I finally had a climbing line snap on me during a removal

It happened about two weeks ago on a big silver maple removal in the south part of town. I was about 35 feet up, making my final cut on a large limb, when my main climbing line just gave way. It wasn't a clean break, more of a frayed snap about six feet above my hitch. I had inspected it that morning, but I must have missed some internal damage from a previous job. I dropped maybe eight feet before my secondary lanyard caught me, which was a real gut punch. My ground guy saw it happen and had the bucket truck moving before I even shouted. We got the tree down safely, but my hands wouldn't stop shaking for an hour. I'm now checking every inch of rope under a bright light before it even goes in the truck. Has anyone else had a rope fail without obvious external wear?

3 comments

3 Comments

casey_lane733mo ago

What kind of rope was it?

morgan5123mo agoMost Upvoted

Wait, did you mean to ask me? I mean, I didn't say anything about rope. Maybe you're mixing up the threads? I just saw your post and got a little confused.

sanchez.blake26d ago

Huh, I gotta jump in here. I actually see it the other way. I mean, if someone posted something about rope or climbing gear even a few days ago, reading it once might not stick in your head. Maybe Morgan just remembered the wrong person but still got the topic right, you know? Like I've totally mixed up who said what in a long thread before. It happens way more often than people admit, especially if the thread title or the first post sets the tone for rope or knots or whatever. So I'd say give Morgan a little benefit of the doubt here before assuming they're totally lost.