- Joined
- Oct 10, 2018
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- 1,377
Up until today I thought I would never find another method of climbing that would afford me all the benefits of one stick climbing AND be legal on public land while not having the usual drawbacks like requiring extra equipment with the associated weight penalties or requiring presets or that trees need certain attributes for the climbing system to work. Well, my search is over and I think I found my Holy Grail...
This afternoon I tried out an 8" diy micro stick with a two step aider and rope mod and to say I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked would be an understatement. The tree I tested it on was between 8"-10" diameter with a slight lean, pretty sure it was a young shagbark hickory.
The first noticeable difference between my go to 20" stick and the micro was how much easier it was to maneuver during the climb. There have been times where the 20" felt too long and would seem to get hung up, the culprit usually being the top step interfering with my tether and in other cases the aider would get caught between my knee and the tree during a re-position move. The micro, on the other hand, being so small allowed for easy placement and due to the fact it is comparable to holding a 20" at the bottom step during a move (as opposed to the top step where I normally grab it), the 2 step aider was unable to get caught because of the overall shorter length of the entire setup.
Another micro perk was the ability to "flip" the rope up the backside of the tree without worrying about either hitting myself with the stick or accidentally banging the stick on the tree and leveraging it out of my grasp, both real concerns when I used a 20" stick.
Starting at the base of the tree the placement was the same versa button height as compared to the 20" but in actuality with the micro I gain 10" of height because the distance from the versa button to the bottom step is 3" for the micro vs 13" lower on the longer stick. The rest of the climb should be comparable between the two until the longer stick with the top step has the advantage and will afford me one less stick move to get to my desired height. I never said the micro pitched a shutout. I will do a back to back comparison climb between the two sticks to see if there is a difference in amount of moves required and overall climb time to reach my hunting height, usually 20 - 24'.
As I said earlier, this test climb was on a relatively small diameter tree although I don't expect any difficulties with trees up to 20" or so but I will test and pass on my findings.
The stick is 8" long with an 8" wide bottom step on 1" aluminum tubing with a rope mod. I'm not sure if I will try a cam cleat because of the close proximity to the step and high potential for inadvertent boot contact. It comes in weighing a touch under 28 ounces which is 15 ounces lighter than my 20" but the final weight may change a little bit when I add the vet tape and remove a foot or two off the 9' length of 8mm accessory cord. It fits easily in my backpack but I might also see if attaching it to my saddle for the walk in works out better.
At this point in time, unless further testing exposes an unforeseen short coming, the micro stick will be my chosen method of climbing for the upcoming season.
This afternoon I tried out an 8" diy micro stick with a two step aider and rope mod and to say I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked would be an understatement. The tree I tested it on was between 8"-10" diameter with a slight lean, pretty sure it was a young shagbark hickory.
The first noticeable difference between my go to 20" stick and the micro was how much easier it was to maneuver during the climb. There have been times where the 20" felt too long and would seem to get hung up, the culprit usually being the top step interfering with my tether and in other cases the aider would get caught between my knee and the tree during a re-position move. The micro, on the other hand, being so small allowed for easy placement and due to the fact it is comparable to holding a 20" at the bottom step during a move (as opposed to the top step where I normally grab it), the 2 step aider was unable to get caught because of the overall shorter length of the entire setup.
Another micro perk was the ability to "flip" the rope up the backside of the tree without worrying about either hitting myself with the stick or accidentally banging the stick on the tree and leveraging it out of my grasp, both real concerns when I used a 20" stick.
Starting at the base of the tree the placement was the same versa button height as compared to the 20" but in actuality with the micro I gain 10" of height because the distance from the versa button to the bottom step is 3" for the micro vs 13" lower on the longer stick. The rest of the climb should be comparable between the two until the longer stick with the top step has the advantage and will afford me one less stick move to get to my desired height. I never said the micro pitched a shutout. I will do a back to back comparison climb between the two sticks to see if there is a difference in amount of moves required and overall climb time to reach my hunting height, usually 20 - 24'.
As I said earlier, this test climb was on a relatively small diameter tree although I don't expect any difficulties with trees up to 20" or so but I will test and pass on my findings.
The stick is 8" long with an 8" wide bottom step on 1" aluminum tubing with a rope mod. I'm not sure if I will try a cam cleat because of the close proximity to the step and high potential for inadvertent boot contact. It comes in weighing a touch under 28 ounces which is 15 ounces lighter than my 20" but the final weight may change a little bit when I add the vet tape and remove a foot or two off the 9' length of 8mm accessory cord. It fits easily in my backpack but I might also see if attaching it to my saddle for the walk in works out better.
At this point in time, unless further testing exposes an unforeseen short coming, the micro stick will be my chosen method of climbing for the upcoming season.