2-12” gear ties made into stirrups.
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I spent all archery season using WEs to climb. Now that gun season is hear I did my last two hunts in the LW hand climber. I really liked it. Light to carry, simple to use, comfy to hunt from.
I used gear ties (18") as stirrips just like these and a bungee behind ankles. These held it perfectly secure to my feet while climbing.
As everyone notes, it did require 2-3 belt adjustments while climbing. This didn't seem to be that big a deal to me. I just set my Ropeman low on my tether, squatted down into my saddle, flexed my ankles enough to take tension off the belt and reached down to make adjustments. Im not a super flexible person and I found this pretty simple to do.
My keys to climbing were reducing my adjustable bridge way down, lengthening my tether (Ropeman1 is key), reach way above my head to set tether as high as I can reach, then use hands and knees (Arcteryx) into tree while lifting legs a little at a time. I could usually do three leg lifts before I needed to raise my tether again. Wasn't fast, but wasn't too tiring either. Going down was same process but seemed faster and easier.
Loved going as high as I wanted to. Also found it super comfortable at hunting height. Lots of room for feet. I mostly leaned with a chin high tether, short bridge, and a back band. Ridiculously comfortable. I brought straps to lock it to tree but have yet to use. Had no issues with stability, leaning, etc. Conscious of not putting weight to close to tree (sitting brings this more into play) but so comfortable leaning this was not a big deal.
Only climbed branchless trees so far. But would like to try navigating a branch or two to see how rough that is. Seems doable.
Slings over the shoulder nice for the hike in/out. All in all it is a really effective method. For public land hunters it's hard to imagine a lighter climbing method with a built in platform. Pricey item to try out though. I already owned the full climber so it was easy for me to experiment.
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