Tall Fir Rigging

[Tucker943]

Big saws wear me out more on a ground then in the tree. In the tree, there are only brief moments when you personally are using muscle to support the saw. It's never light as a feather, and id prefer to get away with less gun, but realistically, your saddle and the tree itself take most of the weight. It's the time between the saddle and the kerf that we are taking the weight. If you position properly at each cut, it seems you can trim that time down.

 

[gf beranek]

You're young and in good shape. You don't need a wraptor. I was just kidding. But after 40 years in the biz you might look at it a little different.

Thanks for the vid.

 

[Jed]

Boy, I sure don't relish the thought of standing in the spurs that long anymore. That is brutal on the body. Good work, Reg. as always.

Ger: I've got nails shoe goo'd to the bottom of my Red Dawgs right now. Poor man's Westcos

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Not so much wielding a large saw in the tree as it is a bitch to drag up to your self when needed. Easier to come down and let the Wraptor take the weight.

 

[Jed]

Reg: Beautiful, beautiful work. BTW, you had mentioned being a bit bored recently. Do you think that that's a tall conifer thing? Do you miss the broadlimbed pigs of England? I swear, I absolutely LOVE the trees up here, but everyone's different.

I remember Deva saying that when his spurs start to hurt, he just throws his biner around the pole, and just hangs out SRT on his saddle for a sec. while he's waiting on the ground-guys. I've got an amazing ground-guy at the moment, and it seems like (thank you God) there's never enough time. For some reason when I turned 43 (you whipper-snapper you!) my arches started hurting pretty bad even though I was running the same kind of boots. I too weigh 155 dripping wet, but I still might upgrade to White's or Wescos or Vibergs or something with a nice steel shank. What were you wearing Haix or something?

 

[Tucker943]

Stay away from steel shank. Get whites with a leather shank. I can dance on smoke jumpers.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Yup.. prefer non steel shank

 

[gf beranek]

In the latter years I began to climb with just plain old hiking boots. Light and with a good arch. The Wes Co's and Buffalo's began to feel too heavy and stiff for climbing I felt, but that was only after many years of climbing with them. I also started using foot holds in the tree to relieve having to use the spurs for support. As I grew older I slowly became a wus. I guess. Ha!

 

[cory]

As the body weakens, the mind gets stronger, through experience and desire, and the bottom line can be a more effective tree guy, despite age.

 

[gf beranek]

Indeed.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Pads!

 

[RegC]

Reg: Beautiful, beautiful work. BTW, you had mentioned being a bit bored recently. Do you think that that's a tall conifer thing? Do you miss the broadlimbed pigs of England? I swear, I absolutely LOVE the trees up here, but everyone's different.

I remember Deva saying that when his spurs start to hurt, he just throws his biner around the pole, and just hangs out SRT on his saddle for a sec. while he's waiting on the ground-guys. I've got an amazing ground-guy at the moment, and it seems like (thank you God) there's never enough time. For some reason when I turned 43 (you whipper-snapper you!) my arches started hurting pretty bad even though I was running the same kind of boots. I too weigh 155 dripping wet, but I still might upgrade to White's or Wescos or Vibergs or something with a nice steel shank. What were you wearing Haix or something?

I quite like where I am right now Jed, but I wouldnt mind doing another stint in Australia either. However, its just not practical right now. Im wearing pfanner zermatts. They are the best boots Ive every worn for tree work.

 

[chris_girard]

Great work and awesome vid Reg. Thanks for sharing. I too wear Pfanner Zermatts and IMO, they are the best boots for removal and spur work.

Question: Did you have to switch out a few times to different sized yale polydine lines as the pieces got bigger, or did you stick with one line when blocking down the stem. Also I missed it, did you say that you climbed to the top, set your climb line and zip line and then descended down to the lower branches where you started to sling, cut and zip the branches

Thanks again.

 

[RegC]

I used 5/8 line for all the chunks, Chris. I did initially climb to the top on this one....dont usually but it was an easy route. I set the zip line just above my climbline, but then ran it through a redirect about 25 ft below. The thing is if you set the line too high above where you're working on a densely branched conifer such as this one, it tends to hang way out of your reach after you cut free the branch or group of branches.....so you need the ground workers to flick it back to you each time, often getting snagged in the protruding branches above. Its not a huge deal, but it does waste time. The redirect goes some way to avoid this problem. And when you've stripped everything up to the redirect you just remove it and switch to the high point.

However, If you're trying to balance/support and swing limbs around from the back of the tree though, a direct, unobstructed high-point to the limbs gets the best results....same as with conventional rigging:https://www.masterblasterhome.com/showthread.php?17905-zipline-swinging-limbs

Sorry Chris, a little more info than you asked for.

 

[chris_girard]

Don't be sorry about anything Reg. I love the full description. Gives a good visual on why things are done. Thanks!

 

[ch74]

I spur climb in my work boots medium top wolverines on my geckos. No pain at all. Nice work Reg. Always cool to watch your vids.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

For a lot of people, I think, labor saving techniques are a pain, until working out the bugs. Tips like yours, with more explicit reasoning helps.