I stopped by the Wild Edge booth today at the Great American Outdoor Show. Spent a few minutes chatting with Drew-what a great guy he is! We talked saddles, steps, and my buddy who likes hang ons is seriously considering using the steps instead of his sticks! Picked up an additional 10 steps for some pre-sets I plan on doing, & another Perch platform.
That brings my total step count to 30 steps-9 with 8 ft ropes, & 21 with 6 ft ropes. 3 sets of 10. I guess that makes me a bonafide WildEdge guy!
I absolutely love the steps-they seem much more secure to me than sticks. I love it that I can always hang one more at head level & have a secure hand-hold prior to ascending further-no more hugging the tree for me!
I use 'em right out of the bag with no mods-that is, after I clamp them down tight around one of my trees & leave 'em there for 3-4 days to get all of the stretch out of the ropes. If it rains on 'em, so much the better- I leave 'em there until they dry out. Haven't had any rope loosening issues after that pre- conditioning.
I made a "rappel practice" platform with 10 others that I have, & a Tethrd Predator XL platform. they've been up for a week now with me going up & rappelling down about every other day, with no looseness or shifting.
They definitely have a learning curve-not something you want to get a week before season opener, play with once or twice, & go, but the more you use them, the easier it is & the more you appreciate their versatility.
I also use the original bags- they work fine for me. One thing I did do was get bags that are 2 steps bigger than the number I'm carrying (i.e.- if I'm carrying 10 steps, they are in a 12 step bag, 8 steps go in a 10 step bag, etc.) That's how I ordered them from Drew, & it makes deploying them & packing them up much easier for me. I do it the same way as he shows in his videos.
I have enough steps now that I can leave my rappel platform up & set up another tree to try an aider, knaider/swaider, & the Cain method-for those I'll probably mod some of them with zip ties to keep things in place. I'm gonna be busy this off-season!