im yours.
supertopo.
your collective opinion of me,
i adore.
i am not entirely likeable.
i am quite awkward.
and confrontational.
and immature.
and dramatic and absolute
and judgemental and evil.
and most of all,
ignorant.
though if you know me, as me,
i am completely harmless.
i strive for consideration,
among you.
your recognition is to me,
emotionally pleasing.
consternation upon me, i'll take gleefully.
beatings upon my brow
are like cops upon my trail:
exciting.
so here i am,
being me, and nothing more.
if you ever need something or anything:
money, hugs, services, encouragement, cams that need lube,
guidebooks, splinter-ridden clean socks, a place to park your trailer,
a swayward vision, a riddle, hair product (sorry i cant provide anyone with hair product), a local guide or companion,
or even
if you just need someone to compare yourself agains to feel better about yourself,
i am a deep puddle in which you can step,
or even bathe if the chicks won't regard you and your dirtbag halo,
cheers.
supertopo.
we are we.
and this is exactly how folly flows.
Credit: Norwegian
Missing photo ID#274061
Missing photo ID#274068
please.
any endowment of yee, upon me is welcome
in my journey towards two smiles, successively.
Fun to run the videos, but watching the branches and trunk sections drop was a little too suggestive to me. Every time I drop something on a climb, I always think "this could be me!" But I enjoyed watching it anyway.
Still, Norwegian, you're a much braver man than I. One time I got a bear hang stuck up in a tree, and didn't want to use my climbing gear to get it down. We were horse packing, and one of the wranglers had a pistol (allegedly to shoot a horse if it broke a leg) and lots of ammo, and we proceeded to try to perforate the offending branch until it broke. Wish we had you along.
Cool. I used to do tree work for the USFS. We got to do some fun projects, bagging eagles, traveling around to different forests to do stuff.
We also built Osprey nests, which involved topping trees and then building a platform on the resulting flat surface. It's wild taking a big top off a tree- major swinging back and forth when it cuts loose!!
How do you make the first cut of the trunk with confidence that the tree top will fall away from you and not topple back and crush you on the way down?
if you just need someone to compare yourself agains to feel better about yourself,
i am a deep puddle in which you can step,
hilarious. when my mom tells me about another of her friend's 3rd child who got into a law school I will try to tell her I am not that bad. don't you hate when someone tries to compare you to other people? so f*#ked up...i am not them, and i am not those other guys bumming for a bus pass, so let me be me...
I enjoyed every minute of your videos! (Can’t comment on your poetry, though. No clue.)
BITD I used to do all kind of work hanging from a rope, like painting chimneys and construction, tower inspections, welding, etc. Even masonry! A lot of fun and a lot of money!
When I got older I started using my brain more and less muscle ;-).
ron: sounds like you and i have some of the same background. i did alot of tree climbing for the cones. doug fir, ponderosa and jeffrey. also first saw on a hot shot crew and a faller. and chaps are for pussies. wore them for years fighting fires, never hit them once. wear jeans now, never hit them either.
I dunno if chaps are for pussies or not, but I imagine you gotta be a man to wear the extra weight and bear the heat - never wore them, I do like double front carhartt loggers for work.
I've done tree work for about 30 years and have never tagged my skin, or my pants with a running saw. I have tagged my Wescos on the edge of the soles a couple times. Never wore a hardhat, never wear safety goggles. I've had those boots since 1982, a few soles later, still using them.
What the hell are you doing way up in that tree Norwegian? Do I have to click your links to find out?
Edit: and Werner's right - you don't hit the strap, just like you don't front point yer lead line
How do you make the first cut of the trunk with confidence that the tree top will fall away from you and not topple back and crush you on the way down?
The simplest way is to unweight one side by cutting off the major branches, and the top will be pulled to the opposite side by the remaining branches. Wind must be considered. A rope from a helper on the ground can persuade the top to fall where you want it to. A wedge can be driven by the climber after a wedge cut and back cut are made, too.
I may not be as gray in the beard as some of you, but having worked in the trades since I was a kid, I've found this;
When you're green, you learn well and get reckless. Over confident.
When you've been doing it for a few years, you're good, but complacent. Settle into the groove, so to speak.
Then, you witness or are associated with, a freak accident. Someone is seriously hurt or dies in a situation where they were doing everything right.
So, after that happens, you take precautions. I'm a carpenter, so I wear headphones and eye protection when I cut or use large air nailers. Among other general safety rules.
