Climbing spikes on removals used to be standard practice around here

I started tree work in '98 and we'd spike every tree we climbed, even live oaks we were just pruning. Took a job with a company in Portland back in '05 that forbid spikes on anything but removals, and it felt weird for a solid year. Anyone else have to unlearn old habits when you moved to a stricter shop?

4 comments

4 Comments

robert6591mo ago

My first foreman got his start logging in the PNW during the 80s and he'd spike everything that wasn't a fence post. Taught me that if you weren't wearing spurs you weren't really working. First time I worked for a company that banned spikes on live trees I caught myself trying to kick in for grip on a white pine and just slid right down the bark. Felt like learning to climb all over again.

samflores1mo ago

Man I felt that one in my shins just reading it. There's nothing like that split second of CONFIDENCE before your steel meets smooth bark and you realize you're about to have a really bad day. At least with the old spikes you could leave some "character marks" on the tree and call it tradition. Now I'm out here hugging trees like I'm trying to apologize to them.

blake7921mo ago

Watched my dad try to learn computers at 60. Same damn thing. He'd reach for the mouse one handed, click everything twice. Old habits are like rust on a truck bed. Takes years to grind off and leaves scars underneath.

kim_ramirez31mo ago

White pines are actually pretty easy to get good spur placement on, the bark's soft enough you just gotta set your feet right before you lean back...