I too am making a change, not from one sticking but the rope mod. I've watched every video out there and even had the owner of a prominent saddle manufacturer show me in person how to cinch the rope down and it does not work for me. It's apparently an ignorance on my part and it's an ignorance I can't overcome and I don't want to submit my life as a test to figure it out. I even had a thread here a month or so ago with many people giving me advice.
The reason I chimed in on this thread is I had an accident this past Friday. There was a bit of gnarly stuff on the ground around the tree I should have cut out and disposed of. If I could've seen the future I would have. I climb, I hunt I shoot and it's time to come down. I get on the top of three sticks. Still tethered I add my lineman rope. I remove the platform and coming down I usually let it drop, same with top two sticks. Luckily I make sure they fall far from the base of the tree.
I undo my tether and rely on lineman rope and climb down top stick. Put my left foot on the middle stick and before I can get my right foot on it the stick bottom kicks right and I go left. This kinda "twisted" my LM rope and stopped me momentarily and when my feet came back I went down the tree like a rocket scraping against my bottom stick until I landed.
Yes I lived and walked away (with a sore limp) and without the LM rope I'm sure it would've been worse. I'm not afraid of heights or climbing but it shook me a bit. I'm having trouble seeing where this is safer than using my climber using a tether the whole way up. I know with a climber you introduce slack in your life line but the harness is a shock cord and you bang the tree from a foot and a half out, not go down the tree.
The reason I chimed in on this thread is I had an accident this past Friday. There was a bit of gnarly stuff on the ground around the tree I should have cut out and disposed of. If I could've seen the future I would have. I climb, I hunt I shoot and it's time to come down. I get on the top of three sticks. Still tethered I add my lineman rope. I remove the platform and coming down I usually let it drop, same with top two sticks. Luckily I make sure they fall far from the base of the tree.
I undo my tether and rely on lineman rope and climb down top stick. Put my left foot on the middle stick and before I can get my right foot on it the stick bottom kicks right and I go left. This kinda "twisted" my LM rope and stopped me momentarily and when my feet came back I went down the tree like a rocket scraping against my bottom stick until I landed.
Yes I lived and walked away (with a sore limp) and without the LM rope I'm sure it would've been worse. I'm not afraid of heights or climbing but it shook me a bit. I'm having trouble seeing where this is safer than using my climber using a tether the whole way up. I know with a climber you introduce slack in your life line but the harness is a shock cord and you bang the tree from a foot and a half out, not go down the tree.