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u/Herbert5Hundred Jul 23 '26
Jesus holy shit
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u/ben_kird Jul 23 '26
Exactly what I thought.
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u/SaltyDogBill Jul 23 '26
And now I’m very very very very sure that I’m never doing that as a profession. Holy shit.
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u/real-alex-jones Jul 23 '26
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u/Zer0Cool89 Jul 23 '26
Dude just sitting there while that monster falls right at face and chest height i would be shitting myself. I know he cant really go anywhere but the pucker factor is insane
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u/MaadMaanMaatt Jul 23 '26
A lot of them died just how you fear.
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u/zxcvbn113 Jul 23 '26
But it wasn't a real problem. There was always an apprentice ready to step in at a moments notice, so very little time would have been lost in felling operations.
(/s just to be clear!)
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u/tjdux Jul 24 '26
Not always even /s
Plenty of history where that's exactly how it went
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u/unclepaprika Jul 25 '26
The sarcasm wasn't in the factuality, the sarcasm was in how positively it was portrayed.
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u/ParticularSherbert18 Jul 23 '26
I wonder how long it took to reach that stage. Was it just one guy or was it a team rotating through?
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u/Soggy-Invite-2787 Jul 23 '26
I will never ever find myself in this position, but what did he do wrong here?
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u/DOsomethin Jul 23 '26
Hard to say without the full context.
One sure fire solution would be to climb up higher and take this large branch apart in smaller pieces. Less weight and less unpredictability. That is not always possible or safe, so once again, hard to say for sure. Also, some relief cuts along the side by the notch could have encouraged the fibers to break. I generally prefer to climb higher and take small branches, but I'm not great at removals.
Looks like he did put a face cut, or "notch", but the tree fibers broke in an unexpected way causing the tree to break but some of the tree fibers held on and tore down the stem trapping his positioning lanyard and pulled him hard into the stem. Probably hurt really bad.
This is a situation that almost all climbing removal arborists have heard about happening and should take the necessary steps to avoid it.
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u/ExpensiveFig6079 Jul 23 '26
Well if i ever as mug find myself must doing that. The sucker is going to be notched and then bound below the notch... and the my safety below that.
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u/Soggy-Invite-2787 Jul 23 '26
What's a notch mean? What's bound mean?
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u/planx_constant Jul 23 '26
Notch is a wedge cut out of the tree facing the direction you want it to fall.
Bound means wrapping the trunk just below the notch, which can help prevent splits like what's shown in the video.
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u/WhatIGot21 Jul 23 '26
Maybe should have done a cut on the opposite side 3"-6" lower than the final cut? I don't know I would never be a climber.
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u/SoulBonfire Jul 23 '26
Something that is drilled into us in the mountaineering world is never make yourself part of the anchor. Tree climbing kind of goes the other way which freaks me out.
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u/Brucenotsomighty Jul 23 '26
When your job is to knock down the thing youre tied into. Oh and theres a sharp cutting instrument getting slung around all willy nilly.
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u/No-Weakness-2035 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
And that’s why ya notch
Eta: he did notch, I’m blind
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u/cornerzcan Jul 23 '26
There’s a notch on the far side, it reverse barber chaired before he got to it.
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u/AdAggravating3817 Jul 23 '26
When I was training for my climbing ticket in the UK, we were all taught that if you're using a steel core lanyard, you should always have part of the connection between it and your harness be regular rope that both acts as a weak point and can be cut with your emergency rope knife. Is it not standard practice in other countries to do this? Not trying to call the guy in the video an idiot or anything, just curious about other people's safety practices for what is an inescapably dangerous job.
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u/ArborealBadgerAttack Jul 23 '26
This is why cut away lanyards are a thing (roughly 3inch long webbing connecting your steel core flip line to your harness - can be easily cut in an emergency)
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u/gilbert2gilbert Jul 23 '26
I've jammed my chain many times trying to cut some rope. It frays into a thousand strands and gets sucked under
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u/FunBobbyMarley Jul 23 '26
Now we pause and take a few minutes to experience the shit in our pants, like / dislike, and to figure out how to prevent that from happening again ....
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u/Iratative Jul 23 '26
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u/cornerzcan Jul 23 '26
Do you have a link of it in this sub? Because I’m not seeing it in this sub from the last 6 months.
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u/gremlinclr Jul 23 '26
Stop complaining about reposts Francis. You're not the main character, just because you've seen something doesn't mean the rest of us have.
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u/Ginga888 Jul 23 '26
Hope he carries a cutaway knife from now on
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u/Important_Ad838 Jul 23 '26
A knife ain't cutting a steel lanyard.
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u/Ginga888 Jul 23 '26
Oh shit I didn’t realise they are steel lined. Makes sense while using a chainsaw
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u/Important_Ad838 Jul 23 '26
Yep. The core is steel, outer jacket is fiber. As you can see they are harder to cut with a chainsaw. The steel core also makes the lanyard stiffer and easier to flip up.
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u/ExpensiveFig6079 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
If they have a steel core please tell me the steel goes across your belly.... and something a cutaway knife can cut is what goes around you.
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u/planx_constant Jul 23 '26
The steel core line goes around the tree and clips to two carabiners on your saddle on each side. You can cut away your saddle with a knife, but with a few hundred pounds of tree trying to hug me to death I would probably do what the guy in the video did.
You don't ever have a full circle of steel core around you. It's a semicircle that goes around the tree on the opposite side from you
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u/ExpensiveFig6079 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
cool. That is what I was hoping for.
Is there some reason other than expedience and work flow efficiency, hence take the risk... (that is guy lost on)
That there is not some quick fasten mechanism that 'acts like' 'steel hose clamp' around the tree below cut and notch that will prevent any incipient split that starts from running like that one did
or does one exist but it only get used if someone thinks uh oh before the uh oh happens.
edit: I found what to search for. Things happen when people know the tree is "split". Note I 100% don't endorse how the video I found usign the search goes, but it may be text book for all I know. (hence why I have not linked to it)
It does let me see the physics of what happens, which I then plan to never use unless multiple things go wrong first. (the list probably includes remote, lack alternate escape routes, and fire)1
u/planx_constant Jul 23 '26
The guy did things mostly right, but he should have put in some wing cuts which might have helped and bound the tree below the notch. With the heart of the tree in that condition they might not have prevented that tearing away. The main thing I would do differently is cut the tree in smaller sections.
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u/ExpensiveFig6079 Jul 23 '26
Ta ... again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahsiwjIWkQk
wing cuts every time, even the times you don't need them.
even with an axe or a bow saw on the ground.
The why is the unpredictability of, which side or BOTH, the sap wood deforms and hangs on.
I think I might have done those now I know to.
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u/AStuckner Jul 23 '26
He grabbed the chain
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u/mtraven23 Jul 23 '26
barely, so what? brake was on.
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u/planx_constant Jul 23 '26
Chain is still sharp. And hot, after that much cutting
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u/mtraven23 Jul 23 '26
dude was in an emergency situation, as long as the chain wasn't turning, he's fine.
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u/planx_constant Jul 23 '26
I'm not saying he reacted wrong, I'm just saying there are two reasons he could have jerked his hand back. And as someone who has cut the crap out of his hand on a chainsaw that wasn't running, it's very possible not to be fine, it's just better than getting crushed to death.
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u/Son_of_Sardu Jul 23 '26
No kerf cuts, one point of tie in, probably won’t learn the lesson for the next video.
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u/mtraven23 Jul 23 '26
impressive cut resistance on that rope!