Got told by an old timer I was over-cabling my removals in Seattle

Watching a 40-year arborist take down a massive Douglas fir with just two ropes and a pulley made me realize I was using way too much gear (you know, overcomplicating things). He said 'you're building a spider web when a single line will do' and it hit me how much time I was wasting on extra rigging. Has anyone else had someone point out a simpler way that changed how you approach big trees?

2 comments

2 Comments

luna51921d ago

Did you ask him how he decides when to use the second rope versus the one? I had a similar wake up call when a guy showed me how to use a single rope and a port-a-wrap to bomb smaller wood instead of setting up a whole secondary system. It saves SO much time and climbing energy, like I was just making extra work for myself for no good reason.

grantl9421d ago

Honestly, that old timer was speaking straight facts. I read a thing a while back from an anarchist arborist zine that talked about "the art of the single line" and it pretty much changed how I look at removals. They said most guys over rig because they're scared of the tree fighting back, but actually the more gear you throw at it, the more points of failure you create. Ngl, I used to be the guy with three pulleys and a spider web of ropes on every big fir, but after that zine I started stripping it back to just one or two lines. Tbh it makes you think way harder about your rope angle and where you set your high tie in, which is the real skill. You end up moving faster and the tree comes down smoother because you're not fighting against a dozen different friction points.