Still getting up there :)

[Jonny]

Hope I can still do it if I ever get to be your age. Well done, B!
Do you miss the work much since retiring?

 

[Bodean]

Wooden apples!

 

[Raj]

Good show!

 

[Jomo]

I knew B wouldn't sit still after Jerr dropped that tree on his birthday!

Jomo

 

[stig]

those were some sad, chewed up, excuses for wedges.
Want me to send you a couple of Hardheads

 

[Burnham]

You are right, Stig...they are. Thanks for the kind offer, but no. I have a full complement of hardheads, and some non, that are all in pretty good shape...these just appealed to my sense of "old and beat up, but still getting the job done" .

You know, my only disappointment with this takedown is that due to the covid19 thing, you won't be visiting yet again this year...and I had a great plan for Tom Sawyering you into doing it for me .

 

[Benjo75]

At the risk of sounding stupid, is that a prussic with a ring on a flat webbing friction saver? If so, Iguess it grabs good? Never thought about putting one on a flat sling.

 

[Burnham]

Not stupid. Sharp eyes, you have .

That's a fairly common arrangement for an adjustable friction saver that is retrievable. In this case I set it above a whorl of limbs, so the adjustable function was unnecessary...it was just set up in my pack that way and I used it...actually could have set my descent rope in either small ring to get the same same.

But if you wish, and on many a job I performed in tree work pursuing natural resource management objectives with the USFS this was SOP, you can set that sort of FS on a clean limbless bole and rappel safely. I have the 30 inch FS you saw, and a 72 incher for bigger stems.

The only trick is setting the distance between rings so that your weight keeps a snug fit on the limbless stem...and keeping it so until you fully load it with your body weight for a safe descent.

 

[pantheraba]

This is how I made my bigger FS adjustable and bigger. Ignore the lower left silverish ring...it was part of a description of an old ring recall problem.

 

[pantheraba]

I don't have much luck at retrieving these things....even when the rings are bigger, properly sized, etc. I try to leapfrog it down as I descend...or if I leave it at the top of a spar. Then I get one side of the climbing line thru the first ring and then try to shake it into falling....or the rope comes all the way thru both and leaves the FS up at the top of the spar.

Then I scream, "WTF???" at it and fell the spar.

 

[lxskllr]

I've been reluctant to get a friction saver for that reason. They look finicky to install from the ground, and not as easy to retrieve as I'm lead to believe. A bunch of guys here said they were optional to protect the tree, and that made me feel better about not having one.

 

[Burnham]

There are many flavors of friction saver. Some are obstinate, some are easy, most are in between. Installation from the ground can be sweet, or frustration personified.

Mostly in my work, I would climb via spurs, or SRT, or stacking ladders. I'd then set the FS for descent on doubled line, and retrieve the FS from the ground. I have set them from the ground many a time, but more often only once aloft.

One mod I made to mine is to place an autolock pear shaped carabiner in the big ring and run my descent rope through that. In the normal configuration, it isn't uncommon for the ring to lay hard against the bole, under descent pressure, which can make it hard to clear your end knot or ball. The addition of the biner forces that link to lay more open, and greatly eases retrieval.

 

[pantheraba]

Even if it's hard to retrieve it is still a valuable piece of equipment. If you are 50-60 feet up a spar that's all cleaned and ready to drop it sucks spurring down...a FS is worth it. Even though I might cuss it I still like using it.

I hardly ever install one from the ground....If I install one from the ground it is a leather donkey dack type....easy to install from the ground.

 

[Burnham]

Those are good. Hard to use with a spliced eye lifeline, often...but simplicity itself in deployment. I have a well used one myself.

If you are a spliced eye guy, best to just keep the donkey dong on your climbing line, pulled through to the splice from the tail once upon a time .

 

[Burnham]

In my experience doug firs are delicate trees. Soil compaction, grade changes, weather changes all seem to hit them hard

Interesting, Frans. Delicate is about the last descriptor I'd use for Douglas fir. Of course, we live in entirely different portions of the current geographic range for the species. Here in the north Cascades, they are generally quite robust.

 

[lxskllr]

They're known for doing poorly around here, but we're about as far from you as can be, and still in the US(We'll pretend Hawaii doesn't exist :^P )

 

[Benjo75]

I have several ring to ring friction savers that are on round cordage. One older one on 3 braid. But I've never seen a prussic on flat webbing. Didn't know it would grab good enough for life support. Nice to have options.

 

[Burnham]

They're known for doing poorly around here, but we're about as far from you as can be, and still in the US(We'll pretend Hawaii doesn't exist :^P )

Well hell, of course not. Right here in my own PNW, smack in the middle of Doug fir geographic range, we select DF (and all other species) seed source for reforestation by both elevation and range. An eastside of the Cascades parent tree seedling would never be planted on the westside, nor in the coast range. North to south over the species range there are many more geographic limitations. Elevation is limited to 1000 foot groupings. You'd never plant a seedling from a 2000-3000 foot source at 4200 feet and expect it to thrive, nor at 1200 feet, if you were a competent reforestation specialist. We learned this the hard way, between the early 1900's and the 1950's here in the Cascades. Off site seed source stands often did very poorly after about 20 years of age, and even younger.

I continue to be amazed at how successful Douglas fir has done in REALLY off site locations...like Stig's Denmark, or Germany, or Ireland.

 

[Burnham]

I have several ring to ring friction savers that are on round cordage. One older one on 3 braid. But I've never seen a prussic on flat webbing. Didn't know it would grab good enough for life support. Nice to have options.

Gary shows his with a single prusik wrap...mine uses a double, a more normal configuration for a prusik. I won't call his wrong...but I wouldn't do it that way myself .

 

[lxskllr]

That's interesting there's so much variation in the same general area. Any idea what accounts for it on a chemical/biological level?

edit:
I guess what I'm asking, is could someone take a seedling/sapling of unknown provenance, analyze it for form/chemical composition, and determine where it would be happy?

 

[Burnham]

I don't know much about the chemical, not to say there isn't a body of study that might have much info that could be pertinent.

On the other hand, I do know something about the biological...it's all about evolutionary adaption to growing conditions. Factors include average amount of moisture and especially the timing of it's delivery; average length of growing season and upper and lower temp extremes. Exposure to and subsequent genetically fine-tuned abilities to resist various pathogens and insects. There is much more.

Which of course explains why current rapid changes to our climates can mean dire consequences for many plant and tree species, let alone animals.

I see your edit now...I'd guess it would be a DNA test, compared to others of proper provenance, rather than chemical analysis. But that it just a guess from a simple forestry technician, so it's worth every penny you paid for it .

 

[Benjo75]

Looks like you fell that tree to the East.

 

[pantheraba]

Gary shows his with a single prusik wrap...mine uses a double, a more normal configuration for a prusik. I won't call his wrong...but I wouldn't do it that way myself .

I agree...the one I use most now is a flat webbing on the FS and it IS prussicked. I noticed the simple hitch when I posted that....I donna do it that way now. I"ll try to post it tomorrow....if I remember.

 

[Burnham]

 

[Burnham]

Looks like you fell that tree to the East.

Uhhh, maybe I'm missing some clever point ...but it was to the west, slightly northwest.