Hanging on the bitter end

I finally got a chance to do a major dead wood cleanout on my neighbor's Honey Locust. The challenging part was 97 degrees f. and high humidity. After four hours in the tree with a pole and hand saw I had a pile of branches on the ground. I was sitting at 60+ ft. with an empty liter water bottle, time to get out of the tree. My rope is 120 ft. so I expected that it wouldn't quite reach the ground, a re-pitch was in order.

On the way down I had to take out a couple of branches hung up when I dropped them. A bit more work than expected. Now I was really feeling the effects of sun, heat, work and no water. I think my brain was slightly addled, I decided not to re-pitch thinking that I would deal with it when I got to the bottom of the rope My rope touched the ground most of the way down but as I got close the bitter end lifted off. I descended until I was a couple feet from the stopper knot and decided that I was close enough to take out the figure eight and let the end slip through my hitch. That would've been nice. The Blake's grabbed the taped end of the rope and that was it, I was stuck with my feet dangling 3-4 ft. above the ground. To get out I had to lift my weight with one arm and release my carabiner from the saddle delta with the other. It was as much a matter of timing as muscle exertion, on the third try I got it and dropped a short distance to the ground.

Yup it's my job to make foolish mistakes for yours and my benefit. I will never again take the slightest chance at leaving myself hanging short of the ground. If I'm still breathing I can re-pitch. Amen

Some of you might have a better way to self-rescue in this kind of situation. I'd be interested in hearing it. Thinking about it now with the benefit of hindsight I could have put a lanyard on my delta and above the Blakes with a prusik or other hitch and used 2 arms to pull on the running end above the Blake's and work from there.
-moss

Moss,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I've always enjoyed your review of details whether of someone's posting or from your own experience.

I would place a Prusik above the BH. Is there another way without loops or slings?

Regards,
JimK

Keep FIT - Fun in Trees

Thanks Moss.
Great reminder!
We learned in long vertical SRT class to leave or stop a few feet above the stop knot, so that you can changeover from descending to ascending (which is really what you were trying to do with the prussik, right?) in order to solve your problem by extending your rope then descend again to the ground.
Being that close to the ground, in an emergency, you could cut those last few inches of rope with a knife.

Moss, I had a similar experience of being completely dehydrated, tired and overheated in a tree while doing some trimming work. I was almost at the point of passing out!. I realized that I needed to get to the ground ASAP to rest, drink water and compose/recover myself. If I had pass out in that tree I would not be here today because I was by myself and there was not anyone there to get me down in any reasonable amount of time. So now I make sure that I carry extra water bottle and hard Candy, (for low blood sugar), take breaks while working, drink salty water or Gatorate type stuff and learned not to overdo it in the Texas Summer with 99 degree heat and 99% humidity. Lesson learned. I was affraid to get killed that time and be another tree climbing statistic.

More important than figuring out how to fix that problem, here's a way to avoid it entirely in the future...

From any point in the tree, start pulling up the tail of your rope until the you're holding the very end...the bitter end. All the rest of the rope should be hanging below you, making a huge "U" in the rope. If the bottom of the U touches the ground, you are safe to descend. If it doesn't, you better recrotch now or very soon.

FWIW, if the bottom of the U ALMOST reaches, you still might make it, since as you weight the rope, it will stretch a few feet. Experience will tell you how much you can get away with.

Finally, I, um...heard of this guy....who was in a similar situation where my...i mean HIS bitter end was jammed into the friction hitch. He used his flipline to tie another blakes hitch on the rope. That was the only other bit of rope available at the time and it worked like a charm. I hope I never have to do it again!

love
nick

Thanks Nick, it's the simple stuff that makes the most difference. Checking the rope length as you describe, duh! But of course!

Since my bitter end adventure I've practiced self rescue with a lanyard. It worked out similar to what you described except I used a pulley to gain mechanical advantage and added a two-sided prusik to capture my progress going up and to allow controlled descent on the lanyard.
-moss

While on the way down from the Sugar Maple at the NE Rendezvous I dropped my line (just as described) to my next TIP. It reached just fine, so down I went.

However, it reached the branch just fine. I forgot to consider that in order to change TIPs I need to have enough line to a) hang under the branch, and b) to tie onto it.

So there I am, at the bitter end, sitting just fine on the branch with no way to drop down and tie to it without untying from the upper TIP first. Finally between lanyards and Moss' line I got down.

So the lesson here is - make sure the doubled line can hang BELOW the lower TIP before heading down.