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Apocalypsenow
Trad climber
Cali
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May 17, 2007 - 06:42pm PT
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Wait...................
are we comparing "size?"
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feelio Babar
Trad climber
Sneaking up behind you...
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May 17, 2007 - 06:47pm PT
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Redwood?...sounds like someone's overcompensating.....
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Apocalypsenow
Trad climber
Cali
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May 17, 2007 - 06:57pm PT
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Yea...........Crowley..........almost as bad as the "cars."
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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May 17, 2007 - 08:22pm PT
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The tree crew I ran had a city contract to remove large dying and lightning-struck trees in downtown Chicago. We took down large deciduous trees with 48"+ diameter trunks several times a week. None of the limb or trunk sections of the trees we took down could be dropped. In fact, nothing could be dropped ever. Every piece of the tree had to lined down and the lower trunk sections craned down. We used a 2" bull rope to our claw semi for our high, main lower line and a 1.5" bull rope to a 1 ton IH pickup for our steering line. You wouldn't believe some of clusterf*#ks of buildings, wires, signs, and cars we brought trees down in. It was some of the best times and most complex problems I've ever experienced.
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Blowboarder
Boulder climber
Back in the mix
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May 17, 2007 - 08:23pm PT
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flamer, saw Phil, Sandy, Jon and Dan + little Ava last month when I went to Tonasket.
Diamond Mtn eh? Know Mike Brey? Isn't that one of those muckity muck Shot Crews where GS-7's learn what work is all about for a season and never come back? Ala Redding and that one in North Carolina?
Crowley, your chainsaw statement illustrates your total toolbagness...how many times you taken the cylinder apart and done a complete rebuild from the ground up? How many times you dropped a flaming cat faced 54" ponderosa snag double cutting it with a 36" bar and only having a 1/2" of leeway in your holding wood? At night, when you can't see the top except for the flaming bits?
How good at you at cutting brush in mountain mahogany and manzanita when it's 100F?
FWIW, I'd bet money that someone on this site knows more than me about saws. Probably multiple someones. But then again I only cut fireline for 9 years and ran the saw cache on a HeliRappell crew for 2. And I only did commercial removals for 3 years and slash and burn "park em out" jobs for another 4 or 5. And cutting firewood since I was 12...
Your posts make me ill...
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Blowboarder
Boulder climber
Back in the mix
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May 17, 2007 - 08:39pm PT
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Nice. Feel free to spray on then. Sorry for the as#@&%e reply.
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Hardman Knott
Gym climber
Muir Woods National Monument, Mill Valley, Ca
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May 17, 2007 - 09:27pm PT
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I think I have all you guys beat.
I hiked a couple miles up a trail in Marin from sea-level to approx 1800 feet,
with a puny Poulan pruning saw in my messenger bag, extra gas, and an extra bar in
case I got the main bar stuck. The oak tree on the trail measured 26 inches across,
and it had to go. I fired up the Poulan (the loudest fuçking saw I've ever heard, BTW),
and began cutting with the 14 inch bar. Sure enough, the bar got stuck, so I unbolted
the saw, leaving the stuck bar in place. I then cut with the 12 inch bar until I could free
the stuck one. Two tanks of gas (and about 20 minutes later, LOL) the deed was done.
Now, who is gonna top that?
My nickname at the time was "Chainsaw Dave"...
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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May 17, 2007 - 11:39pm PT
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Just to be clear - I've done some of the more exotically complicated removals one can imagine, but each one was simply an end in itself and I had the luxury of laying around for a couple of hours with a coffee if necessary to come up with a solution. And while there's always an element of thinking on the fly once you're up in a tree - particularly large deciduous trees on a windy day - none of it compares to what you hotshots deal with day in day out. However complex my gigs were, they all pale in comparison to the thinking fast on the fly you have to do, where any given tree is just a heartbeat of thought in an overall effort to contain a fire. My crew had the luxury of multiple semis, instant supplies, on-the-truck sharpeners, cranes, hi-rangers, deli's, coffee shops, and neighborhood bars at lunch and the end of the day. My hat's off to all you hotshots - even with my experience, I can only attempt to imagine the best and worst days you guys have on a line.
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Blowboarder
Boulder climber
Back in the mix
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May 18, 2007 - 11:40am PT
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only attempt to imagine the best and worst days you guys have on a line.
I'm most proud of changing a SIT report in Hell's Canyon by 125,000 acres.
14 hours straight of burnout, fusees on the line, pen flares (when they were still legal) for a deeper black line and a heli ping ponging napalm balls behind that. Dragged it from the rim to the river over seven miles and capped that f*#ker right off.
