Ask anyone who has been in this trade long enough and they will tell you the same thing. The chainsaw gets all the respect, and the ladder does most of the damage. A saw makes a noise and demands your attention. A ladder just sits there looking helpful.
Why it goes wrong
A ladder is a rigid thing leaning against something that moves. A branch is not a wall. It flexes when you put weight on it, and it flexes again when you take weight off it, and it moves in a completely different direction the moment you cut something off it.
Add a saw to that. Now you have one hand on a ladder, one hand on a running chain, and a limb that is about to change shape. Nearly every serious ladder incident in this trade has those three things in it.
What we do instead
We climb on rope, or we get an elevated work platform to it. A rope system keeps you attached to the tree at all times, it lets you position yourself where the cut wants you to be rather than where the ladder allows, and it does not care what the branch does when the weight comes off it.
It is slower to set up and it is the reason our people go home in one piece.
If you are going up one yourself, do not
That is the honest advice. If the job needs a ladder and a saw at the same time, it is not a home job. The cost of a professional removal is a fraction of the cost of one bad landing, and the recovery for a broken back does not have a price on it at all.
Based on plenty of personal experience, treat a ladder like it is actively trying to kill you. It is the safest assumption you can make.
Not sure about a tree on your place? Send a photo. There is no charge for an opinion. Anthony, TreeX
