Mistakes, Accidents and Near Misses.

Szajer

alive with pleasure
Joined
Feb 22, 2014
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456
Location
St. Pete Beach
Here's one that got my blood pressure up.

I have a Petzl Caritool on my saddles left side, my safety lanyard on my right. See where this is going?

So I'm untied to re-route around some branches -and I've employed my lanyard to do its job while positioning. I'm a big guy— 6' and 225lbs. and most my weight is resting in my safety. As I snap back into my climbing system and go to unfasten my lanyard, I happen to look down and notice I'm snapped into my Caritool, not my side D ring.

This thing was twisted and the gate had been pushed outward. I was secured by imagination alone. Such a stupid and careless mistake that could've cost me dearly. I'm now diligent and directly look where I'm snapping into. Having my shirt untucked and bagged up at my waist helped in making this mistake happen.
 
Good point about the shirt, it's been raining lately and I wear a raincoat aloft, try to be doubly careful clipping in when your side d is hidden.
 
I hate the little D rings so prevalent now on modern saddles, floppin around playin peekaboo!

Lower D's that are smaller are tolerable. But upper D's? Make mine jumbo, and very rigidly supported, easy to pass a rope snap through, see?

Yeah, yeah.

Jomo
 
Look, Listen, Feel.

I can't remember who said that, but it stuck with me. I think it was somebody on this site. . .
 
I just read a report about a Heli-repeller who clipped into the wrong D ring. He was not cleared for the flight but owned the company and rode along anyhow. He was wearing a tactical vest and mistook a plastic D ring for the steel D ring on his harness. He fell 80 feet to his death.
 
I find that if I wear anything at all puffy, like a down vest, which i really like to use when working, it entails extra effort to see the relatively small Dees.
 
just don't have anything but the dring, sling your gear to the backside of the saddle, if there's only one thing there it can only be clipped to that one thing. or use a gear sling instead of having everything on your saddle. carrytools are nice though...
 
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  • #9
On another thread, someone mentioned leaning over and putting ones face over a cut to see how the cut is managing.

I'm at a golf course NE Ohio removing a 175 year old White Oak. This was the largest tree that I had to take down, that early in my career. The branches where bigger than most trees. The base with root flare was over 10' diameter. I'm removing the last section of a branch, nearest the trunk, with an old Echo 750 with a 5' bar. "I think, we're talking almost 25 years ago."

Just starting this pig while hanging in a saddle was a job in itself. It seemed like it was taking forever to cut through this mammoth limb, manually pumping oil by the pint. So as it's cutting its way thru, I decide to lean over and check my progress. As soon as I did, the saw grabs and kicks out of the kerf, stopping just at the bridge of my nose. I shut the saw down, collected myself and promised never to do that again.
 
Bump, Hey Szajer good thread! I had a very similar incident with the caritool beginning of Spring last year. I was pulling out jasmine that nearly took over this small Live Oak in a customer's yard. It was especially hot and humid that day. If My memory serves me correctly I didn't sleep too well the night before either! When I reached my TIP I decided to advance a little higher around 35' is where the majority of the vines were. I flipline in, lean back and was reaching to unclip my attachment from my HC then hear a pop! I couldn't see that i had clipped into my Caritool instead of my D-ring because I didn't take the time to look :? The pop was my Caritool. Another second or two if I had unclipped would have been bad. Thanks for sharing your story and glad it held you!

Grendel, I like the look, listen, and feel. Learned that in CPR/EMT classes over and over again so stuck in my head already might as well use it for something that could save my own life.
 
Yup...I have a friend that did something similar, he fell 18 metres and landed in the feed tray of the chipper.
He lived but does not climb any more.

I started a thread about my triple-lock biner rolling open...I heard it before I saw it. Luckily there was tension on the whole system so no chance of my friction hitch eye coming out but still...
 
F&^% putting a piece of plastic that sticks out like a structural D-ring, near the D ring!!!!!!!!


Metolius made all their gear loops on one rock harness as structural points, just in case. I don't think this ever caught one. Sometimes I wish it did, just in case, and at others, I like that the gear loops will break early.

I tape my saw carabiner or saw snap-hook open (gate to spine with electrical tape). Easy on and easy off with one hand. I use a breakaway lanyard. No mistaking it.
 
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  • #13
Knew I couldn't had been the only one to have had this happen.

I just switched my Caritool from the saddle to my suspenders- directly on my chest. I will be looking into a lanyard for suspension of assorted gear & devices. Reaching to my left for equipment comes as natural as breathing to me.
 
I have a Petzl Spirit bent gate I use now. At least if I was to make that mistake again it could hold me up. I switch sides with my saw and flipline lately. I can flip better from the right but I have tried to master it with my left as well. My right is still better.

Sean, I have a Buckingham Viking from Wesspur and the slots are pretty close to the d-rings. Also when I purchased the saddle I was uh, well FAT! Not really but my waist is much smaller than it was when I purchased it in Spring of 2012. I got down to the last belt loop last summer, It is a medium. I have been using a piece of webbing for my saw lanyard that has a couple of cuts in it. Still very strong and will probably get the Treestuff breakaway lanyards soon.
 
