Whats the worst hit you all ever took in a tree?

[Mass tree guy]

I have only been climbing for a little over a year, getting better with the spikes and the take downs..Starting to realize one must be a little crazy to do this type of work...

Well this week we took down a good sized pitch pine I was ropping out limbs cause it was over a shed...a good sized but slammed me in the knee and then the groundie said "sorry"..

lol

Then yesterday I went for my first good ride in a small locust, spikes came off the tree and the rope/buckstrap saved my bacon....My chest slammed the but log hard....hurts today...

im sure all you old timers can top that one..

 

[jomoco]

A retension pin keeping an 18 inch long 9/16ths steel bar in place at the crane's upper boom sheave, was dislodged when the crane operator did what I expressly told him not to do, rip a branch off a nearby live tree with his boom end, he did it because it was forcing us to rotate each pick almost 300 degrees from the dead tree I was removing. I had previously instructed him that we had plenty of time, and that rotating around that limb was a must in the height of beetle flight season to avoid the live tree putting off the very pheremones that attract them. It all must've went over his head because just before the last trunk pick, he tore the limb off with his boom on purpose to speed things up. I chewed him out on the radio but good, thoroughly ticked off.

Unbeknownst to any of us, the CO had dislodged the sheave bars retension pin when he tore that limb off. It stayed their until he boomed over me from 90 feet up, with me 25 feet off the ground on the trunk waiting to set the last choker for the last pick of the day. As he stopped his rotation over me, the bar fell from the upper boom some 65 feet above me, and hit me in the left shoulder fracturing my left collar bone into many multiple pieces parts.

Totally unaware of what had just happened to me other than my left shoulder and arm going numb and inoperable, I was able to spike down the dead trunk using only my right arm, get into my tooltruck and drive myself to an emergency room 50 miles away.

They had to reassemble my collar bone onto a steel plate and put it back where it belonged using steel set screws.

I didn't sue the crane company, but they did pay for my down time and medical bills as I requested.

Moral of the story? Avoid young hotshot CO's out to impress somebody with how fast they are in the cab. And never let a CO prune trees with his crane on your job.

jomoco

 

[tree md]

Had a 5' chunk of Cottonwood come back and get me. It was a crotch piece around 3' diameter. Had a green groundie that didn't let the rope run. It knocked me off my spurs but didn't really hurt me. Had a 10-12" limb pitch the wrong way when I cut it under tension (storm work). It hit my big toe like a sledge hammer and knocked me out of my gaffs. Had a throbbing blood blister under my toenail that night. I heated a paper clip red hot and burnt through the nail. Black blood squirted out and almost hit the ceiling. Roped a large codom top out of a Cottonwood over a house. Although I had chewed out my ground crew twice for having more than one man on my lowering line they seemed to think that they needed two more people holding the line... When no one let the line run and it jerked me out of my spikes and rag dolled me I finally got my point across to my crew with a few choice words.

 

[tree md]

Oh yeah, one more. My first year of climbing, I had not yet learned how to make a snap cut. I was bombing chunks of the spar on a large Hickory. I was just rip cutting and pushing large chunks of the spar off. I made a cut, pushed a large chunk of the spar off (about a 5' chunk) and it peeled and sucked me up against the tree, jerking me down the spar. It broke free but not until it had jammed me up pretty good and bruised my ribs.

 

[Shaun Bowler]

That is a good question/topic.
Back in the day when my climbing saw was a Poulan, my climbing line was three strand Manila, hard hats were for "Fags," I was removing a big Euc over a creek.
The tree had been undermined by a rain storm.
I had to tie in to another Euc that was about 100 feet away in order to get this haz done because it WAS going to fall.
I cut off @ 1500lbs piece of wood. I would not use any flip line to secure me to the tree. I was not going to go down with the Haz.
Remember the Old Homelite 750's.
AS soon as I cut that wood, I was shot off that spar like a ping pong ball, sailed all of the 100 feet into the trunk of the tree I was tied into.
The Dogs from the 750 stabbed me right in the thigh, got "the wind knocked out of me" when I hit the tree, could not breath.. it seemed like a life time. The ground crew laughed their ass off. I recovered, and finished the job.

 

[Sunrise Guy]

No injury, here, but: A downed Red Oak was leaning at a 45 degree angle, caught in a Cedar Elm some 60 feet away. The butt of the oak was resting on a stub of a tree that had been cut down to about 10 feet. As I walked up the Red Oak, tied in to the Cedar Elm, my foot slipped and I fell to my left. I was about ten feet off the ground and the ground below me sloped into a dry creek bed over which the oak leaned. As I saw the ground coming up fast, I also saw that the 10 foot stub had been knocked loose when the oak moved as I fell. The stub was now going to mousetrap me as soon as I hit the ground. Just as I was about to hit and get clobbered by the stub, my rope went tight, jerked me sharply forward, and I sailed over the creek bed. I could not ride any amusement park ride as exciting, nor would I want to.

 

[JeffL]

Heavily leaning black locust, tied in from the side in another tree. Got all the brush off and the first piece of wood, a newbie groundie held it tight, and the whole tree was like a sling shot. I did nearly a complete 360 around the trunk (from top, to bottom, back to top) swinging from my lanyard. I told him every piece after that, I dont care if his gloves start on fire, he better not be holding any pieces to a dead stop.

