Well, I got it done. I'm pretty sure this was the worst experience I've ever had doing anything with climbing or saws. After I got the third line stuck. I remembered having an issue with that crotch before. It's just big enough to allow throwline, but won't let anything else pass. That was plan B. After looking at all the possibilities(None that don't involve spikes), I went back to plan A...
There was a stick sticking out of the side of the tree that's probably been dead for 10 years. The goal was to get a line over that, then finagle a rope around the stem girth hitching it. I had broken that stick in my first attempts and went to plan B. There was still about 1' sticking out, and I had a ~6" shot to get a throwline between it and the stem. I'm on my nasty old weaver line at this point. I did have one bundle of dynaglide in the truck, but I wanted to reserve that for a true emergency. A couple apta shots got it through the gap, and about an hour later after dicking with throwbags getting everything situated, I got a line set. Sort of...
As I mentioned earlier, it didn't snug up. The loop hooked the tiniest of stubs on the back of the stem, so I probably had 12' of free play in the rope, and it was maybe 8' down to the crotch below that would have been the final catch if it all came loose. Ya know, I'm done with the play by play. None of us have time for this shit. Just know, I'm about 50% into the days travail's at the end of the above...
I finished the day untangling 750' of throwline, Got to use some new stuff in this project. I like my new rope(kernmaster special static), but I still need more time on it when I'm not just fighting existence. I'm not at all impressed with the zing-it throwline. It's got a weird waxy coating, and it abrades terribly. Dynaglide is a better deal at twice the price(though it isn't). I'm also not thrilled with the camp turbofoot ascender. I got that free with a wesspur order. I kicked out once, which isn't a big deal, but I found it difficult to set the rope back in. It's the worst of both worlds. I spent too much time screwing with it. Finally, I used my foldable saka which was awesome of course. It's just a saka that folds, so it's the same as the old ones in use. Bright side is I didn't notice any problems with my wrist. It seems to behave itself when real work needs to be done. It only acts up with dumb stuff.
Also did a hot tap on a condensate line, which horrifically was a nice change of pace this morning to let the monster ice tea kick in a bit more. 🤣
