• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Do you tie off your saddle to the end of your tether?

Do you tie in to the end of your tether?

  • Yes

    Votes: 46 46.0%
  • No

    Votes: 54 54.0%

  • Total voters
    100

kyler1945

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2016
Messages
6,877
Location
Willis, TX
Please vote

Not your hitch or mechanical progress capture device. Below that - do you tie off the tag end of your tether to your bridge or carabiner or lineman’s loop?
 
Please vote

Not your hitch or mechanical progress capture device. Below that - do you tie off the tag end of your tether to your bridge or carabiner or lineman’s loop?
I can honestly say I do not. I like a sewn prusik loop and feel that it’s plenty strong enough to prevent me from a fall. However if I used a mechanical rope grab, I probably still wouldn’t do it because if you fall on a mechanical, the most likely failure will be where the teeth of the device destroy the rope so being tied off below that point is…. Well pointless?!?!
 
I wear a belt that is climbing rated webbing and a Cobra buckle with metal D ring. I tie the end of my tether to the D-ring. But then I also use my linesman rope as a parallel tether that is attached to the D ring too. Is it over kill? Yes, but I'm a firm believer that any 'back up' system cannot share any single point of failure as the main system. It take a few extra minutes to setup, but I do not notice the 2nd/backup system at all, which is one of the main point, that you do not know that it is there. To fall completely out of the tree, 2 of the same part of both systems need to fail which means Murphy came for me and there is nothing more I can do.
 
Yes I do. Forget half the time to untie when I'm taking the tether down to climb down.
 
I do sometimes.

I'll tie in to my waist belt when I do.

I can never remember how to tie in with a Figure Eight Follow Through when I'm 25 feet in the air but a overhand follow through works for me...
 
I've been trying two different length tethers. My shorter one I do not but my longer one yes, through the linesman loops
 
I keep a small figure 8 on a bight on the end of my tether that I put into my bridge carabiner. Only backs up a failure in my tether friction knot. Even in that case, I'm going to have a less than pleasant experience depending on tree diameter and how much slack that is.

Bridge or bridge loop fails, I'm hitting ground.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 
I tie my tag end to my bridge. Don't have enough to get to another part of my saddle. I use a Kong, so it is more if the device fails open. Its something. It's honestly one of the lesser things I worry about. Going up the tree, getting down the tree are probably a much higher risk factor. I see it more as gets the end of the rope out of the way of catching on something. Bridge breaks, doesn't matter. Tether breaks, doesn't matter. Your only as safe as your weakest link.
 
I haven’t been since I started using my rappel line as a tether but I probably should.
 
I tie into my right-side linesman loop. As I'm tying in I always wonder what exactly would happen if I had a failure and fell into that tie off in terms of twisting/hanging sideways.
 
On my kestrel the tag end is clipped to carabiner on bridge. Now that I have a Dryad Drey, I am pumped to be able to tie tag end to d loop on the separate harness while the prusik holds the saddle itself. A little more separation of systems (2 totally separate ones for the matter) there while actually being lighter than my kestrel.
 
I'm going to have to vote "NO".
When I rappel I'm backed up with a prussik to my linesman loop, but I don't consider this to be life sustaining. It's simply there to grab the tag end if it slips out of my hand while descending.
When I'm climbing and hunting, I need to have that one hand adjustability to quickly adjust my tie in point to raise or lower my position in small amounts.
If I were tied in tight with my tether tag end, I wouldn't be able make these adjustments that are important to my style.

Has anyone tried hanging from a single linesman loop just to see what it would be like? It's absolutely unbearable even for a moment, and I can't imagine actually falling, jarring to a stop, twisting around, and most likely hanging upside down.
 
On my kestrel the tag end is clipped to carabiner on bridge. Now that I have a Dryad Drey, I am pumped to be able to tie tag end to d loop on the separate harness while the prusik holds the saddle itself. A little more separation of systems (2 totally separate ones for the matter) there while actually being lighter than my kestrel.
If you had a fall that broke the rip stop material or the amsteel to allow you to fall and that centralized waist belt d ring is what caught you, aren’t you worried that your spine would be severed and your insides mangled?
 
Last edited:
Ok everyone, the problem with you backing up by tying into one linesman loop is that when the fall occurs, the most likely outcome would be that the loop violently spins you sideways/face first while it breaks and drops you. Very few saddles have linesman loops capable of arresting a fall when used properly, let alone arresting a fall from only one connection. Want to know what I mean? Look at some of these rated eye to eye cords that you use for distel or VT hitches. When hooked in straight pull the rating is much much lower that when hooked in basket configuration. Your linesman loops are essentially the same. They work in basket configuration and split the force between the two connection points. If you’re tied into one side, it will be almost scary how quickly your flipped and the eye snaps so you now fall face first instead of backwards. They are not designed to catch you. The only saddles I know of that has true continuous loop for a thing off to would be the phantom and the new aerohunter saddles. Aerohunter sews theirs all the way around flat to the mesh BUT it does not attach to the safety belt so you most likely would still fall as the mesh or cordura ripped. On the phantom the continuous loop is bar tacked into the top and bottom which is strong but many of those bartacks would be pulling against the direction of the fall so many of them would bust. Of all the saddles, that’s the only one I think would possibly hold you as your back up connection point. *** On another note*** if you have a fall that is severe enough to break your friction hitch/ or your bridge (initial connection point) you have generated enough force that you’re most likely dead, or so badly injured that you would wish you were dead. So even if that secondary connection did hold you, it would be holding a dead or permanently paralyzed person in that tree. And it would not be holding you face up to help recover. I know all of this sounds harsh. But at 1800 lbs of force your body suffers potentially life ending injury. If you broke a friction hitch or a bridge that holds at over 3000 lbs, then you’ve well surpassed that 1800 lbs of force. Just some food for thought. I believe firmly in safety. But unless you’re wearing a secondary tether, or keeping on your linesman rope as the secondary connection, then you aren’t doing anything that will truly save you. That is why I personally don’t worry about tying my tether into my linesman loop or back to my bridge.
 
Back
Top