I’m going to apologize in advance for the length of this post. I have intentionally been avoiding posting in these threads as I am probably as guilty as anyone in the promotion of one stick climbing. Let me say right off the bat here I’m not trying to justify one stick climbing as completely safe in any way, shape, or form nor am I going actively recommend anyone to climb using this method. In fact, if you’re new to saddle hunting (or even have been playing with it for a while but are not yet fully trusting of your saddle or completely comfortable in your rope/safety management) I would highly recommend you utilize a more conventional means to climb until you achieve comfort, trust and a repeatable safe hookup procedure while in the tree.
Now with that said let me also admit I have taken the 3.5-4 foot plunge on a slack line early on in my saddle hunting journey when the completely inappropriate stick I was attempting to use failed as I was transitioning to my platform. And all this occurred while attached to my tether and lineman’s and using a . . .gasp . . . Ropeman 1. The story behind that is also long winded and I won’t repeat it here but I have shared it before and the link is posted below.
As we all know @redsquirrel has declared 2019 The Year of Safety. With the rapid growth of this site and large number of new saddle hunters I thought it might be beneficial to start a “lessons learned” thread focusing on safety where we can share some of our close calls, lessons learned and...
saddlehunter.com
I can say I don’t recommend the drop, in fact immediately after this incident I moved from one sticking to using WE stepps for quite a while. I will also say, while it did hurt, I can without hesitation say I’ve bounced a lot worse. Honestly I was more shook up than hurt. How is that?, you may ask. Well I’ll try to get to that later.
First let me discuss the biggest reason this happened to me in the first place. I was complacent and cocky and didn’t take any time to evaluate the risks I was taking at the time. Furthermore, since I hadn’t tried to evaluate the risks I took absolutely zero steps toward mitigating them. I hadn’t considered what would happen if the stick I was standing on suddenly fell out from under me. I hadn’t even considered it as a possibility. When I encountered my first failure, instead of retreating and returning to fight another day I continued on hoping to salvage a hunt (oh horrors, I can’t waste an evening hunt!). I did have the presence of mind to attach my lineman’s at that point but I certainly failed in the aspect of advancing my tether before trying to step off the stick. Why?? Because I wasn’t schooled enough in the rope management and safety aspects thereof. Now-a-days I wouldn’t consider transitioning to a platform on a slack tether even a couple feet off the ground. Then, I hadn’t the experience to develop that habit yet (hence my warning to newbies). Also, I had a false sense of security from the lineman’s belt. Truthfully, when the stick gave way, the lineman’s belt did nothing toward arresting my fall until it looped over the platform that was already attached to the tree. By then the tether was taut and I was already hanging.
How did I avoid certain cataclysmic injury? Well, the short answer is I was holding the tree between both hands when I fell. Longer explanation comes from the fact that the fall forces frequently quoted herein are based on an unrestrained free fall for the entire distance similar to stepping off a bridge while connected to a length of rope. Could this situation happen while one-sticking . . . absolutely, which is why we all need to be aware of the risks involved. However, there are things that can mitigate some of those forces. Thankfully gripping the tree with both hands helps. Although most of us aren’t strong enough to stop our descent this way, at least we can provide some upward resistance to slow our acceleration due to gravity so we don’t hit with the full free fall forces available.
In time I migrated back to one stick climbing, FOR ME, it checks the boxes I’m looking for in a climbing system but the story doesn’t end there. When I returned to it I changed to a more conventional stick and a short single step aider, but I still hadn’t fully considered the risks associated and potential mitigations. I have to admit that it was a post in a thread here by
@kyler1945 that got me thinking about improvements that I could make to my system that, while they might not fully alleviate the risk of a fall, they may help mitigate the affect on me of such a fall. Some of those are, in no particular order: Ditch the Ropeman tether connection. It worked once, but I’m not going to push my luck. Add a ripstop into my connection to the tree. The concept is similar to the progressive tearouts on conventional safety harness. Always maintain three points of contact with the tree. In addition to my feet securely planted and balanced on the steps of my stick (not standing in an aider) I always have one hand in contact with the back side of the tree. Never, get my fingers inside the girth hitch. If you fall and that rope catches your fingers against that tree good luck freeing them.
I’m not trying to say these steps make me completely safe but they do mitigate the risks enough FOR ME to climb using this method. Anytime we leave the ground we are assuming risks and we all have to decide for ourselves whether or not that risk is acceptable to us. The important thing is that we do our best to evaluate the risk and take mitigation steps where we can. One example for me. I personally will not climb on a multistep aider. I don’t feel comfortable that poking my toe into the tree will provide enough bite to keep me from kicking out. That’s one of my personal risk levels I can’t make the justification for.
One final thought before I end this. We’ve all experienced quiet time while sitting in the tree with nothing but chickadees around. Think about using some of that time to examine your setup and methods, not overall, but actually analyze each individual component and try to imagine all the ways it could fail. For each potential failure mode consider if its worth implementing a backup plan for and how best you can do that. After all, you’re just hanging there doing nothing anyway.