Climb of shame = Learning

[tcmetrohunter]

Hey fellas. Thought I would share with the group a little discovery I made while hunting the past week. I am currently using three T1 sticks with the BWMCG 2 step aider to climb with. I have a rappel setup with oplux and I have both a ATC and a Safeguard which I usually back up with a prusik for rappelling. Here is my progression after the week of hunting.

Day 1 - Sticks up, ROS in the tree, rappel down. Everything went great until I tried to pull my rappel rope down. I got my screw link down but after unhooking it from my rope and attempting to pull the screw link around a crotch in the tree I ran into a problem. My screw link got jammed in the crotch and boom climb of shame. I suspected this would happen but decided to go for it anyways which was a mistake. Got the rope unstuck and climbed down using my linesmans and aider. It was easier than I thought it would be so I was happy with it.

Day 2 - Sticks up, Predator in the tree, rappel down. I forgot my custom saddle at home which had my tether, linesmans, and ROS on it. So not a great start to the hunt. Had my Phantom, predator, and rappel rope so I figured I'd go for it since I was already dressed for the ball. Used my rappel rope in the roll pouch as my linesmans going up and switched it to a tether at hunting height. In hindsight I should have grabbed my spare versa strap and used it to help with the transfer from linesmans to tether. Next time I definitely will. I was in a different tree this time but it had multiple crotches in it and there was no way to avoid one. After rappelling down I pulled the screw link down, unhooked it from my rope and decided to leave my pull down connected just in case the screw link got stuck. Which guess what it did. So I used my pull down to extract the screw link which worked thankfully. Then it dawned on me. I took off my prusik and carabiner along with my safeguard and untied my stopper knot at the end of the rope. Pulled the rope down the opposite way by the screw link first and boom pulled through the crotch and off I went.

Day 3 - Sticks up, Predator w/ ROS, linesmans down. After all the hoopla with the rappel rope and what not I decided to leave it in the truck this time. Climbed up and down twice using my linesmans (dropped an arrow). Found that after all the climbing with the sticks and the aider I actually prefer it (linesmans) over rappelling down for short sits. Not to mention I think it's actually faster getting down.

 

[MNFarmHunter]

It's only a climb-o-shame if you didn't learn anything from it.

 

[slonstdy]

Your rappel rope will come down without incident every time IF you pull it from the screw link side and get that end down first and then pull on the remaining rope free. This is provided you don't have any knots or attachments on the opposite end.

 

[tcmetrohunter]

Your rappel rope will come down without incident every time IF you pull it from the screw link side and get that end down first and then pull on the remaining rope free. This is provided you don't have any knots or attachments on the opposite end.

You are correct. When practicing I was able to do it without incident by pulling the screw link down. Naturally once in the dark and in the field I of course found out it doesn't work that well with tree's I had been climbing. I will also say if you're super unfortunate like me you pull your screw link down and it lands directly on the edge of your bow limb and you get to have a pair of limbs replaced. Another reason not to do it that way unless you're climbing a tree that doesn't have branches of course then the rope just falls down.