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tether use in pine trees

luckylakes

luckylakes

Active Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2020
Messages
107
Location
Hemlock, NY
Having climbed many yella pine trees in my native state of FL and now 21 yrs in the north woods you encounter pine/fur sap while climbing. Now that I'm gonna saddle hunt with my new 9mm sterling C-IV tether I don't want to gum it all up.
What do you guys do to combat this cause you can't use any solvents to clean your life support rope.
Make a do rag, a DIY seat belt cover type sheath, avoid those trees or what?
 

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Never had much of that problem with that in pines, sap doesn't run unless bark is punctured etc. Never even gave it a thought actually.

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luckylakes said:
Having climbed many yella pine trees in my native state of FL and now 21 yrs in the north woods you encounter pine/fur sap while climbing. Now that I'm gonna saddle hunt with my new 9mm sterling C-IV tether I don't want to gum it all up.
What do you guys do to combat this cause you can't use any solvents to clean your life support rope.
Make a do rag, a DIY seat belt cover type sheath, avoid those trees or what?
Click to expand...
Not sure about solvents because the ones that truly work to remove pine sap probably degrade your technora rope... When I hunt the Florida pines, I use some old 1/2” tubular webbing from strap-works and slide it around the tether. Usually about 30” is enough to protect the back side of the rope from getting sap on it. I can bunch it up if the tree is skinny and so far it hasn’t effected my tether from girthing the tree effectively
 
I use tubalar webbing as a sheaf as other’s mentioned but ran into another problem of my rappelling rope hanging up and not being able to get it to slide freely after the hunt. It either hung up in the bark or the delta link.
 
I will sit on the ground before I cover my gear in sap. I pick out maples, oaks, birches, poplars, or beeches. Once in a while I will sit a cedar or hemlock if its dry but that'tls the extent of it. No firs, white or yellow pine, I hate sap more than I love hunting and that's making a statement.

So, my tip for a solution, brush made grind blind.
 
SouthMsBowhunter said:
I use tubalar webbing as a sheaf as other’s mentioned but ran into another problem of my rappelling rope hanging up and not being able to get it to slide freely after the hunt. It either hung up in the bark or the delta link.
Click to expand...
What size tubular webbing did you use? I ask because 1” on a 10mm rope leaves a lot of slack for things to get caught on... 1/2” seems less inclined to hang up on bark when using the paracord to pull your rappel eye back down
 
Up in the northwest, on the west slopes of the cascades, fir trees everywhere you look. Honestly I don't pay much attention to it, but I replace my main line every season.... Fir trees are a pain because of all the little limbs that have to get trimmed just to get up and that can make a real mess of sap. Like the webbing, a section of old garden hose will make a pretty good jacket for your line
 
I used 1” but then wrapped over it with friction tape, so it was a tightly wound sheaf. Perhaps the rubber friction tape played a part in the issue.
 
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