five old firs

[Gord]

We took down these five old firs today, unfortunately I don't have any pics that really show the whole trees. Really cool old trees, very gnarly, lots of stuff to snag a rope or anything, funny limbs that start in front of you and turn back over your head. The three that I did were all leaning heavily, which (along with the really fissured and crumbly bark) made some of the cuts pretty awkward. Dusty too. The trees were slated for removal on recommendation of a survey done for the safety of the powerlines which were just dowhill. This was on public forestry land.

Really cool branching.

I swung into this one from the previous tree so I didn't have to fight my way past the flat part of the union.

I keep my rope in a bag for stuff like this. A heavy lean and sprawling limbs/stems mean it's too easy for something to catch the rope on it's (long) ways down.

Haven't seen a fungus like this one before, it appears to be pretty old. It was at a spot of some advanced heartwood decay. Anyone know what it is?

The other guy knocking off a log. I had a bit of a rest with a view here.

You get a bit of an idea of the lean here. The bark was so sloughy on the first 35' or so that I had to shave it off as I went up.

The other guy rappeling off the spar.

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[rumination]

Excellent pictures Gord. Really cool trees.

 

[pantheraba]

Dang, Gord...that was some good stuff. A fine video; cool seeing the transfer at the 3:00 mark...those were some nice sized sticks you threw down. Well done all around.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Awesome video and pics!!!

 

[squisher]

Awesome, nice you had some room to bomb down some big pieces.

 

[Frans]

those are or were some nice kinky firs. Excellent pix thanks for posting
Hey where are those trees located?

On that conk, was that completely surrounding a branch? Or was it growing off the side of a branch?

 

[stehansen]

Were you the only climber?

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Simply awesome Gord... Hats off to ya man...

 

[Frans]

Were you the only climber?

read the picture captions. He was not the only climber.

 

[Gord]

Frans that conk was right on the stem, positioned just like in the pic. These trees were just outside of Gibsons (north-west of Vancouver).

Steve it was me and another climber.

 

[sotc]

Nice stuff

 

[wiley_p]

Gord, without seeing the bottom, I won't say for sure but it looks like indian paint fungus. bad, bad shit if it was. Was the decay a stringy brown rot?
I had a Hemlock on Prince of Wales island volcano on me that had that crap before knew what it was. Absolutely destroyed a 2100 Husky that I left in the cut.

 

[Bodean]

Fateez......................

 

[wiley_p]

I've never seen a fruiting body with that many rings on it, has to be something else I would think. I don't think any conifer can sustain enough sugar for that pathogen to go that long.

 

[Gord]

Slow and steady I would think. There was a lot of decayed wood inside.

 

[stehansen]

Thanks Frans. Awesome pictures Gord.

 

[klimbinfool]

Very nice.

 

[Bounce]

That was COOL!

 

[Gord]

I guess the fungus was Laricifomes officinalis, not a very common one it seems.

 

[treesandsurf]

Great stuff! Thanks for posting.

jp

 

[Ryan]

Always great videos, Gord. I clicked the link for the golf course job and enjoyed another viewing of that one as well.

 

[Greenhorn]

Definitely one of the best vids out there!