My climbing line got stuck 60 feet up in a red oak last Tuesday

I was doing a deadwood prune in a residential backyard in Portland and my throw line wrapped around a branch stub I couldn't see. Tried shaking it loose for 20 minutes with no luck. Ended up having to climb up with my spare line, untangle the whole mess, and it cost me almost an extra hour on the job. Anyone else ever have a throw line snag that turned into a full rescue mission?

3 comments

3 Comments

wells.olivia1mo ago

Had a buddy who thought he could just yank his line free from a snag in a silver maple. He gave it a good hard pull and the whole branch came crashing down on his truck. Smashed the roof in pretty good. Cost him way more than an hour, that's for sure. He was stuck up there for a while too, had to climb down with the branch still hanging off his line. Definitely learned his lesson about just tugging on things without looking first.

nora1101mo ago

Sounds like a freak accident... probably not happening every day.

the_jessica1mo ago

Oh man, that story about the truck roof gives me chills. I had a similar thing happen but with a dead limb on an old oak. I was clearing a line that got caught up in a crotch, and instead of yanking I climbed up and found the snag was just wedged in there loose. I could see the whole piece was rotted through at the base. So I carefully worked it free by hand, not with the rope, and the thing came down like a bomb but I was out of the way. Saved my truck and probably my face. Just goes to show, a little look before you pull can save a whole lot of headache.