Hi All,
This is my first post, and while I should probably post over in the Welcome sub-forum I wanted to share some information I thought pertinent to this thread.
For starters, I have been climbing trees recreationally for about 10 years, off and on, and I really love being in the canopy. I'm by no means a pro--just an enthusiast. I have only been hunting big game seriously for a few years though (elk, deer, black bear, very low success rate I might add). I was excited to find this site after I decided that I wanted to hunt from trees, and this thread has a ton of great info for all who take the time to read. Also, people here seem positive and supportive My personal SRT method when climbing for fun is very similar to what Whispers Death and Red Squirrel have been experimenting with and implementing. If I don't climb DRT it's RADS for SRT. There are lots of bees and hornets where I live and RADS allows me to scoot out quickly without having to detach from one system and reattach to another. I'm not confident I could do that while panicking and getting stung.
Last season I only hunted from my Walkabout saddle once, my first time too. I think I made so much noise setting up I scared every deer out of the county. The tree I chose was a pine with its first limbs 75 feet up (didn't pick it because it was tallish, it happened to be in the right spot.) I didn't intend to hunt from that height, but I had to anchor my rope there. Well, as many of you have pointed out, setup on the fly can be challenging. My first throwbag got lodged and wouldn't come free, which meant I had to climb all the way up to dislodge the bag after getting a suitable anchor to climb from. Well, I freed the throwbag but I was also visible to any deer within a half mile radius, and also the clanking of my Petzl Rig and all the other gear I was experimenting with surely alerted my presence. What had previously been a DNR parcel freshly logged and teeming with deer audibly crunching around the dry slash was now dead silent because of me.
I also learned that the Walkabout is a fine saddle for climbing and exploring canopies, but not so much for hanging from for hours. Even though I knew I had blown my chance for deer that evening I stayed in the tree to try to see what worked for me regarding my lanyards and other gear for hunting.
So, now that I got through a bit of introduction I was hoping to share a few things based off my experience just climbing for fun that may or may not help somebody on here. I read through all the posts and found that some of you have encountered the same challenges as myself. I will offer my hack solutions in case it is useful to any other readers on the forum. And I apologize if any of this has been mentioned elsewhere and I skipped over it.
The first one is how I deal with the inefficiency that is introduced by a rope or webbing bridge while climbing SRT. The rope bridge, even when short, creates some slop that steals your energy and makes you work harder than necessary. So, when I plan to climb with my RADS system I first hook a Mallion Rapide steel screw lock delta or semi circle up to the two cats paws on either side of the saddle. This brings them both together in the middle and removes the slop. It needs some tape or something though because it can be noisy. To remove it once aloft you make sure your rope bridge is secured to a life safety tie in first before standing on your platform or whatever to take the tension from the delta. Takes a bit of practice to get comfortable but easy enough. This works for me right now but it may not be a permanent solution in your case.
Next, somebody was asking about double footloops. You can set it up simply using a length of prussik cord tied into a loop, then tie a triple crown knot. After time it really does just seem easier to use a single loop though.
The last thing I thought I would comment on is where somebody asked about crossing creeks. A certain redwood researcher in California uses the Tyrolean traverse to cross creeks all the time with many lbs of tree climbing and scientific equipment. I think it's tricky to set up though. He also sets up pulleys in the canopy for easy rentry and repeated visits.
Anyways, I hope that this info is at least slightly useful. Maybe to spark some more creative thought if nothing else!
