I think there are pros and cons to each. I think that one sticking is a fad; however, not all fads are trash. A fad to me is something that gets overly popularized and usually carries a blind trust or allegiance to the topic or item regardless of merit. In this case the utility of the one stick is hard to refute; therefore, regardless of the fad it is still a reputable climbing system.
“Easier” can often times be based on someone’s skill, experience, and opinion. It becomes very hard to distinguish from skill set or opinion that makes something easier versus an actual tangible objective reason that something is easier. A short example would be writing in cursive vs. print. If you only ever wrote in print and were asked to write in cursive you would say that it’s easier to write in print; however, if you were proficient both in cursive and print you could claim that they were both easy. Likewise, I think it’s hard to claim that one is “easier” then the other and I think it would be better to weigh the specific pros and cons of each. Assuming the user has spent equal time with each method, being skilled in and proficient in each, there is no telling which one the user would think is “easier”, but they would likely be able to tell us what benefits or inefficiencies each had.
I am assuming that for both methods you would rappel down so in that case they are equal. I would also dare say that if you’re proficient in each you could climb the tree at nearly the same rate so I would say in this respect they are equal as well. I would also be inclined to look at them as a system instead of an individual climbing method; however, to mitigate introducing more variables in the comparison I’ll stick to each only as a climbing method. The 2TC is clearly more compact and less weight. Assuming that for each climbing method you are using the same rope (to be apple to apples) then it is easy to see that one sticking is bulkier and heavier due to the stick itself. The 2TC requires more moves. Using a reasonable aider, a onesticking user can ascend to 20’ in as less as 4 moves. None of these things would scream easier, rather it would trigger me to choose based on preferences for weight, bulk, and number of move to hunting height.
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Technically they are the same style of climbing the only thing that’s different is what you use to hold your weight as you progress your too tether. For that reason I would say they equal in difficulty if that’s what you’re asking.