"It's just a birch tree".....how hard could it be?

[greatoutdoors]

My buddy Jeff and I took out this birch tree yesterday. Jeff did a phenomenal job climbing. He took it down all by hand. Every other tree company wanted to use a bucket, but you would have damaged the landscape and had to cut your way in for access. We had planned to rent a spider lift after looking at the tree again earlier this week, but it was rented out this weekend. So Jeff did it the old fashioned way and it worked out well with no damage at all.

 

[pantheraba]

Had to be interesting. Any pictures of the climbing and rigging?

 

[stig]

Looks like the kind of tree where a GRCS really makes a difference.

 

[flushcut]

It kind of looks like you could cut most of it with a pole saw standing on the roof, but a GRCS would have been a blessing on that one for sure. Was it just the one stem or the one behind it as well?

 

[brendonv]

River Birch, boy do they grow fast. Nice looking trees too. I've worked on some with 2" wide growth rings on the stump. Mine outside quadrupled in a year. (I did juice it up a bit )

Nice job, though I thought there was more pics in a series coming. Sometimes it's the small dorky trees that take some thinking/time.

 

[Tucker943]

Small dorky trees can be my biggest headaches sometimes. They often lack the height over the obstacles to make lowering easy.

 

[greatoutdoors]

Had to be interesting. Any pictures of the climbing and rigging?

I wish, Jeff kept me too busy with brush and logs and I never snapped another picture. Kicking myself for it now. He climbed way out on each limb and handsawed most of the small branches off. We butt hitched the tops onto the roof and that made lowering them a lot more controlled than just cutting them off and trying to slide them down. For the logs, he snap cut small chucks off of it till we could rig some larger pieces. He was in some tough positions, but worked right through it with no problems.

It kind of looks like you could cut most of it with a pole saw standing on the roof, but a GRCS would have been a blessing on that one for sure. Was it just the one stem or the one behind it as well?

The roof was really steep. We wouldn't walk on it unless tied in. He butt hitched a lot of the brush and used the snap cuts on the log, just throwing the pieces down to a pile wooded landing zone. A GRCS would have been money and a big help, but creating false crotches using a block worked well a few times.

It was a four stem tree, with two of the stems going directly over the house. It was big for a birch. haha

 

[flushcut]

Got cha!

 

[chris_girard]

Nicely done guys!

 

[Burnham]

Tough one, for sure.

 

[Ian Flatters]

Looks a pig, well done for getting it done. sometimes small trees can be the worst & thrown unwanted curve balls.

 

[ClimbingFool]

Looks a pig, well done for getting it done. sometimes small trees can be the worst & thrown unwanted curve balls.

You got that right....Nice job Guys... looks to be a pretty damn steep roof too.