Keep Your Eyes On It, Or Skedaddle?

Chainsaw videos on YouTube get plenty of comments, and one of the regular comment subjects is to not turn your back on a falling tree. My instructions to chainsaw users are to get out of the bullseye of the stump quickly, as soon as the cutting is done, or when the tree starts to move during wedging.

The trouble with watching the tree go, is your advantage of time disappears if something comes at you. You have to see the danger, and move, when you could have been moving already. Well, I did it. I had cut several snags already, and I stood still and wasted a little over one second when I should have been moving. The top of this snag broke and came back at me, and luckily only smacked me on my left hand. Nothing was broken, and the soreness lasted only a couple days.

The last step in every falling plan is your escape route, and you should perform an escape every time you drop a snag or tree. Why? Because gravity likes to win.