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The day my climbing rope got pinched by a bad branch cut
I was up in a big red oak in Austin last Tuesday, making a final cut on a heavy limb, and the branch rolled weird and pinched my rope tight against the bark. Took me nearly 25 minutes to work it free while hanging there and I had to use my handsaw to shave off some wood. My ground guy kept yelling up asking if I needed a rescue, but I got it sorted. Any of yall ever had a rope get stuck mid climb from a bad cut placement?
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skyler_anderson6515d ago
That oak bark is rough. Stuck for 25 minutes is brutal.
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anna75815d ago
Twenty five minutes is an eternity when you're just hanging there with your legs getting heavy. I had something similar happen a few years back on a live oak down in San Antonio, that bark is like sandpaper on a good day. My rope got wedged right where a limb had a little crack in the bark and it bit down hard. I ended up having to tie a prusik above the pinch and take my weight off the main line to wiggle it free. Your handsaw trick was smart though, I never thought to shave the wood off like that.
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