I'm unaware of those pictures, if they are part of a how to its not something I would follow.
Its easy enough to point out mistakes in his approach from those stills, but to get a better understanding I would like to see a video and actually have input from MB himself.
I'm not saying criticism is bad, but we also need objective opinion about maybe why he is doing it that way.
Its good to see though that some people are'nt afraid to put up pics of there work even if the work is not to best practice (not taking into account that its meant to be some how to guide??) as it can start discussions like this.
Which is covering more than just crane work, of which I have little personal experience.
Jim1nz, i'm not saying anyone is an idiot, i personally do not harbour strong feeling towards anyone, even if they are an idiot, its their perogative, i,e i'm a very tolerant person.
I was merely trying to provoke thought and discussion, my main point being is that in this line of work nothing is ever regular, you may know all the best practice in the world but occasionally you have to think outside the box as it were and carry out a task differently,,,,, i'm not to good at getting my point across which is evident.
I'm fortunate to of learnt from dozens of top climbers, and worked with all skill levels. Some of the newbies fresh from college have a strict sense of whats right and best practice, they often carry out a task to best practice because it is what they are taught rather than thinking for themselves.
A case in point and kinda what I mean about making climbing idiot proof:
On a job involving re-pollarding some old willow, where the willow stems had grown to nearly 30ft in length and straight with diameters of 6-8" approx.
We had one of the new guys up a tree, and I was told to keep an eye on him, he got himself anchored in on one of the central vertical poles and went to one of the laterals that was growing outwards from the crown.
He got into position about 6ft out from the old pollard point and was finding it hard to hold his position, so he went to lanyard onto the stem, at which point I shouted upto him to not bother, he yelled back that he was taught to always have a second tie in point (which is true) to which I told him to THINK why am i not reccomending he tie in?
This is my point, climbers or groundies doing something through automated action just because thats best practice instead of thinking through the task at hand, you cannot make this job idiot proof!.
In the end I got the climber to set-up a second tie in point on another branch to give him stability, then he made the cut and as I predicted it barber chaired, that happened to him on nearly 30% of the limbs that were heavily leaning, o.k some of it was his blunt saw and lack of accuracy.
The other point to take note is he had been working with us all day, and had seen several of the trees pollarded already, a couple of the guiys had them barber on them or the bark tear out, most only had one anchor, he just thought they were idiots not using best practice, and failed to understand the reason why they did not have a second anchor.
This is only one example.
Whats worse is some newbie who come out of college or training and goes striaght into bad habits because thats what he sees other climbers doing around him, even though those guys have 10 years or more experience!!
I watched one guy removing epicormic from a lime trunk using one hand on the saw at full revs, going nose first towrads the trunk with the saw between his legs, at anytime it could kicked back and embedded itself in his stomach or worse still his family allowance.
I asked him why he did it that way and his answer was "that the way all pro climbers use the saw"
So yeah be carefull who you teach your bad habits to. |