The red squirrel climbing aider

[Ontariofarmer]

I must be doing something wrong? The desent was where I had most of my issues.... that ave I think I was to aggresive in spacing? I went for an uncontrolled spin on a leaning tree. I'll try again in off season. A video would help?

A video would be great


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[BassBoysLLP]

I must be doing something wrong? The desent was where I had most of my issues.... that ave I think I was to aggresive in spacing? I went for an uncontrolled spin on a leaning tree. I'll try again in off season. A video would help?

if you go above head high on the spacing, the tether is more difficult to manage. If I was getting that aggressive, I would go full length "tether" and rappel down. I'm setting trees for SRT anyway.

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[BCHunter]

Video please

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[kelly.jayp]

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[redsquirrel]

I must be doing something wrong? The desent was where I had most of my issues.... that ave I think I was to aggresive in spacing? I went for an uncontrolled spin on a leaning tree. I'll try again in off season. A video would help?

You definitely want to try it again in the offseason. I think going down is actually easier. Leaning trees are the hardest just like with aiders on sticks. You really have to make sure you get your toe solid on the tree going up so you don't slide out. Going down i will hold the stepp I am stepping off of to keep me from going sideways as I go down.

 

[hickstick]

so is the wild edge aider just a whoopie sling with a brummel lock loop and an s hook?

 

[Adamcincy]

so is the wild edge aider just a whoopie sling with a brummel lock loop and an s hook?

Yes, that is what it is. It gives you one step that is adjustable in length.

 

[EricS]

so is the wild edge aider just a whoopie sling with a brummel lock loop and an s hook?

No it’s so much more. Actually just what you said but the s hook has a safety latch.

 

[sojourner]

I tried something similar to what you are describing . I girth hitch my tether around the tree as high as I can reach. I usually tie into my tether with a petzl rig. The rig allows me to rappel out of the tree for descent and I can use a yoyo climbing system to advance up the rope if needed. I attached a Stepp below the tether as high as I can reach and tie the knot. I weight the Stepp to make sure it is secure. I clipped a Yates Big Wall Aider (www.outdoorgearlab.com/reviews/climbing/aider/yates-big-wall-ladder) to the V of the Stepp using a Wild Edge gear hanger ( www.wildedgeinc.com/store/p37/Wild_Edge_Gear_Hanger_.html ) girth hitched to the aider (see picture below) . I can climb up the aider and step onto the top of the first Stepp (small trees I can just reach around and bigger trees I can linesman belt around but I'm tethered the whole time).

I advance my tether as high as I can reach while standing on the first step. I reach down to the Stepp I'm standing on and remove the aider from the first Stepp and attach it to the V in the second Stepp. I walk up the aider and climb on top of the second step and repeat the process till I'm as high as I want to go gaining 7-8 feet of height per Stepp applied to the tree. I'm tied in to the tether the whole time. I played with standing on the aider or hanging from my tether and removing the lower Stepp and reusing it (Two stick climbing but with Stepps and an aider). It worked well and you can go as high as you want alternating two Stepps.

I attached some pictures of the set up I tried but the pictures were taken on a pole in my basement since it's dark outside right now.

This is my first post to the saddle hunting group. First year saddle hunting. I've arrowed three deer so far this season from my saddle. I hunt the city parks in Cincinnati as part of their bow hunting program.

This site has provided a lot of information for me and I really appreciate all the posts and sharing of information.

Adam

Not to be a pain, but the rope looks like it is on the wrong side of the left standoff in the second pic. Please be careful.

 

[sojourner]

Not to be a pain, but the rope looks like it is on the wrong side of the left standoff in the second pic. Please be careful.

Also a question, are you tying a stepp knot on both sides or is one side permanently attached?

 

[MoDog]

Following.

 

[Adamcincy]

Also a question, are you tying a stepp knot on both sides or is one side permanently attached?

The Stepps come with one end of the rope spliced onto it by the company. You pass the rope around the tree and use the Stepp knot to tie the other end of the rope to the Stepp to secure it to the tree.

 

[sojourner]

The Stepps come with one end of the rope spliced onto it by the company. You pass the rope around the tree and use the Stepp knot to tie the other end of the rope to the Stepp to secure it to the tree.

I understand that. You can also tie a Stepp knot on each side. It looked like you might have done that.


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[Apex7]

So I've hinted at this a couple times (finally a project done @g2outdoors!), and I'm finally ready to go live with it. I've been tinkering with this system for a good part of the summer trying to figure out the best way to do it (for me!). @justsomedude posted something very similar to my aider, I think it was in his climbing stirrups thread.

