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Dryad Saddles

You know I guess you wouldn’t even need to put it on the back of your saddle, you could just pull it out of your bag or whatever and open it up at hunting height, like you said, a back band on PED’s


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You know I guess you wouldn’t even need to put it on the back of your saddle, you could just pull it out of your bag or whatever and open it up at hunting height, like you said, a back band on PED’s


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I like the idea of attaching it to the Molle loops though, that way it functions exactly as designed……..your just swapping your favorite saddle for the minimalist harness that came with it. That said, you could order just the hammock only & add to an existing setup.
 
Guys.. I actually came up with an attachment method I just haven't had time to put it together until this week. I put it live this morning, funny enough. Check it out here, tell me your thoughts. There's a video in the picture section at the end:

https://dryadsaddles.com/product/retrofit-kit/

It's not AS comfortable when you wear it with a traditional saddle but it's definitely way more comfortable than without it. There are disadvantages (can't slide it around, therefore you're kind of reaching back there blind, not as comfortable, etc) but for guys that want to keep their old saddle and have this attached, it's easy and works.

@Bigterp Belt 2.0 is being worked on. Won't be out till next year but it's gonna be fire.... Cool thing is, again, its modular so the gen 2 belt can be upgraded by itself without having to buy another hammock.
 
Guys.. I actually came up with an attachment method I just haven't had time to put it together until this week. I put it live this morning, funny enough. Check it out here, tell me your thoughts. There's a video in the picture section at the end:

https://dryadsaddles.com/product/retrofit-kit/

It's not AS comfortable when you wear it with a traditional saddle but it's definitely way more comfortable than without it. There are disadvantages (can't slide it around, therefore you're kind of reaching back there blind, not as comfortable, etc) but for guys that want to keep their old saddle and have this attached, it's easy and works.

@Bigterp Belt 2.0 is being worked on. Won't be out till next year but it's gonna be fire.... Cool thing is, again, its modular so the gen 2 belt can be upgraded by itself without having to buy another hammock.
Thanks just impatiently waiting on an underquilt….. lol
 
Talk about quick turnaround on an idea. Just kidding you obviously have done about 100x more thinking about all of this than anyone else.

If the harness had padded leg loops I would absolutely stick to the system as is. I would really love to be able to climb the tree in its harness config and then deploy the saddle up top. Which I can do now, it’s just not tremendously comfortable to have all your weight in just the current harness set up.


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Thanks just impatiently waiting on an underquilt….. lol

Working on getting a production line set up for it. We're getting close.
You interested in a camo quilt or blaze? Majority of people have been asking for camo instead of blaze, so we must oblige. I'm still surveying the market but its looking like our first run will be camo fleece.
 
Talk about quick turnaround on an idea. Just kidding you obviously have done about 100x more thinking about all of this than anyone else.

If the harness had padded leg loops I would absolutely stick to the system as is. I would really love to be able to climb the tree in its harness config and then deploy the saddle up top. Which I can do now, it’s just not tremendously comfortable to have all your weight in just the current harness set up.


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Dario how are you climbing with it? Are you one sticking/SRT or something? I've not had complaints about people climbing with standard set of sticks but I could see if you climbed any other way without the hammock deployed it would cause pinch on the leg straps because it's only 1" of webbing. Can you not climb your preferred method with the hammock deployed?

Do you think 2" webbing on the leg straps would fix your issue? I have a method of attaching leg straps in a different fashion so I will, hopefully, be offering 2" webbing leg straps in the future. Padding + 2" webbing would solve it.
 
Dario how are you climbing with it? Are you one sticking/SRT or something? I've not had complaints about people climbing with standard set of sticks but I could see if you climbed any other way without the hammock deployed it would cause pinch on the leg straps because it's only 1" of webbing. Can you not climb your preferred method with the hammock deployed?

Do you think 2" webbing on the leg straps would fix your issue? I have a method of attaching leg straps in a different fashion so I will, hopefully, be offering 2" webbing leg straps in the future. Padding + 2" webbing would solve it.

Exactly, my main climbing method is SRT with various presets where I hunt, and then come rut I like to be more mobile to hunt over sign and this year I will be using one stick for that.

The main problem with srt/one stick with the hammock deployed already is:
1/ I have to transfer my main bridge and hammock bridge from Belay device over to my actual tether when I get to height. I’d rather not have to deal with this transfer at height. I suppose I could pack an additional LB to do this but it’s just one more piece of gear I need to bring.
2/ breaking the prusiks after load can be tedious and if I can streamline a way to avoid that I will.

So what I am doing for now is climbing in just the harness with the short bridge pictured below. Then when I get to height I can deploy the hammock and clip into the tether just like you would with standard sticks.

So if I could get some extra cushion to make the climb a little more comfortable in the harness I would be right in the $$$.

f88c7505c6ed079bb7749e21313a40d8.jpg



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Exactly, my main climbing method is SRT with various presets where I hunt, and then come rut I like to be more mobile to hunt over sign and this year I will be using one stick for that.

The main problem with srt/one stick with the hammock deployed already is:
1/ I have to transfer my main bridge and hammock bridge from Belay device over to my actual tether when I get to height. I’d rather not have to deal with this transfer at height. I suppose I could pack an additional LB to do this but it’s just one more piece of gear I need to bring.
2/ breaking the prusiks after load can be tedious and if I can streamline a way to avoid that I will.