A few slips while limb walking, one was up top in a big pine, swung probably 10' back to the trunk and hit square in the ribs, thought I popped a few but was just bruises.

The usual cuts and scrapes. Trying to sneak some pieces over stuff in a removal, tip tied a big oak limb and cut it extremely butt heavy, got whacked pretty good when the butt came free and the limb came swinging past at a good clip. etc etc

And yes I'd say you've got to be just a *little* crazy and be ready for some gut checks along the way. And I've only been doing it 3 years now.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I would say that if you think you have to be crazy, maybe it is not the place for you. The best climbers are very stable people who can look judge the situation without emotion.

It should be fun, but then any work we do should be enjoyable. But if it makes you nervous, then you are working wrong.

 

[JeffL]

Ok, maybe not crazy, but there is certainly a threshold of comfort you need to reach to safely and efficiently work. I actually enjoy storm damage work so much because its almost like a miniature engineering puzzle and problem solving as opposed to what a "straightforward" removal might be.

 

[Nailsbeats]

I would say that if you think you have to be crazy, maybe it is not the place for you. The best climbers are very stable people who can look judge the situation without emotion.

It should be fun, but then any work we do should be enjoyable. But if it makes you nervous, then you are working wrong.

Very, very true. Without emotion and doing some critical thinking before cutting.

I fell out of a pine while holding both ends of my climbing line in one hand and tying a 3/1 friction hitch with the other. Broke branches on the way down and landed sitting right on the roof eve. Dumb mistake.

Got sucked into a cut by my flipline when a big Elm chunk tore down that I pushed off the spar. Sucked me in and put enough presure on me that I thought I'd be pissing blood but I was fine. Dumb mistake.

Got thrown like a ragdoll when I took a 30' limb to hip as the tip of it hit the ground first and the butt came back at me. Hung there limp and numb until coming down, but nothing broken. Dumb mistake.

Too many bruises, slips, and slams to count.

 

[tree md]

I think a little nervousness is natural when you're learning. At least it was for me. I think cautious better describes my demeanor today. Challenging trees still give me butterflies. If I ever loose that feeling I will give it up.

If I am ever nervous about a cut I have learned to reevaluate the situation. If I am nervous about a cut it means that I am uncertain. Making a cut when you are uncertain is a recipe for disaster. I never make a cut unless I am absolutely sure what is going to happen. If I have a question in my mind or feel nervous and uncertain I look the situation over and usually figure out a better way. Now the exception to this is when I am working a dead or compromised tree. We all make our best judgments on hazard trees but it is never 100% that the tree will not fail. Again, caution.

Knock on wood, I have never damaged a structure or had a tree fail in the 19 years I have been working.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I fell out of a pine while holding both ends of my climbing line in one hand and tying a 3/1 friction hitch with the other. Broke branches on the way down and landed sitting right on the roof eve. Dumb mistake.

I've said it before, the statistics show most falls are to climbers who do not flip-in when changing a tie-in-point. If that is the only thing that someone takes away from this site, then we have served a purpose.

Got thrown like a ragdoll when I took a 30' limb to hip as the tip of it hit the ground first and the butt came back at me. Hung there limp and numb until coming down, but nothing broken. Dumb mistake.

I took mine in the knee, it hurt for a while. Stupid novice mistake.

Too many bruises, slips, and slams to count.

That's just a days work

I've had a few struck-by's with working down trees in wood-lots. Even being extra careful there are widow-makers that can hurt.

My scariest was when I was on a skinny leaner that i had to rig the top out with a porty. The groundy did not let it run all the way, as I had told him emphatically to do. That was my rag-doll imitation. My neck was making a Go-Awful sound as I flopped, my hands were tingly for quite some time. I decided to take a bit of a rest after that. If I had not been over an hour from home, I might have called it a day. With my spinal problems I was freaking out!.

 

[treemandan]

I too get a quite irritated when people refer to me as crazy for climbing. Given the proper circumstance my rebuttal is usually" I am not really that crazy, you are just a pus".

 

[Mass tree guy]

you are all crazy bastards with the tree slayer driving the train...

 

[treemandan]

you are all crazy bastards with the tree slayer driving the train...

I am not crazy, you are just a pus

Who is you anyway? Now don't #### with me, I have to down these last 3 beers before I head off to see my therapist.

 

[Mass tree guy]

I'm just new to tree work...

no need to argue on the internet of your mental stability....

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I'm just new to tree work...

no need to argue on the internet of your mental stability....

The Dan's ego is one of his favorite topics, as you will surly see if you stick around

He does know his ash from a hole in the ground though.

 

[gwiley]

I have to agree that you climber/cutters ARE crazy.....but in a good way. I have played with the idea of joining that club but my sanity keeps getting in the way (or maybe I am just a pus).

My motto is "Just drop it. If something gets crushed then God didn't mean for it to be here."

 

[Nailsbeats]

I forgot the time I got hammered in the back of the head.

I rigged and cut a vertical limb going away from me and got hit by an attached horizontal limb that went back over my head (I think). Had I not had a helmet on it may have been a rescue situation.

I still don't know for sure how it happen, but the helmet kept it off of my brain stem.

 

[treemandan]

I have to agree that you climber/cutters ARE crazy.....but in a good way. I have played with the idea of joining that club but my sanity keeps getting in the way (or maybe I am just a pus).

My motto is "Just drop it. If something gets crushed then God didn't mean for it to be here."

Yes, maybe.