We were told by the Township of Centre Wellington that we were not allowed to drop any limbs or wood into the river. And to try to rig the tree and haul it back up the rock wall would be next to impossible, due to a wrought-iron fence and numerous other existing trees between the linden, the edge of the cliff and the fence.

“A radium release hitch, the orange line here, is a load-releasing hitch that would give us the ability to lower the highline in an emergency, such as if the person on the highline needed medical attention or needed to be rescued for any other reason,” says Joe Legate.

We opted instead to set up highlines, or speed lines, and run the cut pieces across to the other side of the gorge. The landing area was lower in elevation, perfect for the angle of the highline, as gravity would help with traversing the pieces. The area also had a flat parking area where we could get our chip truck, chipper and wood truck in to process materials.

We set up three highlines across the 200-foot-wide gorge. We used three 600-foot static lines. Two of the highlines were to support me, and the other line was to rig sections of tree into a haul system attached to a CMI Rapid Transit Trolley that ran along the highline. We used a Petzl Pro Traxion Pulley to hoist the pieces up to the highline. The pulley was attached to the trolley. This would allow us to control the raising and lowering of pieces as well as the hauling of cut pieces across the gorge. Both the pulley and the trolley were borrowed from a colleague.

Bring on the big shot
One of the trickiest parts of the job was getting the ropes across the gorge. I ended up using a Big Shot and managed to get a line across the gorge in two shots. But I only had a space of about 4 feet between the trees and the building. It was a bit unnerving to be aiming a Big Shot almost horizontally while pulling as far back as I could right beside those really expensive windows!

It took about six hours to get the ropes set up. Then we were ready for the cutting.

Measure twice, cut once
I attached to the highline and zipped out to the tree to start removing it. But the highline ended up being much lower than we had anticipated. I was expecting to be suspended above the top of the tree to where I could descend down into it. When I got out there, I had about 15 feet of tree above my highline.

We could’ve made the lines higher by tensioning the highline more, but this would’ve been too much for the system. This meant I was going to have to climb above the line to get to where I needed to be.

It was one of those moments that all climbing arborists face, when you have to climb higher due to the circumstances you have in front of you. Honestly, I was pretty nervous at that point, as the further I climbed out the tree, the more I realized the pieces I had to cut were going to come down directly onto my highline. That was a big concern for me, seeing as the unknown forces in highlines and anchors, etc., are exponentially higher in these configurations.

I took some time and considered every option. I decided to position myself where I could make the cuts small enough and in a way that they would essentially – and hopefully – roll off the highline and into the rigging system we had created. After some more time contemplating the different outcomes, I finally said the hell with this and cut the first piece. And it worked!

The author, center, and crewmembers prepare lines to set across the gorge with a Big Shot.

Swinging free
The first piece was the worst, as it was the one that was way over the highline and the heaviest of the three main leads in the top of the tree. That was a great relief, as the last thing I wanted to have happen was to cut one of the tops of the tree and have it get hung up on the highline and have to untangle it right next to those windows.

We ended up rigging the rest of the tree in sections, allowing the pieces to swing into the open space of the gorge off of the rigging highline about 50 feet away. This made for some awesome videos and a once-in-a-lifetime job from my perspective.

Crewmembers used a Petzl Pro Traxion Pulley to hoist the pieces up and attached it to a CMI Rapid Transit Trolley to run along the highline.

Time management
Another challenge we faced was the time for the team to traverse the pieces and get the rigging back into position, as well as getting the rigging line back to me between each cut. This required one of our team members to rappel off the edge of the gorge to grab the tail of the rigging line and position himself to where I could throw him the tail of my line. Then he could connect the lines and I could haul them up to where I was working.

Once the pieces were fully suspended by the rigging highline, we locked off the far side of the trolley and hauled them up to the top of the highline, unlocked the trolley line, then traversed the pieces over the remaining 150 feet of open space of the gorge to the other side. This would not have been possible if we hadn’t had headset coms on all of the team members. That made a huge difference in the rigging operations throughout the job.

After the canopy was out, it was time for the logs. Again, I was concerned about the windows while cutting the sections of wood. When we cut the pieces, they had a slight elastic energy in them, as we had the highline pretensioned to keep the pieces away from the windows. When they came off the tree, there were a few times when I held my breath watching a 200- to 300-pound piece of wood fly out into the open space of the gorge and swing back toward the windows. You really can see this in the video of the job.

A great opportunity
All in all, the job went well. Our headset communication between crew members was key, allowing us to communicate with team members more than 200 feet away, all the way on the other side of the gorge.

Securing a tensionless hitch, which provides less load on the rope without sacrificing the working load limit of the rope when loaded.

A friend of ours, Frederick Schuett, from One Axe Pursuits in Elora, helped us with the pulley and trolley gear and assisted with the highline setup. He specializes in rope-access work, and was especially helpful in getting the rigging line back to me after every cut – lol!

I have to thank Carl Anlso from Silverfern Landcapes who contacted us to do the job. And Daniel Landry from Sécurité Landry, a rope/rescue/arborist-gear store out in Laval, near Montreal, Quebec, who supplied the ropes required for the job – approximately 2,000 feet of rope was needed.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do one of the coolest jobs I have ever seen, let alone have the opportunity to be a part of. So we are incredibly grateful we were able to do it.

Joe Legate, ISA Certified Arborist, is owner/operator of JL’s Tree Service Inc. based in Elora, Ontario, Canada.