Climber falls from tree after taking the top out - HOW AND WHY did this happened? REACTION VIDEO 

Here at Teeny Tiny Logging Co. our mission statement is "Safety first, clean underwear second." Thank you for the analysis of this incident.

I've been climbing for over 35 years...my younger brother died in November of last year...due to a learning disability...the log I let go of to land in the yard dropped from 40 ft. up where I was tied in at...killed him instantly...some of these situations can't be explained or reconstructed to make sense of...I cried for two weeks straight...I still miss him greatly... safety and common sense go hand in hand...I have a lot of loose ends to tie up and, I do know this: shit happens and I must move forward...I'm glad no one got hurt on your job site ...good climbing to you and just remember...short cuts are not always the best decision!...

Enjoyed the video. A very good analysis of the climber falling, rotating around the stem to the ground. He is one lucy fella. You are so correct on the several points you made. Proper evaluation of the proposed cut - jn this case a BIG top off a skinny pole - not necessary to load the stem up like a sling shot because that's exactly what you will get when tension release with the cut. Double tie in.....with one being a definite cinching tie in. Nice job....thanks for sharing your expertise.

Even with no rope that was going to send him for a ride... I wouldn't even call that a "top".. that was "a half". He's trying to blame the groundy but this is mostly on the climber.

We had an incident years ago where the climber limbed his way to basically the top of a large pine, called for a tag line for taking the top, tied it then rappelled down to where he wanted to take the top from. No rig line, only the tag. He cut his notch and made his back cut while his climbing line was still around the top where he had tied the tag. The top went over with his line still in it. He realized as it was going over. We were on the opposite side and couldnt see his rope from our viewpoint pulling the tag. He got extremely lucky as he was able to open his tautline and the rope ran through it as the top was coming down. Thankfully it didnt get hung on anything.

I've been doing tree work for about 8 years, and I've moved to hanging fiber optic cable on poles for a different scenery. I've learned quite a bit about spurring, and one cool device I never knew existed is a bucksqueeze. That would help tons in this video. But I do agree you should have a line to the ground as well.

Should have definitely climbed higher cut smaller but I always set my climb line as well.

4:22 "A means to the ground" . . . He has that part figured out, body friction, it's the fastest and least equipment intensive technique.

It's the social media curse.... "I'm gonna send this top as big as I can...make sure you get a good angle though, so I can post it on me IG" 😂👍 STAY SAFE BROTHERS

I do mostly falling in logging, but I climb a bit as well. After watching him slide down the trunk, I will make sure to cut flush every branch stub below me..I can’t Imagine the nasty injury you could get sliding into a branch stub at that speed. Thanks for the lesson.

Thank you for your videos you are one of the best on youtube in this area to show tips (I am inspired by them) I hope you will continue for a long time. take care and i wish you a happy new year 2023

Wow, mind-blowing as a professional seeing this taking place, crazy. In my part of the world I see certain people doing tree work with a total disregard for there own safety and others around them not even the basic tree access equipment, it makes me cringe, I've even come out of the canopy on a job on one occasion to avoid being distracted by the stupidy and dangerous work ethics, as a professional climber and business owner I really think tree care in the UK should be regulated to the private and commercial sectors using competent and qualified arborists/tree surgeons. Thanks for sharing, Dan. Many thanks, jase.

He was also lucky the lanyard didn’t flip over the top of his he pole as it flung back.

+1 on having good communication. A lot of times when I have someone newer on a tagline, I'll have them do a test pull before I make a back cut on a top. That way they can see if I'll be cranked forward, and I'm sure to explain what comes after if the pressure were to be relieved suddenly.

So weird. As a lineman climbing a wood pole I need to have a fall prevention device that limits my free fall to 2 ft or less. So a choker. But when I go climb trees, I don’t need it. This has a lot of other contributing factors but the choking belt would definitely have prevented this.

Looked like his helmet (or hat?) came off just before he hit the ground.

I've had a few close calls like this but never out to blame the groundys when I'm the guy making the cut.

Thank you for doing this, Dan. Could you please examine more arborist fails? I feel like this is one of the best ways to keep us all safe. You know? Honestly, no one should laugh at this video at any point, just because we almost just saw someone die a horrifying death. We climbers aren’t afraid of heights when we are properly rigged up, but no one can deny that it would be dreadful to die from a fall like this.

That's excellent safety information and instructions to establish a second safety tie off for fall prevention and I can tell this is a serious aspect to your concerns. 👍

My theory is the undurations of his spar kept his lanyard moving down ward. If it had been static it would have bit and stopped him

THANKS FOR CONTINUING TO BE AN AMBASSADOR OF SAFETY IN THIS INDUSTRY.

Thanks for the breakdown, Dan. You’ve helped prevent more of this just by discussing it. Big tops do equal big problems. Also a good argument for flush cutting stubs on the way up. One little stub could have opened his torso.

Quick question. ,,, How do you take quicky out of the eye, without the spring loaded hooks catching the inside of the eye when removing quicky? Cheers

I can’t give them too much heat I’ve sent a half tree length “tops” many of times but usually on trees that don’t have much lean. Also , if your gonna go that route gotta hammer down on the back cut as she goes over .

As a home owner who often exceeds his ability skill knowledge etc in the pursuit of 'doing it myself' this was a great watch. I often use two lanyards instead of tying in a climbing rope. When you mentioned cutting yourself i was like.. Oh I have a compression bandage but I'd be stuck in a tree with it. Thanks for mentioning it.