The inspiration: the wild edge aider system. I did not like how it worked though. When I first tried it I wasn't good at putting the stepps on yet, and trying to put them on above my head was even more of a challenge.

I realized that I could put an ascender on a piece of climbing rope, girth hitch it around the tree and put an aider on it to climb and it would do the same thing. Plus having the ascender is HUGE. You can put your foot in it low and move it up and it will make it easier to get on the next step. Or you can do the opposite to lower yourself down coming down.

Options: I first started doing this with cranford rope steps. I can do it but it does require some athleticism to stand one footed on the step while you put your next step on. But the benefit is the rope steps are smaller and lighter.
The wild edge stepps work a little easier for this because you can stand with both feet while you put the next stepp on.
Rope steps: 0.5 pounds each, plus 2/3 pound aider so 6 steps is 3.66 pounds.
Wild edge steps 1 pound each, plus 2/3 pound aider, so 6 stepps is 6.66 pounds.

Height: 6 steps plus stepping up to my step platform will put me at 25 feet to my feet. I am only 5'7".
Advantage over sticks: This setup packs down compact and I can carry it in a pack.
Advantage over current wild edge aider: I'm only dealing with one stepp at a time and I'm not hanging an aider off a stepp.
Climbing time: With both the rope steps and the wild edge stepps I have been averaging around 10 minutes to climb.
Safety: If I'm a couple miles back I don't want to have to worry about things going south. I see some guys using the multi step aiders to get up a tree. If that works for you, great, but I've had aiders try to spin out on sticks and I just don't want to mess with it going all the way up the tree while I'm way back there.
Sidenote: It actually seems that the higher I get the aider attached to the tree, the more stable it is when I'm going up. You also don't want to mess with the side or low side of a tree, gravity will pull you that way.
Question marks: I still need to find a better bag for storing the system.

Technique: Girth hitch rope aider on the tree as high as I can above my head. Put stepp on tree at the level of my chest. Place foot into aider loop and pull the tag end of the rope to raise ascender as high as I can raise my foot. Step up on aider with toe against the tree and step onto the wild edge stepp. It is very helpful to use the rope to pull my body up also. Immediately raise the rope as high as I can reach above my head again. Lower ascender on the rope so it will be easy to put my foot in the loop next time. Place next stepp on the tree at chest level. Repeat this for all of the stepps. I am using a lineman's belt during the entire climb.

What type

What type
Of ascender are you using?

 

[redsquirrel]

What type
What type
Of ascender are you using?

Kong duck

 

[Apex7]

Kong duck

Would a ropeman 1 work and what size rope and strap are you using and where did you get them and the kong duck from ? Thanks

 

[BassBoysLLP]

Would a ropeman 1 work and what size rope and strap are you using and where did you get them and the kong duck from ? Thanks

Ropeman works fine. Your tether works fine as well (assuming it's long enough). I used 1" mil spec tubular webbing from REI for the foot loop. I clip the loop into the carabiner.

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[redsquirrel]

Would a ropeman 1 work and what size rope and strap are you using and where did you get them and the kong duck from ? Thanks

Kong duck I got on amazon. I don't see why a ropeman wouldn't work. The duck just has a separate hole to put them webbing through. You will see what I mean if you look at photos side by side. I'm using 9mm sterling htp (duck is rated for it, ropeman 1 is not). The webbing portion is just some military grade webbing that I had that I threaded through and tied a figure 8 on a bight.

 

[Thill]

I tried redsquirrel's aider this weekend and I'm sold on it! Great idea and thanks for sharing! Saturday morning I was able to get 30 ft up using 9 steps with Red's aider. That's just over 9 lbs for 30 ft. I was getting 19 ft up with my lone wolf sticks, even with a 2-step aider on the bottom stick at just over 13 lbs. Last night I used Red's aider with my lone wolf sticks and I was able to get 25 ft up. I'm using my tether and ropeman1 along with a 1 step aider from some tubular webbing I had lying around. I just clip the webbing onto the ropeman1 and I'm good to go. I love it that I'm not bringing any additional gear with me, just a few ft of webbing.

I will say that both trees I hunted did not have limbs. If I were hunting trees with many limbs I might want the ability to clip onto a wild edge stepp, like the wild edge aider, I'm not sure on that yet.

Thanks Red!

 

[IkemanTX]

160 posts and still no video..... man. I gotta see this in action before considering buying more stepps


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