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Calgaryborn · 02-16-2008, 06:37 PM

I think most of us has had several close calls if we thought about it and probably more times where we don't even realize how close we came to death. I'm glad your all right.

I can think of several times where I came close to death. The one that came to mind when you shared your experience was in the early 90s. I was working for a company which picked tree cones for Forestry. They in turn would germinate the seeds for replanting. Normally they fall the trees and collect the cones that way but, with larch trees the cones are pretty small and they lose a lot when they fall them in the grass. So my job was to climb the trees and cut all the branches up to five feet from the top. The branches then fall to the base of the tree with cones attached. Well anyways I was climbing these 100 foot trees and cutting all the branches with my hand saw on the way up. At about 7 feet from the top I would leave a branch about 18 inchs long to repel from. You need a branch at least the thickness of your finger to repel from. Anyways I was enjoying the view of Slocan lake and the fact that I didn't have to pack/use a chainsaw for this job and didn't pay attention to the height I cut my branch for repelling. A coworker in an adjacent tree yelled at me but, I couldn't hear him in the wind. He then pointed up so I looked up and saw the top was bent over towards me. I had placed the rope too high. Before my friend caught my attention I had repelled twice kicking out from the tree and dropping bout twenty feet each time.

02-16-2008, 06:37 PM	#22
Calgaryborn Lifetime Suspension Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Creston Exp:	I think most of us has had several close calls if we thought about it and probably more times where we don't even realize how close we came to death. I'm glad your all right. I can think of several times where I came close to death. The one that came to mind when you shared your experience was in the early 90s. I was working for a company which picked tree cones for Forestry. They in turn would germinate the seeds for replanting. Normally they fall the trees and collect the cones that way but, with larch trees the cones are pretty small and they lose a lot when they fall them in the grass. So my job was to climb the trees and cut all the branches up to five feet from the top. The branches then fall to the base of the tree with cones attached. Well anyways I was climbing these 100 foot trees and cutting all the branches with my hand saw on the way up. At about 7 feet from the top I would leave a branch about 18 inchs long to repel from. You need a branch at least the thickness of your finger to repel from. Anyways I was enjoying the view of Slocan lake and the fact that I didn't have to pack/use a chainsaw for this job and didn't pay attention to the height I cut my branch for repelling. A coworker in an adjacent tree yelled at me but, I couldn't hear him in the wind. He then pointed up so I looked up and saw the top was bent over towards me. I had placed the rope too high. Before my friend caught my attention I had repelled twice kicking out from the tree and dropping bout twenty feet each time.