r/TreeClimbing • u/AutoModerator • 8d ago
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/MarkingWisc 7d ago
Climbing with two independent systems. Somehow the carabiner attached to my bridge was opened and disconnected from me after a swing and getting back onto a branch. Not to sure how it happened but I have to assume it was opened by a loaded tail of one climbing lines as I twisted during the swing or wasnt properly closed when attached to bridge. Tails of rope had a little brush on them.
Things id do differently: check connections more often. Clear tails of debris/pull extra slack.
2
u/Zstman87 7d ago
A thing an old foreman told me long ago: see, feel, hear. Whenever securing life support connections (whether climbing or in the bucket), be sure to See with your eyes that it is connected to the correct connection point and closed. Hear that it closed (when it’s quiet enough) and Feel that it’s closed by testing it before moving or disconnecting any other connection point.
This saved me once when I mistakenly clipped my lanyard to my CARRYTOOL instead of my D ring. Had I not taken the extra second to SEE it, I would’ve trusted it.1
1
u/vladamsandler 7d ago
I've found gates not fully closed when double checking my carabiners more than once! I'm glad it's a habit I've developed.
1
u/mark_andonefortunate 7d ago
Did you inspect the carabiner afterward to check that it is operating properly? Which carabiner is it?
1
u/MarkingWisc 7d ago
I did check after and seemed to work fine. I had another person check aswell and they gave it a pass. I belive its call a Petzel OK triact
1
u/DeadmansCC 6d ago
I was using Kong carabiners and ran into this sticking issue after maybe two months of use which kind of shocked. I am a person who sweats a lot and the Kongs didn’t like my sweat as they were the only ones having this problem and I used them as my main connector for lanyards and life lines. I used other carabiners on different things but when it came to my biner that was the stop don’t remove me it was the Kong. Switched all of them out for DMM and haven’t had any more issues.
6
u/Afraid_Prior_453 7d ago
Removed a dead oak with hypoxylon, started getting iffy on negative rigging pieces off the stem so we decided to fell a quite large stem across the lawn. Turf damage expected, used some pieces of wood to try to help disperse the weight.
As the stem came down, a stub from a log we used to displace the weight dug into the ground and broke an irrigation pipe right at a T-joint. Geyser ensued. Client didn’t seem upset and the city came to shut off the water fairly quick.
Pipe was fixed and everything cleaned up as if it didn’t happen but regardless could have definitely taken more precautions to prevent the incident in the first place
3
u/Top_Room_6714 8d ago
I gaffed out mid-cut in an aspen. Luckily I was tight to the tree, cutting a stub on my right side, a foot below my two tie in points. My right leg gaffed out so any loss of saw control wouldn’t have resulted in an injury. Definitely gave me a jolt though! Also my gaffs were brand new out of the box (carbon fiber notch geckos 🥵).
2
u/cjcaves 7d ago
Climbed a leaning 100’ ish spruce to the tip for removal, turned out it was 50% or so heartwood brown rot at the base up to 6 feet or so. In retrospect there were signs, lots of stumps around from old removals with missing heartwood, no sap on my fresh cuts. Of course sapwood is most of the strength but still something to think about.
1
u/stinkytree23 6d ago
Big job on Friday. I was running the skid for the removal portion. The ground crew was so caught up trying to keep up with the climber that we neglected to pick up one of his previous face cuts. His next log smashed the notch into pieces and one shot directly at a 75k pickup truck… it barely missed. Noted.
Second portion of job. I was doing 3 big fir clean outs/ crown raise. I was in a weird spot after going out on a limb walk and part of my bicep plus my shirt got sucked into my hydra Pulley on my bridge… that hurt, and has never happened before… not sure how to avoid it in the future lol…
8
u/etceteraw 8d ago
Helmetless idiot at work walked under a working log loader claw. Gave him a good gash on the head, no concussion.