really tall ones always seem to do that for some reason. I wasn't really that keen to climb it, but there was no bucket access and no other way shy of a helicopter to get it down so I just kept reminding myself that they never fail and it was time to man up. once I was about 2/3 of the way up the thing I was seriously having second thoughts, At that height on such a small stem with no top rope you tend to gaff in a little harder than what you need to, and each time I took a step it seemed the whole thing was wobbling like wet spaghetti, oscilating and shaking around. I kept going against better judgement and eventually got to the head, set a rope in it and felt a little better.
Then the wind started picking up! The first gust pushed the head a loooooooong ways off upright, like maybe 8-10', real slow. That's a whole lot of movement, and when it went, I thought for sure I was dead. I didn't even have the heart to scream, just that sickening feeling in your stomach, knowing that your life is over. But then, it stopped going over.... and started to slowly swing back the other way like a pendulum moving in slow motion. Went way past vertical, and back over the other side. The motion was like the rolling of a ship, and I was feeling sea sick.
Had a tight landing area, hand sawed the fronds off then popped the head out. Gingerly spiked down and blocked down as I went, would have given anything when I was up in that head just to be back on safe ground again. I've been up in big trees in big winds plenty of times and I don't mind the motion but that was way too freaky for me. Never seen one fail though. Would I do it again? No way! Well, maybe
Shaun
