How windy is too windy to climb?

Like almost everything in this line of work...gut feeling plays a large part. When I started climbing 29 years ago, new climbers were always asking how high they should go before tying in. The famous reply was...."Climb until you fall out, and when you climb BACK up, stop a couple feet short of there."

I climbed out of a tree due to the wind today. To be honest I should never have started up it, but contract climbing does put you in pressure situations sometimes. Multi- stemmed lawsons cypress about 20m tall, so not a signifcantly big tree. It was gusting around 40mph according to the forecast with a constant of about 20mph. I had limbed it up yesterday in similar conditions, but this morning, after struggling to put my cuts in on the1st top to rig it nearly splitting it in two as it exploded when I tried to put a back cut in, I just bailed. It will still be there in the morning waiting for me
I did remember what Burnham taught me though - when possible climb with you back to the wind

I assess the situation without looking at wind speed. If it feels like it is anywhere near dangerous I don't climb trees. Not really interested in wind speed.

Erik
www.pro-cuttreeservice.com

True, a number means nothing, all by itself.

It's the wind gusts that easily fool a climber or tree faller........with the danger of making a climber into a tree faller

Tru dat.

Its too windy if you get in the tree and the thought crosses your mind....

Black Oak I was in today was rocking enough to throw me off balance more than once because of gusting winds. My real worry was the pieces we were roping out getting tangled in the dead stuff in the other trees...if that broke off I felt the wind was strong enough to blow it into the house, so we moved to a shorter Maple away from the building for the afternoon.

I had a nice steady breeze today, really consistent and the perfect direction for helping me get some tops to sail over a fence. Without it I wouldn't have been able to take those tops like i did. It saved me a ton of time and roping. And it confirmed my doubts about those tops making it without the wind, they never would've. Foot to inches close with the winds help. Like I tell the customers, no we didn't hit the fence....just scared it a little.

North Dakota has some of the worst wind conditions in the nation. I packed up and left the job the other day when two dead trees blew down about 100 yards from where I was working. It's never good to be in a tree when the limbs start falling around you.

It's not so bad when working in live trees.....but dead trees are very unpredictable, because anything that would normally bend in the wind will now break off.

I hate working in dead trees, but that's where I make most of my money. I figure the money will still be there when the wind stops blowing.

Joel

30-40 MPH is too much wind in most cases here. We have shut down in less wind, too. Depends on the tree, targets, and job.

today is to dam windy 35-45mph wind gusts...
I'm a hard head soI went out to the job to try and get something done(no luck)
wow as I was typing this the phone rang.lady down the steet said a big branch fell and is laying on her roof
and porch.gotta go
I bet its the one I warned her about 4 months ago!!!!

I'm still fairly new at climbing... with that being said I don't like any wind, but I've seen fiddler up in trees when it was easily gusting to 25mph. When it's like that I'm probably more nervous than he is.

your lucky to have someone that knows what there doing to help you learn
to climb!! I got the house and utube to learn from. (climb safe)

Wind is such a variable factor. sometimes it works for you and sometimes not.

Besides the rock and roll, the chips swirling around and getting in your face, is one of the things about the wind I found most displeasing.

On a hot day a subtle breeze is a nice thing. But when cutting tall slender tops not always so.

Oh the wind when you're working in a tree.

Had a cut and pitch TD the other day that was everything to get the limbs into the tight DZ... Broke a yard light and went to a light lowering rope.. When the lowered piece kept drifting over a garden, it was time to just say "we'll be back"

Afternoon winds messing things up. Timing some lanky euc top.....6 inch dbh and 30 feet tall. HA!

Stephen those windy tosses...suck.

Yeah.. timing the tops above 100 feet can get fun eh?

It's all calculated with pucker factor.

YUP

I like the wind. It keeps the mosquitos off you!

Probably TLTR.... I did a cat rescue last weekend....winds were up to 35mph per weather folks. Arrived on site and cat was at about 30 feet in a sweetgum, halfway up tree. First shot with APTA and cat zipped up to tip-top, about 60 feet, real skinny top. I climbed up to about 40 feet at point where the main trunk split into two leads...any higher and I felt the top might break out with me in it...sail effect from the wind was significant. The left lead was towards house, the two leads were about 20 feet long. Cat would not come back down. I cut the left lead and dumped it toward house..wind was blowing that way so that one was easy.

I had already told the HO that if things got bad I might have to cut the tree down with the cat in it...never have done that before. This was a feral cat, just outside their window and had been caterwauling for 5 days and they wanted it down. They asked me what to do with the cat if I got it down (cat judge again!!) I said, "I don't know...if I am lucky it will climb another tree and you can pay me again to get it down again"...she laughed and said, "only one rescue today".

Now I had the cat confined to the one tall lead...there was a dense canopy under the tree and out to 15 foot radius about 10 feet over the ground. I shook the top a lot to get the cat to either climb down to me or to jump into the canopy...no go. Wind was constant most of the time, sometimes gusted pretty hard...against the lay of the top. I finally decided to dump the top...sun was getting close to horizon, temp was in 40's and dropping. I put a rope on the top, set up a pulley to capture the belay rope...planned to use natural crotch friction to control the top but couldn't be sure the rope would actually lay in the crotch when I cut the top. The pulley was insurance if the crotch didn't capture the belay rope.

No face cut, I wanted the top to slowly tip over..I cut from the back and towards the wind...the lay of the top. Bad thing was that the wind would blow and pinch the saw (Silky) then die down and I would cut some more. My worry was the wind would gust at the wrong time and send the top the wrong way (towards me) or into a nearby BIG poplar...and the cat might transfer to that tree.

Wind cooperated...the top started easing over from my back cut. I sheathed the Silky, manned the belay rope and watched cat and top go flying down...did a dynamic belay and top came to rest above the canopy. I asked if the cat was still in the top...HO shouted, "yes, but it is climbing back up the top towards you!" Nope, not going to happen. I dumped the top, it crashed onto the canopy, the cat dove onto the canopy and hit the ground running...headed toward California last I saw of it...keep you eyes open, Stephen!

Final bill to her was $310 ($250 rescue, $60 travel)...she made check for $400. Two hours work, not bad.

And I got to dump a top with a cat in it...and got paid to do that!!

Great story, Gary! Thanks for taking the time to share it.

Tim

Yeah Gary, a lot of crazy cats end up in CA