Long four hours doing a pine today. Took forever to get a line set, and I got a throwbag stuck *twice*. It was starting to look like I'd get it pruned using apta shots :^S Halfway up my TIP(I thought) failed, and I dropped 3'. Looking up, it appeared I dropped onto a dead branch. I still had my throwbag to rescue, so I pushed on, but kept my lanyard around the stem. Got the throwbag, and went down. As soon as I hit the ground, boss came, and said my TIP was fine. I look up, and it was indeed good. I broke a branch off that was above it, and the geometry made it hard to see from the tree. Climb the 60'-70' back up to get to where I left off, and finished the tree.
Failures...
My rigid ropewrench tether sucks. Too bulky. I tried carving some off with my knife, but I had to switch back to the spliced tether.
My knee ascender failed. My bound loop slipped, and came apart. On the good side, everything else about the setup is pretty good. My bungie is a rubber tube I found on a job. I think it was a boogie board tether. Think bigshot tube. I just prusiked it off to figure out what length I need. I can get 2-3 bungies out of it.
My throwline is a snarled mess. I'll fool with it tomorrow. Dark was coming, and I had to get the rest of the stuff put away.
I made one cut a little too close to the stem, only on the top side. I think it'll be alright, but I don't like screwing that up. It was the thickest one I cut, and I was wedged between my line and the stem to keep the saw away from it, so I was in an uncomfortable position. That's my excuse anyway...
Kinda kicked my ass. Got home, and had to clean up a bunch of cat puke. As short as it was, it was a long day. I didn't start doing anything til 12:30.