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The dead ash removal that changed my climber's mindset
Had a 60 foot ash on a playground in Dayton last month, dead as hell and leaned right over the swings. I always topped first, but the groundie talked me into rigging the whole thing down in 4 foot logs. That wobble on the first cut made me see why whole-tree lowering beats piecing when the trunk's compromised. Anyone else switch their approach after a sketchy deadwood job?
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grant.jason13d ago
...and that lean was telling you something the whole time. The real trick is reading the hinge before you even make the cut. Dead ash especially, the wood fibers get punky and you can't trust the face to hold. I've started doing a test bore cut on the compression side first, just to feel how much the trunk is actually holding. Gives you a second to bail if it's mushier than it looks. Save the rigging for the saw logs, sure, but the real lesson is knowing when not to trust the tree at all.
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