I have two setups. A modded muddy one stick with an EWO LP (Light Platform) on top, and an EWO ULS (Ultimate Lower Step) on the bottom with a 3 step Ultimaider and the protective sleeves for the Ultimaider also from EWO. It’s 4.4 lbs without the Ultimaider. Probably 5.2 with it. It’s a tank but I like its stability. I also have an OG complete EWO One stick with the UP platform on top and the regular EWP step/stick stand-off on the bottom and EWO’s two step sewn aider with 15” spacing. I used this all the season of ‘21. I mostly used the modded muddy this season. Haven’t weighed the EWO one stick but it’s definitely lighter. My EWO is a 15” stick but the muddy is a 20” tube. The EWO is a work of art. The modded muddy with the two EWO platforms also incorporate the excellent EWO standoffs which are exactly the same geometry as the regular stick/step standoffs. Talk about biting into a tree and just a very robust design. With the modded 20” stick I can get to 17-18’ in three moves using the Ultimaider. In moves two and three I’m only using the second and top aider steps. On the first part of the climb I try to put it up high enough to effectively use all three steps of the Ultimaider. With the OG EWO it took me about four moves to get to my standard 16’ to 18’ hunting height. In ‘20 when I first started one sticking I used a standard Muddy stick and an OOAL solo scout once I got t hunting height. I used a climb rated 24” loop with a zip tie fished through it to keep the loop open while one sticking. It’s the
@SloMo mod for the climbing loops. All work well. The muddy standoffs just didn’t have the bite of the EWO ones though. Each of the first two one stick setups I described above are shown on a shape charge pack.
As far as rappelling down I have 35’ of Canyon IV using a Mammut Smart 2.0 device. I still use a separate tether while hunting. Many guys use their rappel rope also as their hunting tether to save weight and time. I feel more comfortable using my rappel setup just for that purpose. I also keep a lineman’s belt girth hitched to my left side daisy chained with a Notch oval biner for use with a Kong Duck mechanical prussic. My hunting tether uses a rope man 1 mechanical prussic. My saddle is a CGM sidewinder with saddle spenders. I loosen the suspenders when I start climbing. I just use the suspenders to keep the saddle up on my waist the height I prefer it. For some reason the belt slips down a little bit on me if I just use it. I’ll try to take more pics later if my kit. I realize I have some redundancy in my system but I also have some pre-set locations that I may default too while hunting and I’ll leave the one stick at the base of the tree in these scenarios.
