Great points you bring up, warning rant forthcoming lol…. I am hoping everyone climbs with their lineman’s rope and that they keep it above their waste and constantly tensioned at a safe angle to reduce falls. That’s part of the “if properly used”.
I see absolutely zero benefit to adding a screamer while saddle hunting because it is made to do something entirely different than what some saddle hunters perceive it doing. That’s talk for another day and has been thoroughly discussed and dissected in other threads.
Lastly, I’m not on a side of the pass-fail criteria debate. I can see both sides. I know that going inverted is one of the most dangerous things that can happen in a fall. I know that work positioning harnesses are not made for true fall arrest (including a RCH if you don’t have long dynamic lead lines or belayers). We have plenty of studies to support these facts.
I also know if you are inspecting your gear before use, constantly tensioned, using your ropes and tether as intended, and keeping your connection point above you, that you cannot fall, or if you did “fall” you couldn’t create a large enough fall factor for their to be serious injury. Cable and telephone workers, lineman, arborist and rescue workers use them everyday and because of that, we have the statistics to back up that claim as well. My take on it is build them as safe as possible so that if something does happen they limit injury and prevent death. If you can’t design or build one to meet that criteria, then you shouldn’t be designing or building them to begin with. But all of that (with exception of catastrophic failure) is a mute point if people use their work positioning harness properly, but like you mentioned, many don’t. As I said, I don’t really have a side. I see the upsides and downsides to each argument. And no matter which side wins the day, I’m gonna be ok. I would rather be the guy in the background giving suggestions.
Lastly many “companies” making this gear have the means and machines to make the gear but they don’t fully understand climbing, or elevated positioning from a trained professional use/design standpoint. I think that there needs to be training available to the recreational hunter. I’m not talking about the video you watch with your tree stand or some guy on you tube. I’m talking about tree climbing schools opening to offer recreational safety. True professional gear use courses with certified instructors. Certified instruction on how to set a climbing stick, how to descend on a rope with different mechanicals and hitches. How to tie hitches and knots, self rescue. Proper technique and movements around the tree on your steps, climbing spikes, platform ect… When to retire ropes. what defines a dynamic event? We have a ton of “you tube professionals” telling us what they do. But how many actually worked in an elevated industry and received proper training? Even better how many are certified instructors? Or how many of them watched someone else’s you tube channels and then regurgitated that untrained person’s info on to their channel? I see no down fall to hunters having access to qualified training.