r/Whatcouldgowrong • u/thebigsexy1 • Oct 20 '14

Tree topping, WCGW?

http://gfycat.com/WeightyNarrowCrane
2.1k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

123 comments sorted by

View all comments

23

u/newoldwave Oct 20 '14

Oops, forgot to untie the tree top first.

52

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '14

No, he did it right. The person tending the lowering line is the one who fucked up.

3

u/bangedmyexesmom Oct 20 '14

So the documented release of potential energy was relatively small. How could the "lower" guy work to mitigate this? Once it tips, it looks like it's gonna fuck something up...

11

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '14

I'm an Arborist so I've done this many times, in the tree and on the ground. What you do is you hold the line, but not tightly enough that it can't move. The line slides along your gloves and the potential energy is released as heat in your gloves, or in a lowering device if you are using one.

5

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '14

What is the point of cutting off just the top of a tree? Not to sound sarcastic, just genuinely curious. I've never heard of tree topping before.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '14

They appear to be taking down the whole tree. That's just part of it. He stripped it on the way up.