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Potential accident while climbing yesterday

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DaveT1963

Well-Known Member
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Dec 2, 2014
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Guys I want to post an experience I had yesterday while climbing, I wish two Sticks up, staging on top of second stick while attaching third, when suddenly my second stick kicked to the left and completely came from under me and turned around backwards and I was pinned up against it with my lineman's belt. Try as I might I could not reach up and pull myself up using the third stick. Luckily I had my tether and Bridge I'm pouch on my saddle and I was able to wrap it around the tree hook into my bridge and then pull up on my ropeman1 as I was pulling up on the third stick to get the pressure of the lineman's belt. In this case I only suffered a gash in my lower chest and some bruising but this could have been far worse. My point is the lineman's belt didn't keep me from falling, but in this case with the stick turned around and the jagged tree brackets poking into my chest it was quite painful and I could not physically pull myself up. Had I not had my tether and Bridge on my saddle I would have been in trouble and probably would have had to cut myself free and fallen the 12 foot to the ground.

I've said it before and I'll say it again climbing up the tree and descending down the tree are the two most vulnerable times we have while saddle hunting. Please think about wearing a lineman's belt I know many of you don't but in this case it's saved my rear end. And then also think about how hard it actually is to be able to recover if something happens to one of your sticks.

Good luck.... Yesterday's morning I almost closed the deal on a huge nine pt.... I had him coming in following a doe at 23 yards... The doe eventually crossed my walk in trail and busted me. 5 more steps and he cleared of shooting Lane and was dead to rights. this is the first time I've been able to get in close to this buck in over 3 years of hunting him. He is a monster of a nine-point and I'm guessing will gross about 150 easily. I'm going to give him a few days to cool off and then I'm going back after him but I know him and once he knows he's being hunted he just disappears.. I have seen no sign of stickers this year :(
 
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Great points about safety. Sorry you had to learn this the hard way, but glad you are no worse for the wear and were able to help the rest of us with your experience.
Now go get that buck!

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Glad you are ok. So, nothing on the stick was broken it just came loose? What brand of stick was it and what attachment method are you using?
 
I had this happen to me with a 1 step aider and rope mod on my sticks. LB held me to tree but it was hard to get back into normal position. Bruises for sure but nothing major. But I did ditch the rope mod after that! Glad you’re ok dave!


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Man, I’m glad you are ok.
I had something similar happen last year. Scared the crap outa me, but I only ended up grinding the skin off of my knuckles. It made me a hard believer in linesman belts.


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Glad you are safe Dave! It’s hard to believe there was a time before I used linemans belts. But then again when I was a kid I used to hang like a monkey by one arm and hammer permanent stands in with the other. We’ve come a long way.
 
Thanks for sharing Dave. I am glad that your injuries are not worse and my best wishes for a speedy recovery for you.

Thanks for sharing about having equipment at the ready to help get you out of your dangerous situation. We all should heed this good advice.

With heeding good advice in mind, can you share if you observed if your stick connection to tree method maintained and something else caused the kick out, or if your connection method may have been susceptible to events preceding the kick out, or anything you can note about the kick out and what you think may have prevented it or lessened the possibility of it happening?

No judgement here, I am just hoping for new knowledge for the saddle hunter community to increase our safety as we pursue our passion. Again, thanks for sharing.
 
Which sticks were you using and had you given them a mod at all? Might that have been a part of the issue?Glad u r ok.
Tom
 
I used to be a firm believer in the three points of contact while climbing method. Then while taking my buddies wife hunting (because she's afraid of the dark) I fell climbing down. Riffle was on a sling on my shoulder when I went down and landed straight on my back from about 14'. It was snowing bad that day and I made the decision not to open up the end of my mittens. The end of my mitten slipped open on the ice and snow covered ladder, when it did my hand slipped and down I went. It hurt my back and bruised me up pretty good. The only thing that saved me was 6" worth of snow or I'd have been worse off.
 
If you look on Dave's youtube channel he has modded heliums with what looks like an amsteel rope mod.

Tall, skinny tree bracket... rope mod slack...standing on top step. Just my guess, but any combination of those could impart the wrong leverage on the wrong tree.

One thing about the heliums I never liked the looks of was those tall, skinny tree brackets. I understand the reason though (to get the step away from the tree) due to the step not having a 1" stick between them and the bracket like other sticks.


Well at least it was the doe that busted you though....not your buck
 
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It was not the sticks fault nor the rope mod...... I had put the versa to high on one stick to stagger them. This was a new set of sticks and i knew it was a problem. I fixed it tonight. The tree was a really hard bark and smooth and with the versa being to high when i stepped on one of the top steps it kicked out. Once again it was not the sticks fault and I've never had a problem with the tree brackets. .. in fact i prefer them because they keep your foot away from the tree. This was my own fault for not thinking through the versa button location. It is fixed now and i used them tonight.
 
Glad you're OK Dave. I watched a few of your youtube vids in setting up my helium sticks.

I have spent some time lately wondering if the linesmans belt system is really "safe enough" compared to a tether(s) you could run up/down the tree the whole way.
 
DaveT1963 said:
It was not the sticks fault nor the rope mod...... I had put the versa to high on one stick to stagger them. This was a new set of sticks and i knew it was a problem. I fixed it tonight. The tree was a really hard bark and smooth and with the versa being to high when i stepped on one of the top steps it kicked out. Once again it was not the sticks fault and I've never had a problem with the tree brackets. .. in fact i prefer them because they keep your foot away from the tree. This was my own fault for not thinking through the versa button location. It is fixed now and i used them tonight.
Click to expand...

Thanks Dave. That information is useful to us all who use / mod climbing sticks.
 
I just wear my RCH up and down the tree. Saturday the tree was wet...consequently my boots were as well and I didn't seat my foot good enough in the aider loop and it slipped out kicking me out sideways...but the RCH did its job and I quickly recovered and came on down as normal.


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Glad you’re okay! There was a picture of a choking flip-line about a month ago in this forum-Not sure if it was a DIY or the Tree Squeeze. I would be very much interested in the DIY!!!


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Dave,

Good post. Having some self rescue kit ON YOU is a really good idea.
I have used a daisy chain/ foot loop to get out of a couple of jams
 
I am using full length heliums with single step aiders and was just thinking the other day that maybe I should lower the versa buttons. I am using the original hole now. It seems like with aiders the hole should be lower. Always seems like the bottom of the stick is looser than the top
 
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