You could put a key biner in place in the meanwhile. I would gladly lose a $1000 saw over taking a hit from a log dropping on a strength-unknown lanyard.
 
Well... Katy had a boo boo recent..
She was cutting manzanita (hard shat) trying to lower some stumps and it sounds like she backed her self into a corner of no room to move. I was not there at the time as I was pruning oaks at another account. I get down from tree two and get a cell phone call.
"I cut my foot with the chainsaw", she said. "I need you to come look at it to see if we need to go to the hospital for stitches.".
SO I high tailed it home off the hill I was on to check out the situation.
Cleanest damn chain saw cut I had ever seen. Went through her fur lined boots and into her foot. It must have been spooling down when it kicked out of the stump on her. Had to have been just one side of the teeth get her. Looked like a knife wound. Not too deep. Rob was washing it out when I got there. We opted for just butterflying it together and do like we did my hand not too long ago when it got mashed by the pruner head.
Little trooper went to work the next day burning piles with Seth helping carry the propane tank.
So we have doctoring it and it is healing nicely.
Hopefully she will heed the warning and not back herself into a corner cutting with a saw any more.. That and keep her feet further away from the saw.
Scary moment getting a call like that ...
 
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  • #18
Long ago, in a state far far away, I had removed a giant Walnut tree. As I finished cutting the stump, I grabbed the cant hook and went to pry it away. Well, it was still attached somewhere -so as I lifted and pivoted I also stepped forward to move with the stump, but it caught somewhere and threw it back and ripped the peavy from my grip. The stumps edge had landed on my big toe, pinching it.

It was during the days when climbers were moving away from those lugged logging boots to the now mountain hiking style popular today. I had made my transition just a few days prior which meant no more steel toe.

The pain was unreal. I thought for sure it was in pieces and it felt wet, like smashing injuries feel for some reason. I ended up going to get x-rays and it was fine, but the pain was still unbearable. So in comes a Dr. with what looked like an ink pen that he pulls from its packaging. He tells me to keep still and the next thing I know, the tip of this pen is glowing red hot. He lightly touches the toenail and it pops where he just burned a hole. It was immediate relief! Like nothing happened. Back to work the next day -and I was surprised my boss, who wouldn't even allow us to remove our helmets while pruning azaleas, didn't push the no steel toe issue.

Got a bunch of these, am I the only one?
 
Had a log that was stuck in a crotch finally come out just as I slipped from pulling on it with a rope... I fell, ground was a tad muddy and slippery. I landed cross legged and watched an oak pole/lod slid out of the crotch and land butt end on my ankle... OMG that farken hurt.
Had the ground not been muddy, my ankle would have been crushed. Just sank in the mud. Felt broke ....
And that wet feeling you described. Could hardly get my boot off the end of the day. Called my grounds man to help me back up the hill. Tried to work on it the rest of the day and only made it an hour.
Damn thing still pops to this day. Nothing they could do for it when I had it x rayed and such... Just a bad sprain they said... Bad would be an understatement..
 
I've had the fingernail smoosh before. Very painful. I did the red hot needle poke myself, but it only provided a small amount of relief. Eventually the nail fell off.


I also had a very bad ankle sprain once (body surfing, not tree work), and the doctor told me it would have healed faster if I had just broken it.
 
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  • #22
I'm still healing from this one. In fact, my g/f is blind without her contacts —climbed into bed with me, kneeing my elbow- ripping off my scab.

On my last removal, I was bucking up the felled tree and as I cut thru, I pulled the freed log toward me. Now I'm adamant about always looking for an escape route. No matter what I do, I've got a way out! "Except when I had three daughters."

So to avoid getting rolled over by a two hundred pound log, I stepped back and son of a biscuit! Stumbled over another cut log, then making me lose footing again and stumbling back even further. I landed on my left elbow, coxic and shoulder all at the same time. Us big guys fall hard!
 
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  • #24
Don't know if anyone remembered a climber by the name of Jeff Jackson, but he made a boo boo or two that I had heard about.

When the BigShot first came out, he was using it at the Cleveland ISA climbing competitions, showing folks how well it worked. At first, it was used with the sling being drawn back on top of the pole. Well, he pulled it back and released, but was kneeling on the line. The bag slung back just as fast as it released- right into his face. His nose was obliterated.

It was just after that they suggested it be flipped, with the sling on the underside.


True story.
 
I was snap cutting blocks off of a 28-30" DBH doug-fir a month ago, little while dead (burning in the stove now). It was cold, like really cold for around here, so nice, little traffic, a bit windy, and I just got over the flu. Hadn't done but one other storm tree in a month. I was snap-cutting 20" wood, 5' or so. Choked climb line below, flipline above (with cuttable link), was just about push a block off when I saw that I had stood up tall to push the block off, and my lanyard came above the mismatched cuts.

I imagine it would have rolled off the flipline, as it was about 4" up from the cuts, if I were to somehow have pushed it off without feeling the block pulling my lanyard.
 
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