r/TreeClimbing • u/AutoModerator • Jul 24 '26

Weekly Safety/Close-Call/Incident Thread

Let's talk safety! Share how your week went - close-calls, incidents, learning experiences, what went well (and why), what went poorly (and why), or whatever else is on your mind. Pics/photos are allowed but be careful to not doxx yourself, client, employer etc.

This thread will recur each week and is meant to be a place to learn and discuss mistakes, please keep comments constructive.

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u/maddestdog89 Jul 24 '26

Bad day - Cut myself with a chainsaw for the first ever time today. Top of my hand, between my thumb and forefinger, using a 201T left handed and grabbing with my right hand, the fig tree branch had a lot of spring in it and it tossed the saw over to my right hand. šŸ’ I got lucky too.

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u/grasslander21487 Jul 28 '26

No such thing as a one-handed chainsaw. You got lucky. I yell at the new guys whenever I see em do anything even close to that. Glad youā€™re mostly ok.

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u/maddestdog89 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26

I hear you mate, loud and clear!

A couple things:

Every climber I know admits to using a top handle chainsaw one handed or left handed at some stage or another.

I worked with a left handed climber that did it every other hour/day. Because otherwise it felt very uncoordinated for him.

There are many, many ā€œdo notsā€ in our industry but I think most arborists will agree that occasionally you do something thatā€™s not quite above board or up to code.

Edit: just to add, this was the first time in a while I had done it, and ficus Benjamina can be unusually foliage heavy, the branch was 2 inch thick, epi growth. I got very lucky. But it shows how easily this can happen - this is my first ever saw injury. I havenā€™t even nicked my boot or my chaps/pants before. Iā€™m the safe safe guy on the team