Piper Bates - Professional Timber Faller & Tree Climber
I stumbled across Piper Bates, or UrLocalLumberJill, as she’s known on Instagram and Tiktok, awhile back and I was immediately captivated by her simple, straight forward approach to sharing her not so common career as a professional Timber Faller & Tree Climber.
Piper got her start in the industry by simply picking up where a friend had left off. She admitted that she had never held a chainsaw before her first role. That doesn’t mean however that she was just handed the sweet gigs. She spent a lot of time, dragging the branches that more experienced climbers were sending down from above. She also spent time bucking those logs, or cutting them into more manageable chunks.
She emphasized the importance of being a constant learner and being detail oriented. She learns from every single tree that she cuts down.
Her Kit:
Climbing
Climbing Belt
8-10 carabiners
Slings
Quickie
Foot and Knee ascenders
Logging
Chainsaw (ported to run faster)
Wedges
Tape
Saw Pants
Corked Boots
Hardhat
5 pound Collins axe
Piper was really adamant about the role her mentor and boss has played in her career. He put his name on the line for her and that had a huge role in her getting added to the logging crew.