So what I am doing for now is climbing in just the harness with the short bridge pictured below. Then when I get to height I can deploy the hammock and clip into the tether just like you would with standard sticks.

So if I could get some extra cushion to make the climb a little more comfortable in the harness I would be right in the $$$.

f88c7505c6ed079bb7749e21313a40d8.jpg



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Great feedback Dario. Thanks for taking the time. If I can ask, when you use a traditional saddle how are you making that transfer from belay device to tether when you get to hunting height? I'm guess just clipping right into the bridge with the tether and then unclipping from the belay device? That's an interesting dilemma. How about putting a prusik(or pick a friction hitch) on the main amsteel line and clip that to your tether at hunting height, then transfer the carabiner out of the belay? Would only take one piece of accessory cord but you would get a little bit of clank from clipping in two carabiners into the same tether loop. To avoid that, you could clip the tether into the extra prusik, transfer the hammock over and put all your weight into it and then transfer the main line brummel over to the tether carabiner.... Works in my minds eye, what say you?

About breaking the hammock bridge prusiks.. yes. It's a pain point that I don't know how to handle. The only way would be to put rope in or do a full bury on the amsteel but then the packability suffers and so does labor. It was a hard choice and I landed on packability because most of the market isn't SRTing.
 
Great feedback Dario. Thanks for taking the time. If I can ask, when you use a traditional saddle how are you making that transfer from belay device to tether when you get to hunting height? I'm guess just clipping right into the bridge with the tether and then unclipping from the belay device? That's an interesting dilemma. How about putting a prusik(or pick a friction hitch) on the main amsteel line and clip that to your tether at hunting height, then transfer the carabiner out of the belay? Would only take one piece of accessory cord but you would get a little bit of clank from clipping in two carabiners into the same tether loop. To avoid that, you could clip the tether into the extra prusik, transfer the hammock over and put all your weight into it and then transfer the main line brummel over to the tether carabiner.... Works in my minds eye, what say you?

About breaking the hammock bridge prusiks.. yes. It's a pain point that I don't know how to handle. The only way would be to put rope in or do a full bury on the amsteel but then the packability suffers and so does labor. It was a hard choice and I landed on packability because most of the market isn't SRTing.

So with a traditional saddle I have two bridges. A fixed short bridge and then my longer adjustable bridge. I climb with the short bridge and then set up my tether and clip into the longer adjustable bridge at hunting height. So essentially the same deal here, just a different style bridge.

I am by no means any sort of trained climber. I know bare minimum stuff and try to stay as safe as possible. So I really don’t know what I can get away with in terms of friction hitches on amsteel. I know amsteel has its own set of properties unlike standard climbing rope and I don’t know what I can safely mix and match. The other this is having that dangling carabiner waiting to clank doesn’t sound great. See all of that transfer stuff is what I was trying to avoid because it usually sounds good on paper but then it’s a different story 30° in the dark.

I will likely splice a continuous loop to my buckle with some 1/4” amsteel I have laying around to replace the short bridge I showed you to reduce some bulk. I will keep my eyes open on your site to see if you are offering some sort of padded leg loops and I will also see if I can DIY something to spread that surface area out on the leg loops. Maybe some sort of triglide attached backpack strapping?


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So with a traditional saddle I have two bridges. A fixed short bridge and then my longer adjustable bridge. I climb with the short bridge and then set up my tether and clip into the longer adjustable bridge at hunting height. So essentially the same deal here, just a different style bridge.

I am by no means any sort of trained climber. I know bare minimum stuff and try to stay as safe as possible. So I really don’t know what I can get away with in terms of friction hitches on amsteel. I know amsteel has its own set of properties unlike standard climbing rope and I don’t know what I can safely mix and match. The other this is having that dangling carabiner waiting to clank doesn’t sound great. See all of that transfer stuff is what I was trying to avoid because it usually sounds good on paper but then it’s a different story 30° in the dark.

I will likely splice a continuous loop to my buckle with some 1/4” amsteel I have laying around to replace the short bridge I showed you to reduce some bulk. I will keep my eyes open on your site to see if you are offering some sort of padded leg loops and I will also see if I can DIY something to spread that surface area out on the leg loops. Maybe some sort of triglide attached backpack strapping?


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Yeah cold weather and dark completely changes everything, you're right. As far as mixing/matching, manufactures in the industry have been mixing but I'm not aware of any hardfast rules just yet so it is best to play safe. Just splicing on another continuous loop of amsteel would work but I would wanna avoid having more stuff there. Although you could take a continuous loop and girth hitch it to the d-ring, you still have you deal with making another prusik there and then it gets bulky fast (unless you don't need to adjust.. but slack is not tolerable). I could see a small linesman's (3 ft maybe?) would work. You pick how to attach it to the d-ring (could just girth hitch the loop side), then slip the prusik onto the tether and initiate the transfer. Then then there would be no metal on metal; it is still another piece of gear but pretty minimal if you used some canyon or oplux.
 
A really cool-to-have feature would be 2 or 3 tight molle loops on the back of the deployed hammock here on this strip. For the guys that do ascend in a deployed hammock they could clip their platform to it, a stick, etc.
6f588afcc78dd077fff4b3d645a40623.jpg



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I wish I didn’t sell my recon to test this out but I bet that is THE saddle to do a retrofit kit on. Currently 20ft up in the drey and just having a Sunday up here


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