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Trad climber
San Francisco, Ca
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May 18, 2007 - 12:56pm PT
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Big burn outs- Yes!! So much fun. When I worked on the Tonto we would do massive burns on desert fires, pen flares, veri pistols, drip torches, etc. I left the hotshot crew to be a jumper but always missed the big blowing and going fires.
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feelio Babar
Trad climber
Sneaking up behind you...
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May 18, 2007 - 01:09pm PT
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Nothing like getting paid to put fire on the ground! In the desert, we had fires moving so fast...our normal tactic was find a dirt road, and torch that biotch off! Done and done!!
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Kartch
climber
belgrade, mt
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May 18, 2007 - 01:34pm PT
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The best burnout I was involved in was the Snake II by Weezer (sp) ID. Punched about 6-7 miles of line w/4 shot crews down a ridge with thigh high grass, burning off the line. When we finally reached the river it was a nice little cove. Our shot boss told us to grab our lighters and "light'er'up". Fire raced up the hill surrounding our cove, being good shots we all hopped in the river for a good soak to watch the show.
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the Fet
Knackered climber
A bivy sack in the secret campground
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May 18, 2007 - 02:30pm PT
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Be careful...
My Dad was moving a little too quick. Nothing like a greasy, dirty, chain ripping through your leg, down to the bone. He recovered no problem.
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TradIsGood
Happy and Healthy climber
the Gunks end of the country
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May 18, 2007 - 02:36pm PT
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Euroford - sounds like you might want to get a helicopter as an accessory to your chain saw to get the full experience!
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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May 18, 2007 - 03:38pm PT
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Yeah, my comments about not wearing tight pants came from my 'pre-brake' days. I was lucky and got away with just a couple of stitches due to fast reflexes. It was my fault for not checking the chain. All of the chains were supposed to be sharpened overnight and it kept never happening - it was my last day with that particular crew.
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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May 18, 2007 - 04:13pm PT
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A couple of us spent a summer in Montana, livin' in the woods, on a tree thinning contract for the Forest Service. Tough work, made worse 'cause my bud underbid the contract so we could barely pay for food, gas and bar tack. Long hours, low pay. Whoo hoo!
I had a Sachs Dolmar (now just Dolmar I think). Nice saw, but, the spindle must have been off center a tad as it blew up twice on me. But, when it ran, it ran well. Chain brake saved my life, to be sure. Thing snapped back so fast and when it was hot out, we, ahem, never wore helmets. Took a few chunks out of my scalp and rang my bell pretty hard, but, didn't cut right through. Blink of an eye.
Wore chaps and shoulda wore steel toed boots. Chaps had cuts all the way through in a couple of spots from buckin' back. Had the saw rotate around once and bite the backside of my leg. Still have the scar.
We had a ton of saws that summer, for some reason, so I got to see some hard use on a variety of stuff. I think we had 8 saws or so, almost all different except two homelites (which we called dog lights, seems like we needed two to make one run right). To make time, we had to keep cutting if our saw went down as the saw fix it shop was too far a drive from our camp.
Best saw of the bunch was the Husky. Next was the Stihl. My S-D worked well and I liked the balance as it felt the same sideways or straight up and down. We also had an Echo and Poulon as well, but, they were terrible for hard work (along with the homelites).
When I was a kid my dad had a huge McCullugh (sp?). Was from the North Cascades and must have had a three foot bar. Heavy. Fun to cut firewood with, though. I think my relations in Darrington all ran Stihls, and liked them. All timber industy folks, for several generations at least. They all have pics of them layin' inside old growth cutouts, ready to fall, drinkin' a beer. Crazy. Uncle found an old native canoe once. All pretty much injured to the point of retirement as some point, its seems (uncle, tree fell on him and shattered his hip, other uncle logging truck accident, grandpop, broke his back after getting tossed out of a tree whilst topping it off, etc). Tough lifestyle.
Kinda miss havin' a chainsaw around though...
-Brian in SLC
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flamer
Trad climber
denver
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May 18, 2007 - 04:33pm PT
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Blow...I got to climb with Jon a bit this spring, we ate way to much sushi in Vegas.
Diamond Mtn. is not some "look at me I got an appointment straight out of college" Crews!!!!
I was Gs3 when I was with them.
josh
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Euroford
Trad climber
chicago
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Topic Author's Reply - May 20, 2007 - 06:52pm PT
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jesus man, that couldn't actually be a good idea could it? lol!
look, some of you guys might dang good at cutting down trees and all, but whatever, i'm not impressed.... this here thread be about using chainsaws to build stupid sh#t to jump yer bike off of!
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woodman
Social climber
CO
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May 20, 2007 - 07:16pm PT
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Get a stihl they rock. They are easy to maintain and an all around good saw!!
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