A climber I respect told me my notch was backwards and I keep going over it in my head

Rowan Ramirez · 2026-10-04T14:50:03.188316+00:00

I was limbing a big silver maple out in Aurora when this older climber I've worked with a few times watched me make my face cut and just shook his head. He asked why I was cutting my notch on the side away from the lean, and I gave him the answer I've used for years without really thinking about it. He said the tree reads the lean and the notch should open toward it, and then he walked me through why my hinge was never holding the way it should. I've dropped probably 200 trees with that same bad habit and now I'm not sure how many of them actually went where I meant them to. Any of you ever have someone point out a basic thing you'd been doing wrong for years?

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A climber I respect told me my notch was backwards and I keep going over it in my head | Arborists - HW Forums