SRT anchoring question

I go once around the trunk, have a triple-lock steel biner clipped to the up leg.
I tie an alpine B'fly about 1' up the up leg, a lowering rope is fisherman tied to that which then goes off to a fig 8 on a sling attached to an adjacent tree. (the other day it was a fencepost)
If it all goes pearshaped, just unclip the biner, remove it and lower away from the fig 8. I did away with the need to cut the rope.
I set it up to satisfy WH&S if they ever came to look...
 
A $150 base-tie is a gearhead deal.

One piece of scrap life-support rope, one life support biner. Munter-mule, overhand/ scaffold tie off on a bight.

Or Graeme's.

Pictures speak a thousand words...http://www.climbing.com/skill/save-yourself-a-guide-to-self-rescue/

I learned this through an adventure component of a hoods-in-the-woods program (me...staff, not hood).

This allowed the rappel line to be lowered with the participant on it (panic, hair or fabric caught in figure 8 rappel device, bee sting, injury). MMO was tied on a carabiner at the master anchor point.
 
Thats a nice set up Nick. Personally I would prefer to avoid like the cutting of line part. In the heat of the moment, a real-life serious injury I wouldn't want people taking to my life-support with scissors and knives. The termination knot at the end of two trunk wraps is really easy to untie, and what with all the friction of the re-di crotch that the climber is hanging from, it'd be tough for even the most unrehearsed or panic stricken groundworker to mess-up. Each to his own though. Good video.

I don't really think I will ever need a rescue. I just tie the knots so there are options. I don't even carry the kit. In fact TreeStuff has never even sold one. I just think tying the knots makes more sense than not tying them, regardless of how a given rescue goes down.

Reg what is this show you are talking about? I am interested seeing as how I couldn't be more done discussing base ties for 2014.
 
Reg what is this show you are talking about? I am interested seeing as how I couldn't be more done discussing base ties for 2014.

Sorry, its in September, and not just forestry as suggested....but a huge Arborist contingent also. All the main dealers and equipment manufacturers. Beautiful outdoor location, lots of drinking at the local town thereafter. If you guys are looking to cast your net out that way its really a great opportunity to network: http://www.apfexhibition.co.uk/picture_gallery.php
 
Sharp tools to release a rescue system, UNNECESSARILY, no thanks.


Where are the scissors?! Where are the scissors?! Get a handsaw?! Who has a knife?


I wonder if a rescue department would lower a free hanging climber with no obstructions below on ANY system we use, as its not a part of their training and SOP.

The MMO is a standard rescue knot, to some degree.

Avoid the rescue, self-rescue, crew member rescue you, call another tree climber, rely on the rescue squad, in that order.
 
but I do often wonder if a large portion of climbers just like fkcing about with stuff and connecting it all up in a nice colorful web of rigging. Nothing wrong with that but it just seems more a recreational mindset than a productive one. I just dont know how you make money with that.

Sometimes you gotta spend time with all that to be blue to narrow it down to the simplest way. I remember the first few time setting up a zip line for rigging. We lost our ass on that job md it turned into a big tangle. Since then, learning when to use it and when not to has made me my money back ten times over. The same is true when I first learned of throw lines and moved away from ladders. Ended up in a big tangle with my boss yelling at me. How much money would I be making if I were still on a ladder. Isle enough money doing tree work that I can afford to set up some crazy ass shit that is neither practical nor efficient but MIGHT be. More often than not it doesn't work but the times it does its awesome. I personally believe that a well dialed in base tie system can shave minutes off of the work day. Which adds up over the course of the year.
 
Like I said on treebuzz though, I mostly just tie a running bowline and get on with it.
 
Avoid the rescue, self-rescue, crew member rescue you, call another tree climber, rely on the rescue squad, in that order.

That's it right there.

The WAA has been tackling the whole rescue scenario quite a bit at recent conferences and at the last one someone asked a first responder what he thinks. He said we are the experts so get the guy down. Plain and simple. He was trained in high angle rescue but was obviously not overly confident in his skills.

