What is the Circle of Death?

[Mick!]

You’re getting soft Stig!

I cannot be so callous about it, it can happen to me, you or anyone. Reducing the risk by following the right way to do stuff reduces it of course, but trees are capricious.

It’s funny but you know every day I climb I think about Butch “once is none, twice is one” every frickin’ day.

 

[Altissimus]

Nice story

 

[pantheraba]

Great post, Stig...good info...good stories.

 

[stig]

Mick, my apprentices have been told that to the point where they vomit if I say it again.

I do a lot of stuff tied in once, because I deem it safer.
But I absolutely demand that apprentices, who don't have the saw skills, or in fact any other skills, to make tying in once safer, be tied in twice.

He didn't make a single mistake.
He made 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In one tree.
Yet survived even though I imagine he has to be pretty careful about what he eats.

I guess that could be seen as proof of the existence of a God of fools

The reason I'm callous about it, is that I absolutely hate the fact that friggin' up like that and surviving, made him a hero of sorts in arbo circles here.
Hate it!

 

[SeanKroll]

Stig, sorry for the confusion, that I don't get, still, honestly.

I'm a bit sick, and definitely tired. Sometimes working off at small screen.

I'm talking about spar-splitting from internal forces on the tree, not about stressors to tree-health, that can endanger the climber. Gord's picture/ explanation of the situation, and others' experiences seem in line with a grown-bent-over trunk with the top removed being possible to split.

 

[stig]

Get back on your feet, buddy.
Then we can always take it up again, if need be.

 

[SeanKroll]

Some day this will all be live group video-chat/ video recordings. Easy to sort things out and show some tangibles examples in our discussions.

 

[stig]

And a life spent learning how to write correct English/American will be wasted.

 

[SeanKroll]

But think of the accents you could practice.

 

[stig]

I pick those up real easy.
When I came back to the Californian coast after beeing a buckaroo in Idaho, everybody told me I sounded like a God damned cowboy

Be fun to add some, though.
Always been fashinated by the way the Scots speak.

 

[greengreer]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...sQwqsBCCowAA&usg=AOvVaw0VTJzWxrN8ZFOD4xbU2nov

 

[SeanKroll]

Link didn't work for me.

 

[pantheraba]

Nor me....

 

[greengreer]

Damn, had nothing to do with circle of death anyway...

 

[MasterBlaster]

Sounds like martial arts movie!

 

[Grendel]

A prussic loop will slip on the rope eventually. That much friction tends to melt things, but they will eventually slip.

 

[Brocky]

Here's an option from Sherrill's 2002 catalog

 

[Marc-Antoine]

Removing the stopper knot or other stopper something from the end of the lanyard allows this slipping (or releasing the grab if you have the time) to continue past the end and frees the lanyard if the tree keeps splitting and /or falling.
If not, you got only a short respite and you are in trouble again, moreover, with a fair bit of momentum added in the equation.

 

[Tree09]

I'm not seeing how an adjustable friction saver would keep you safe there...

 

[squisher]

'The small ring stops the prussic, allowing as much of the climbing line nescessary to stop the climber being pulled into the stem....'

 

[Brocky]

This would work as long as your climb line didn't get snagged or snarled, the same with a stopper knotless lanyard.

 

[SkwerI]

In thirty years of tree work I've been in this situation exactly zero times. Of all the local tree guys I know, I only know of one who had this happen once. And he's an idiot who cannot read what is going to happen, he just cuts and hopes.

I suspect you'll never climb anything big enough to have to worry about it.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Well, remember Brian, many of those years weren't spent climbing.

It may have happened twice to me, but I think it was only once. I barely remember the first time...

That second time, sayonara lanrard!!!

It does happen.

 

[Mick!]

Agreed.

It happened to me in an alianthus, it’s not worth obsessing about, but being aware of it and when it might happen is no bad thing.

 

[SeanKroll]

Brian, do you have trees that are notoriously very prone to barberchairing (not trying to start a pissing match)?


Large Bigleaf maple and alder (probably our two most numerous leaf trees) are very prone, especially when growing out from over-story trees, and into house clearings. I've seen short, veteran alder approaching 4' diameter, and cut 100' alder at about 2.5' dbh, first limb at 50-60', inside older growth forest.




I was asked by a crap climber to finish a LARGE walnut that split on him when it was chunking down a lead. He had chained it without a binder, just a grab-hook. I don't recall, exactly, but the chain came super tight, splitting several inches open, maybe 3-4, until the chain tightened up. That would have killed him, I think.

The homeowner got someone else to finish it.



Gord, on the other hand, is not a crap climber/ cutter.





I've been told by someone with 40+years to face alders off the lean to reduce splitting. He was a big proponent of chaining as needed, too. He's cut big hillsides of leaning alders, and used to be in Old-growth logging at 19yo. He told me they notched one log to fit the bunks. One log load. 330' Older growth doug-fir was his biggest fell.







I rarely worry about a big split, but do protect appropriately, as needed. Bigleaf maples can be heard/ felt popping and cracking as logs are knocked off. Knowing what causes C-of-D, and most likely species/ scenarios, is a good idea.

Seems like a tree that's been hit by another tree, with extra weight on it, will be worse.

Gusty winds can effectively worsen the forces.






I've mentioned before, I ran across a guy up in the San Juan Islands of NW WA that gets carried from his truck to his mini-x, as his spine and/ or pelvis were crushed by the circle of death. He does firewood and some clearing now. Didn't talk to him. My work partner relayed the story when we saw him out working during out commute to our jobsite.