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A fall noted on facebook. A comment I saw.

Ontariofarmer

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2015
Messages
5,249
Attention

Fellow saddle hunters. I was hunting on Friday evening in my saddle and my Tethrd broke and I fell 15-18 ft. I was hunting public land and a guy who I talked to before I walked in was able to help me.
Please don’t assume you know what gear I was using because I am a gear head and try different gear all the time. Two thing I would like to point out is 1. Check your gear before you climb and 2. If you’re hunting public land welcome the other party because they just might save you life. I was helicopter flown to Vandy image that I worked on them for 20 yrs. I have a broken thigh bone, a punctured lung, and some other issues. If it’s brown then it’s down.


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Another comment on FB

Gonna warn you - these pics are kinda gruesome but I figured I would share to maybe help someone else - I was 2 1/2 miles in this morning by myself and decided to climb down my hawk helium’s attached with an Amsteel daisy chain - - the stick kicked out on me and rolled upwards - I was tied off to my linesman but the tree cleat punctured my leg and ripped a 6” laceration 2” deep - as I was hanging there - I reset the stick - climbed down gathered all my stuff efficiently and limped 300 yds to trail where my bike was - I then decided to pull my pants down to see how bad it was - it was bad!! So I ripped off my kuiu hoody and made a makeshift tourniquet around the wound and rode my bike back the 2 1/2 miles with one leg - and was able to drive myself to the ER - not exactly the weekend I was looking for ! What I’m getting at is the daisy chain mod is not worth falling or cutting or killing yourself over - I was luck and just had soft tissue damage with 30 stitches and 17 staples - they said I was close to an artery - if I hit that id be in big trouble - thing I’m going back to the cam buckle


e518d1f38c464b1d31961dfa65fb965b.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Attention

Fellow saddle hunters. I was hunting on Friday evening in my saddle and my Tethrd broke and I fell 15-18 ft. I was hunting public land and a guy who I talked to before I walked in was able to help me.
Please don’t assume you know what gear I was using because I am a gear head and try different gear all the time. Two thing I would like to point out is 1. Check your gear before you climb and 2. If you’re hunting public land welcome the other party because they just might save you life. I was helicopter flown to Vandy image that I worked on them for 20 yrs. I have a broken thigh bone, a punctured lung, and some other issues. If it’s brown then it’s down.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
No information to determine what could have failed. I look at my equipment and determine the weakest point and add a backup if possible. I added a second climbing sling bridge after looking at my single one all last season and wondering. I would never try a new method in the woods.
 
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Another comment on FB

Gonna warn you - these pics are kinda gruesome but I figured I would share to maybe help someone else - I was 2 1/2 miles in this morning by myself and decided to climb down my hawk helium’s attached with an Amsteel daisy chain - - the stick kicked out on me and rolled upwards - I was tied off to my linesman but the tree cleat punctured my leg and ripped a 6” laceration 2” deep - as I was hanging there - I reset the stick - climbed down gathered all my stuff efficiently and limped 300 yds to trail where my bike was - I then decided to pull my pants down to see how bad it was - it was bad!! So I ripped off my kuiu hoody and made a makeshift tourniquet around the wound and rode my bike back the 2 1/2 miles with one leg - and was able to drive myself to the ER - not exactly the weekend I was looking for ! What I’m getting at is the daisy chain mod is not worth falling or cutting or killing yourself over - I was luck and just had soft tissue damage with 30 stitches and 17 staples - they said I was close to an artery - if I hit that id be in big trouble - thing I’m going back to the cam buckle


e518d1f38c464b1d31961dfa65fb965b.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
That is the type of accident I had envisioned while climbing sticks. The lineman's rope will not stop this. A tether is necessary which is why I like one sticking over 4 sticking. A tether is necessary while one sticking and could stop you from hitting the top of the stick. I climb SRT so I can only envision hitting the ground or maybe my platform. If my rope is sound chances are I am coming home undamaged.
 
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That is the type of accident I had envisioned while climbing sticks. The lineman's rope will not stop this. A tether is necessary which is why I like one sticking over 4 sticking. A tether is necessary while one sticking and could stop you from hitting the top of the stick. I climb SRT since I can only envision hitting the ground or maybe my platform. If my rope is sound chances are I am coming home undamaged.
I agree. I multi stick but I use tether and LB. Just move tether up as I climb. Slows me down but its safer.
 
