Overhead stem was very far away, rigging off it would mean a big swing toward the house. Camera doesn't do it justice, that Cottonwood was monstrous. Base of the tree was on a hill, can't tell from the video. Chunking pieces down would have had them bouncing off the hill and smashing the fence.
I was very much against negative rigging for the first 10 years in the trade. Only used it when I absolutely had to. My education in climbing was snap cutting and chunking stuff down. Now with rings and safebloc, I don't mind it at all. Opened up a whole new world of options...
Thanks for the comments everyone. I really like how this video turned out, that's why I shared it. I was trying to use visual storytelling, without words or narration, to show a small part of a very, very big climb. All the best.
Patrick