[TowerTalk] Will trees kill me, too? No.

[N7AU]

   I don't like the idea of poeple just buying a set of belt and gaffs
with the idea of I can do it myself. I climbed poles for the telephone
co for 10 years and saw some guys get hurt. Some would fall and not get
a splinter but when they hit the ground, well the back and the legs take
the force even from 5 feet up is not good. Using gaffs to climb a pole
you will leave places to pick up splinters.  Tree gaffs are another
thing. I never had to use them but they are longer gaffs and you have a
real good chance of sticking one in your leg on the way down if you
fall. You might check the insurance co and see if they will still cover
your if you fall and have not been cirtified. We had to be cirtified
every so many years. There are so many other ways to get up a pole,rent
a lift or get a lineman from the power or telephone co to do it for you.
It pays to be safe then to pay the hospital. 

    73    Bob    N7AU

K7LXC@aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 7/4/01 6:23:29 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
> hankarn@pacbell.net writes:
> 
> > You never hug the pole unless you want to breakout and slide
> >  rapidly down it until your belt hooks onto a spike hopefully before your
> >  body does. Knees straight both gaffs set and leaning out.
> >  Practice close to the ground all aspects until you feel comfortable,
> >  then go up to 10 feet, up and down to feel at home.
> >  Skinning a tree is not as bad as a training pole, but we had crotch, leg
> >  and arm straps along with linemen's gloves.
> 
>     All good tips. (Does 'skinning' a tree mean climbing it?)
> 
>     I'm a *real reluctant* tree climber. Customers wanted antennas and
> halyards installed in trees so I had to do it. I've installed a bunch of
> halyards for wire antennas as well as 14-15 yagis including a couple of
> 402CD's.  Having never observed an arborist I had to learn while I was doing
> it.
> 
>     Gaff placement is pretty easy - just poke the spur into the tree bark.
> You need to be leaning back as was pointed out above. Once you've got both
> feet planted, lean forward to unweight the lanyard around the tree. When the
> lanyard is unweighted and both hands are holding it, flip it up so that the
> lanyard is higher on the tree. Step up until you can't go any farther because
> the lanyard is stopping you and lean forward and flip it up again. I'm sure
> we've all seen at some time those logger rodeo events where they race to the
> top of a pole and then rapidly descend; their use of flipping the lanyard up
> is pretty obvious.  Repeat as many times as necessary.
> 
>     I always have a lanyard around the tree and climb with two of them. When
> you get to branches, take the hanging one and throw it around the tree above
> the branches. When it's secured, release the bottom one and head up. More
> braches - do the same thing. Lots of times the branches will be so dense that
> all you're doing is alternating lanyards. I'm not comfortable climging branch
> to branch unbelted so I'm always attached to the tree.
> 
>     Don't confuse the two belts and do everything the same way each time;
> i.e. throw the *new* lanyard around the tree, LOOK while you clip it to your
> belt, unhook the other *old* one, hold onto the loose end as you weight the
> new belt, when you're weighted pull the old belt back around the tree, repeat
> each step every time. You can paint the ends of one of the lanyards so that
> it's obviously different than the other one.
> 
>     I use my regular trusty Klein pole strap for tree work as well as towers.
> In a tree I have two of them. My regular is a 3-6' adjustable and the other
> tree one is 4-7'. Even at 7-feet sometimes it isn't enough to get around the
> tree. In these cases I use an extension ladder to get up higher where I can
> and/or a one-foot strap extension.  Arborists use rope with a wire inside to
> prevent cutting through it and a 'cat's paw' knot that is adjustable.
> 
>     If you want to do it yourself, up here in Washington state you can rent
> spurs and belts at a rental store. Climbing trees is HARD WORK. It's dirty
> and exhausting so you need to be reasonably commited to attempt it.
> >
> >  BE SAFE in all cases. You can always find a tree service that has a
> >  climber that can go up and do the work and be on the ground before you
> >  can get to the top. Here in So Cal they climb palms like monkeys. They
> >  look like they are running up and down the palms. They are doing it
> >  everyday all day.
> 
>     For tree work they're great. For anything else like anything to do with
> installing an antenna they not so great. If you're going to hire an arborist,
> tell him *everything* he needs to know TWICE so that once he gets up there he
> knows apporximately what to do and give him an HT so that you can give
> directions from the ground.
> 
>     Installing HF yagis in trees is another topic.
> 
> Cheers,    Steve    K7LXC
> Tower Tech
> 
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