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Would be nice to know more on the equipment failure. I’m assuming they mean their tether (not Tethrd) failed. My questions would be what type of tether? Was it a knot failure, connection failure, actual rope/webbing failure, or user error? Did anything lead up to the failure (fall, cut/sliced, recent DIY experiment)? I don’t do Facebook but I’m sure many people can be scared away by posts like this, but truth is we need details to determine what exactly occurred. Regardless it’s our due diligence to understand, inspect, and practice with our equipment. And most importantly, let someone, anyone know where you will be!
 
Would be nice to know more on the equipment failure. I’m assuming they mean their tether (not Tethrd) failed. My questions would be what type of tether? Was it a knot failure, connection failure, actual rope/webbing failure, or user error? Did anything lead up to the failure (fall, cut/sliced, recent DIY experiment)? I don’t do Facebook but I’m sure many people can be scared away by posts like this, but truth is we need details to determine what exactly occurred. Regardless it’s our due diligence to understand, inspect, and practice with our equipment. And most importantly, let someone, anyone know where you will be!
There was an SRT accident at the Western PA meetup a few months ago and details were posted later. I imagine time to get over the initial trauma is needed.
 
There was an SRT accident at the Western PA meetup a few months ago and details were posted later. I imagine time to get over the initial trauma is needed.

Yeah I completely understand that. Especially when it is more part on the user not the equipment. But if there is some defective equipment that caused an issue it needs to get out there ASAP so others can start checking their stuff out more stringently. Many of us do good inspections of our gear, but it’s still possible there may be some issue with it that we can’t see by a general visual observation.
 
That is a weird way that he described it, he would have to go out of his way to capitalize and spell it how he did.

Yeah no joke. I’m just making my assumption because of his spill about people not trying to assume what gear he is using. So it’s like he’s not trying to name drop by that line. Maybe Tethrd is a name his phone had remembered as an auto correct/text completion suggestion and that’s how it got entered? Who knows? Definitely more info to be desired in that comment.
 
Tether broke? Yikes.

Climbing stick kickout using modded attachment method? Also yikes.

Be safe out there folks. Use your noggins and double check everything before using it.
 
I saw this earlier today.

I am way more of a lurker on FB than a poster. Way more knuckleheads on there.

That said, I have no knowledge other than that he is nothing but honest about sharing his incident. Also, autocorrect has a way about changing text.

Foremost, I hope he fully recovers and his warning resonates with the mobile hunter community.

As for myself, I vacillate between Stepps and sticks. My OCD paranoia of being torn asunder drives me to use my Stepps. My laziness drives me to sticks.

This is giving me serious pause and consideration to exclusively go back to using Stepps.
 
I learned a free lesson yesterday. I was in a honey hole and my first climb was no good (I was gonna get picked off by any deer). So, I move and I'm hot and kinda mad. Only decent tree I see is huge diameter for me and it is bumpy with weird bark. I usually don't climb trees I can't reach around and touch hands, this was way past that. I had to toss my daisy chains and lineman's belt around and could barely do that. I don't even think I could get a tether around the thing (dumb, dumb).

Anyways, I'm 3 sticks up and I have my stick kick out (first time this has ever happened to me). Also, I must have had my daisy chain boogered up on some bark and knots on the backside of that monster tree (could not look or feel for that on a big tree), because as I took weight off of it I got major slack in the daisy chain and it dropped on me several feet. I was fine as I had a lineman's on and foot on stick below.

This is the closest call I've ever had in a tree in 30 years. I broke all kinds of my personal rules because I was frustrated over the first failed climb and in a hurry. Lesson learned.
 
Tethrd broke - this is really interesting, would be good to know exactly what happen. This being my second year saddle hunting I tend to "try" to be safe or do things to make me feel safe. I usually tie in my bridge and use my linesmen as a second bridge - attached to a pursik set above my original bridge. On some long boring sits I have often looked at that single tether wrapped around the tree supporting me and have often wonder what/if there's a fail rate on tethers ---- "assuming" FB post meant tether.
 
Would be nice to know more on the equipment failure. I’m assuming they mean their tether (not Tethrd) failed. My questions would be what type of tether? Was it a knot failure, connection failure, actual rope/webbing failure, or user error? Did anything lead up to the failure (fall, cut/sliced, recent DIY experiment)? I don’t do Facebook but I’m sure many people can be scared away by posts like this, but truth is we need details to determine what exactly occurred. Regardless it’s our due diligence to understand, inspect, and practice with our equipment. And most importantly, let someone, anyone know where you will be!
I do hope we get more detail...
 
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