Good job. We need to know how thins happen to prevent it

This happened to me with my first top , I didn’t fall but went for a ride 😜,, he took a huge top on a noodle, super fat hinge Probly, plus pulling on it 😬

Well said on all points 👍🏻

I would council anyone in an injury situation to go over to the climber, or whom ever got hurt, and physically check them over. Help remove equipment, or what ever is needful. In addition, we must maintain the gaff points on our spurs. When mine go dull, I gaff out all the time

Lol hey fellas so wow this video has really gotten around. Just to clear up any confusion on what happened the tree had massive backlean it was bowed over pretty bad. We knew the fastest way was the way we did it but whoever was going to be making the cut was going to go for one hell of a ride so we decided to piece it apart but one of the guys said that he could do it and he didn't mind he had done it before we strongly advised him not to but he said he had it but all things considered he did a real good job lol except for not tying in twice.

Seemed a huge top and it whipped him good.Think I would have gone up a bit more .great advice for cinch in system .... although it's not happened to me on a spar I have cut through a wasp nest in a hedge .....and they were not happy about having their house cut in half.Got stung on the face twice in as many seconds .☹️☹️The speed they came at me was scary and you would want to get out fast .. Guy I work for his brother had a bee nest experience twice in just a few weeks !!.glad the guy in the vid is ok .thanks for posting .love your posts .

And top is way too big, climb higher brother

As always Dan, good content.

Can someone explain why sinching your line with a running bowline is better than using a carabiner ?

Rope tension when pulling over a tree is critical, I always feel the line pre tension with my hands and think hard if it's just right tension or not, even when you want to rush stop and think

This is totally on the climbing person. If you don’t know what you are doing, then stay safely on the ground. And like Dan said, have a choking line on

That's too much rigging,to have to worry about! im old school and it's just common sense and if you use basic common sense and safety !you shouldn't have to worry about all that rigging just keep your eyes open and watch yourself and keep up with your maintenance and you'll be safe and watch for hazardous conditions

Thanks for making these!!!

It happened because- why the hell would you attempt to take off such a massive top? Was he not competent or intelligent enough to go higher. Always always choke your flip line and have 2 points of attachment. This trade is one of the most potentially dangerous jobs, often carried out by untrained incompetent fools.

Crazy video, great breakdown.

And also what you can do with your lanyard when you're on a spar like that so you do not fall you can also cross your lanyard over one side over the other in like criss cross it and then hook it back to you and that will catch you from falling it's like an x across your lanyard if I said it right that make sense

I think he was very fortunate something worse didn't happen. I also think something worse could have happened if he would have been cinched in, but I'm certainly not recommending that. Using another tree near him for a tie in much higher may have been another option, but he still would have gotten beat up. Glad he went home that day, not everyone gets a second chance.

my climbing system is my flip line & secondary safety line wrapped around a tree and tied in with zigzag

Too much tension and a massive top lol glad he's ok when big tops come over they push the spar back till the weight is off I've had that knock me off a spur before but I always tie an alpine butterfly then clip a beaner to the loop so im always cinched in. I prefer that way because I can leave 10 or 20 ft of tail which can also measure out logs if need be an work it down to me.

Wow! That was some rookie stuff I just watched or he is way to comfortable and needed that scare! I can honestly admit I get to comfortable and need to remind myself that 10” will hurt. I think as tree guys our hight guesstimation gets screwed up because we are constantly in the air. I look at a telephone pole and think it’s 20’ 😬 then I get in a bucket and I’m like I swear this thing is friken 45’ bro check the tag lol he’s like nah Mike it’s 55’ 😂

I'm no professional arborist, but why did he take such a big section?

The 2-ring squeeze may not hold well on a smooth eucalyptus spar.

He could of wrap his landyard line around the trunk twice. And it took it too much. And with a team he should just take it off entirely from the trunk since there’s nothing on other side of the fence. Just my opinions I’m just a backyard climber that taken down dozen of grand oaks with some basic used equipments

beautiful colors

Also i dont know about everyone else but i never do my back cut behind the cut, i stand on the side of the cut but more towards the back...it looked like he was behind the cut?

Thanks mate!!!

I just want to say thank God he knew enough to take all the knobs off it looks like they are all taken off if not he probably would have been dead they would have punctured his lungs or something thank God he's okay

That wasn’t “pulling too hard” that was pulling not in balance with what was happening with the hinge. The force has to be equal or less than what the hinge can hold. Otherwise you’re looking at a mini barber chair and ultimately a nasty pushback. Saying that, with a big top you always get a fair amount of pushback. I am not a fan of overzealous groundsmanship.

Spot on Dan

He should have used a 2. safety line like "hanse sicherung"(german words).

Wow😮

i think it was wood species more then them pulling really hard

It's weird how guys feel the need to say "I told you" when nothing was ever said. Someone has to have studied why we do this 🤣

There's so many trees next to it that he could've tied himself off to prevent the fall. He should've been immediately fired for causing an accident.

wheres ya second tie in bruhhhhhhhhhhhh????

he came down PDQ 😂

You know he got cut up bad from that.

Typical climber, blames the ground guy

He pulled too hard on that? Soon as it's off center keep cutting broski! Can't let it pull over and snap off. That's not even mentioning your climbing skills🤣

Promo SM

He's a millennial.