As far as base anchors go I use a running bowline with 2 butterflies. I know I can trust my partner to lower me safely if the need arises. I can also set up anchors with a Grigri or the Rig or a F8 and trust that he can lower me as well. He knows I can lower him if need be. The point is that it depends on who will be using the system. At our previous place of employment you never knew who was going to be on your crew and I wouldn't trust 75% of those employees with my life so I would totally rethink my base anchor.


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Sometimes you gotta spend time with all that to be blue to narrow it down to the simplest way. I remember the first few time setting up a zip line for rigging. We lost our ass on that job md it turned into a big tangle. Since then, learning when to use it and when not to has made me my money back ten times over. The same is true when I first learned of throw lines and moved away from ladders. Ended up in a big tangle with my boss yelling at me. How much money would I be making if I were still on a ladder. Isle enough money doing tree work that I can afford to set up some crazy ass shit that is neither practical nor efficient but MIGHT be. More often than not it doesn't work but the times it does its awesome. I personally believe that a well dialed in base tie system can shave minutes off of the work day. Which adds up over the course of the year.

I agree. Sometime you do have to work with stuff to determine its merit. But others you can just think about it to the same effect. I thought about this one rather, and left it at that.
 
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  • #37
What would suck though if the injured being lowered, gets hung up on any number of things we encounter.
 
Right! I've often thought about that too...

On some forum someone posed the question of how many people had actually had to do a rescue, self or otherwise, the instance was pretty low if I remember.
 
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  • #40
My last ISA climbing competition was on a hot summer day and I had partied the night before with friends. My last event was the arial rescue and I was spent by my turn. Well, the local news happened to begin filming as I was descending with the dummy, which was heavy as hell!

As I got to the ground, the idea was to lay it as carefully as you would an injured worker. By doing this, I tried landing in a squatted position with it across my lap, before I set it down. Well, the camera is two feet away from me and being extremely tired, I was pinned on the ground by its weight- still tied in and off balance cause the knot seized from our combined lbs.

I couldn't move! My legs were now buckled beneath me while two dummies were now wrapped together as one. At that moment, I could only laugh at myself and how stupid I looked....
:lol:
 
Right! I've often thought about that too...

On some forum someone posed the question of how many people had actually had to do a rescue, self or otherwise, the instance was pretty low if I remember.

I have done two real aerial rescues. One was a severe asthma attack, the other a dislocated shoulder. Both victims were conscious and able to at least hold themselves upright, which made things much easier.
 
No, both DdRT. One was a simple straight up and down. The other guy had climbed over to another tree and his line was at quite an angle. I clipped a rope onto his saddle running through a nearby crotch and had the ground guys slowly "lower" him back to neutral, then I brought him down.
 
Nice work man! I figured it was drt. It seems like just having an access line that remains in the tree would be better than a ninja base tie.
 
Good to hear about those rescues Leon, real world trumps the 'what if'.

With the obstacles in the way of lowering an SRT victim, a rescuer may well have to climb up to them anyway.
 
I've done one, back in 1988. New/young climber had tied in to one tree (trimming for Asplundh), and had swung over into a smaller neighboring tree. We had set a line to pull the top of the smaller tree away from the primaries. When the top snapped of the cut, the recoil shook him pretty good, and he threw his hand in front of the saw, which chewed his hand up rather badly. He freaked out and started screaming and such. I had to run up his tie in tree and tie in, then come back down and swing over to get him back to the original tree, then untie and lower him. I feel certain I could have gotten myself down in his situation, but he was rather squeamish and the sight of blood was freaking him out. I had just sharpened his saw before he went up. The doctor that sewed his hand up told him it was good the chain was sharp, as a dull one rips flesh much worse. I do recall the lacerations being cleanly sliced.
 
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  • #50
Nice story treesmith.

If the injury wasn't all that life threatening -I would've had a hard time not notching his tree a felling it with him in it.
;)
 
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