Freak accidents happen, and I don't want to go out at work, it's got to be way cooler than that, whenever it happens.
wbraun: sorry to let the cat out of the bag so soon.
ron: i did a few 150'+ doug firs. never did any sugars. did stomping on the branches whip them loose or did you have to go all the way out and pick? that would be harry. i was able to do it with jeffreys because of the weight.
**"How do you make the first cut of the trunk with confidence that the tree top will fall away from you and not topple back and crush you on the way down?"
"The simplest way is to unweight one side by cutting off the major branches, and the top will be pulled to the opposite side by the remaining branches. Wind must be considered. A rope from a helper on the ground can help persuade the top to fall where you want it to. A wedge can be driven by the climber after a wedge cut and back cut are made, too."**
if the tree is leaning a little too much for a wedge you can use a hydrolic jack. start your back cut first, in about 6-8". cut a pie shape out for the jack, put your face cut in and slide the saw into the cut inside the jack and cut a lttle and jack a little until it goes. i only had to do this once but it worked.
I've seen some chainsaw accidents- always a big medivac sitch. I always wore chaps on fires. Well, they were required but I would have anyway. I never hit them but, like I said, accident = helivac and major blood loss. I didn't wear them in trees, too cumbersome to climb with.
Eye protection too, might be fine without it just cutting timber with sawdust coming out but in the brush some funky chunks take some funky flight paths.
I wear neither chaps nor eye protection sitting here at a computer!
bargainhunter,
the top of this tree had fallen out previously, so i just climbed up to the tip which was still 24" in diameter) and took 2' at a time, working my way back down the tree.
i used a salami-cut to encourage the 300# pieces to fall away from me. the danger of this descending cut style is that you encroach upon your safety line at the far (and less visible) side of the tree.
much care is required.
ron this tree was leaning too much, even at the top, for me to utilize wedges / face cut combo. i was much too high to employ
guy lines to my ground man.
blublocker i dont know genevia?
is she a strawberry gal?
this was a red fir, about 180' in height,
about 5' diameter at the base.
once i reached the 80' level,
i rapped to ground and pulled the bare trunk down with a come-along and liberal wedges. i put a humbolt style face cut and left about 3" of hinge.
it had a strong lean back at the bridge, so the consequences for a mishap were unacceptable (i carry 2 million worth of insurance but i never ever want to use it)
we had to sled our gear into this job,
the client wanted it down prior to winter,
with the bridge hazard and all.
how'd you get the rope up there? I only ever threw a line as high as i could, then prussiked up, threw another line, prussiked up so on and so forth. man that seems like a life time ago (well just under half my lifetime at 16 years) agree with the statements on how far those trees move at the tip, i think the highest i ever went was 80' or so.
i prefer the original blasphemy
smacked of authenticity
you edited to appease the christian right
nutjob gun toting
bearf*#ker
where's the dignity in that?
wade icy my first trip report
was linked to video that had my
full name attached to the videos
so i re-uploaded the vid's to a stealth
account and hence re-did the report.
im pretty much a sissy-cat-coward,
despite my attempt to convince everyone
otherwise.
try as i did,
i could not flip line the initial 90'
of trunk. the circumference was about 12'
and the bark was highly featured;
the flip line would hang up and
i couldn't ascend.
so i climbed an adjacent tree,
threw my throw ball over a branch
on the big tree, then entered the
big guy on my climb line.
a storm rolled in so i
left the line fixed for a week
and then came back and jumared
to my high point,
at which the trunk was thin enough
for me to flip line.
flip lining large trunks is a difficult
skill to perfect.
here's a few pics from my hero grounds man, jared:
nice day at the office:
You should get a different flip line for bigger timber. You need an old school braided rig for the big trees- that and a western roll will get you right on up. One of my tasks at the smokejumper base was to make them with this ancient mariners tool thing using that huge hardback knot book as a guide- can't remember the name.
During smokejumper rookie training they made us climb MASSIVE NorCal doug firs. We had to go up to where the trunk narrowed down to about 4 inches or so. I liked it- great views, a nice breeze and pretty much the only place where one of the trainers wasn't yelling / making you do push ups / etc. Nice place to swing with the breeze for a few minutes.
i am not entirely likeable.
i am quite awkward.
and confrontational.
and immature.
and dramatic and absolute
and judgemental and evil.
and most of all,
ignorant.
though if you know me, as me,
i am completely harmless.
I often feel like this reads…
Thanks for letting me in on some of the orchestra known as the week life.
I often feel like this reads…
