..THE FOREST AROUND US ... High Rigger
by Bill Moore.... |
....“No sir, no Ma’am, the
High Rigger does not climb up all the trees in the forest and cut off
their tops before felling them.” |
spurs on his
legs and a wide belt around his waist with a steel cored rope attached.
He simply walked up the tree and held himself close to the tree by means
of the rope around the tree. ....After the big tree was chosen the Rigger would climb up the first limbs and chop or saw these off to his desired height. His axe and handsaw were both attached to his belt by small ropes and they dangled, when not in use, well below his feet. ....At his desired height he would size up the leant of the tree top and place an undercut with the lean. He would then begin his back cut, being careful to have himself well adjusted for the moment when the top would fall off. ....When the top finally started its jour- You’ve
gotta ney to earth it caused the bare tree to sway quite violently. The
rigger, being ready for this, hung on, and waited till the sway settled
down. It was a com-mon practice with seasoned climbers to then perch
themselves in a sitting position on top of the tree and have a smoke
or a chew of Copen-hagen. The odd, very brave Rigger would stand on
the top. |
was moved into place at the tree’s base, the Rigger would again
climb the tree, taking with him the end of a long quarter inch manila
rope. Upon reaching the top he would keep pulling up the rope and send
the loose end over the top of the spar, back down to the ground. |
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page 55 | British Columbia
Lumberman, March, 1979 |
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required to log the given
area. Quite often there was not a good enough tree on the spot, necessitating
the raising of the one desired. A smaller tree was selected as a “gin-pole”
or raising tree and rigged as if it were a spar. Then it was used in a
high lead method to raise the real spar. ....The Rigger was really a man of all trades in the steam donkey days. Depending on the size of the camp and their method of logging, he had to know how to fasten big weights and heavy tensions securely. A really good High Rigger was the making of a good camp. ....In the large camps High Rigging was a specialty and the man was kept |
busy doing various rigging
jobs. In the smaller camps the job was generally a combination job of
Hooktender and High Rigger – known as Hook and rig. This meant when
not High Rigging he was the leader of the rigging crew or even possibly
the foreman of the camp. Old timers are full of stories about the daring–do exploits of their favourite High Rigger. Generally they were incidents that would not be tolerated by safety committees or the W.B.C. today. But they were a part of the makeup of such an occupation years ago. Some were known to climb down a guyline from the top of a tree – or to go hand over hand out on a skyline. The storieswere plentiful, and most of |
them true. Keep out of the bight, |
British Columbia Lumberman, March, 1979 | page 60 |