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Shoutout to the old climbing rope trick for a tight backyard removal
I had a tricky removal last week in a cramped Boston yard, a big silver maple with limbs over a garage. No room for a bucket truck, and the drop zone was maybe ten feet wide. I was about to set up a complex rigging system when I remembered something an old timer showed me years ago. Instead of just cutting and letting pieces fall, I tied a running bowline on a long climbing rope, threw it over a high branch on a neighboring oak, and used it as a live line to guide each cut limb right into the drop zone. Controlled the swing perfectly, saved the garage roof, and finished the job in half the time. It felt like cheating, but it worked. Anyone else have a simple rope trick that saved your skin on a tight job?
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flores.emma14d ago
Wait... a running bowline on a climbing rope as a live line? That sounds like you were basically crane-ing a tree limb down by hand. I gotta admit, I'm a little shook you'd trust a climbing rope to guide a cut piece that big without it snapping or slipping. One wrong swing and that garage roof is done. I've seen guys try that with a lighter rope and it just burned through their gloves. How heavy were those limbs you were moving?
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