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Going "micro" this season

slonstdy

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2018
Messages
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.


micro.jpg micro ounces.jpg
20 inch ounces.jpg
comparo.jpg
 
Awesome post. Aiders are kinda not for me, primarily on the way down. But I force myself to one stick for all scouting and camera placement and takedowns because I bet one day it will click for me and I’ll become proficient.
 
VERY COOL! I think your dead on with the concern about the cam cleat and boot contact. Sounds like you have found your method! With the spacing between the stand-offs being so close, did you notice any issues with the short stick biting into the tree when you steps up onto it? No tendency to twist?
Another question. Once you move your tether up, did you notice any difficulty reaching the step to move it up?
 
I just started trying out one stik method with a beast stik.
I think about a shorter stik as well but would have to make one cause I won't cut the beast stik .
Its actually working good.
For me no matter how you go up a tree, nothing beats a controlled decent. I substituted my tether for a 25' line and carry a decender.
It adds to the weight yes but it's my favorite way down and I do find it a bit more difficult one sticking down, going up isn't bad.
 
Very cool. I'm going to play with a couple varieties of this over the summer and see if any work for me. Thanks for sharing the idea.

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Just when I think I have sworn off one sticking forever...they drag me back in.
You can lighten the load more by switching that tubular webbing for two 24” Dyneema slings girth hitched to each other.
 
Let me add a correction to my original post,

***The overall length of my "20" stick" is actually 24" with the spacing between the steps at 21". I'm not sure how I came up with 20" length other than I've been wanting to try that length since the end of last season before the micro stick idea and that's the number that stuck in my head during this write up. Chalk it up as another senior moment for me, either way I verified the lengths of both sticks in the pics above and they are 24" and 8".***

@Patriot, As far as descending goes I strictly rappel but I know what you mean about fumbling with the aiders on the way down. Before rappelling I did one stick down and it was a bit of a PITA trying to get my feet in the aider loop but I think that was mainly due to coming down in the darkness. Like anything else, if I had to do it on a regular basis I'm sure I would become more proficient or find a more user friendly style of aider. It wasn't a deal breaker in my book and the aider's pros far outweighed it's only con.

@always89y ,The micro stick easily locked onto the tree and didn't budge once I put weight on it. I'm thinking because the distance between versa and step is so short there isn't enough leveraging force able to be applied to get it to shift as compared to a longer stick with a greater distance between the attachment point and lower standoff.
Reaching down to remove the micro wasn't any different because the need to reach the attachment point is what dictates how high I set my tether on the tree regardless of stick length and as a side note the only time I would use the top step of my 24" stick was as a final "move" when I would attach and step up to my ros.

I may decide to add a short cable loop "handle" from inside the tubing secured by the versa button bolt that a crafty fella (wink wink @always89y) on this site posted awhile back to see if that allows me to easily retrieve the stick while increasing my vertical distance between moves. Also have thought of using a simple paracord leash attached to my saddle and micro for the same purpose. Only time and testing will tell, stay tuned...
 
It''s 1.5" wide x .250" thick x 8" long 6061 welded to the 1" tubing, the same specs as the longer stick I used all of last season without bending. I understand what you are saying but most of the force applied is downward and not against the face of the step. Disclaimer, I weigh no more than 190#'s fully loaded, probably less but I could see it bending under the weight of the bigger gentlemen in here. Ideally I would prefer a .375" thickness and then taper the step towards it's outer end but I can't find that size "laying around" at work...
 
Awesome. Follow up question. Do you think a thinner walled 1x1 (assuming you used .125) could be used considering it's so short? Spacers inside the tubing on bolts of course.

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Awesome. Follow up question. Do you think a thinner walled 1x1 (assuming you used .125) could be used considering it's so short? Spacers inside the tubing on bolts of course.

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I think it would but you would save so little weight over a stick of that length why bother. Unless you have 1/16" wall on hand and want to use it up for something.
 
I think it would but you would save so little weight over a stick of that length why bother. Unless you have 1/16" wall on hand and want to use it up for something.
Exactly. I went down and put my hands on the 1/16th and it feels thin. Think ill go with a heavier one.
 
I think a 1/8 wall 2 ft stick is 454g

1/16 wall is just about half


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So I did a few quick test climbs this evening to see if this micro stick could hold it's own against my 24" modded stick and the results surprised me.

The Test:

24" stick with cam cleat and 2 step aider vs 8" micro with rope mod and 2 step aider

The tree chosen was a pole straight 14" diameter hickory with a couple of limbs at about 15' and 20' which would require a tether remove/replace with linesman belt attach/detach at both locations.
Each stick would be placed on the tree and I would have my tether in my hand ready before the stop watch would begin counting.

The first climb was made with the 24" stick partly because I know how it climbs so it was like a warm up but also to determine the test height. Once I got the stick past the second limb and stood up on the step I stopped the clock to take a measurement. From the ground up to my feet it measured 24' so that became the finish line for this test session. It took me 5 mins 38 secs but I lost track of how many moves it took, I thought it was six...
While I was up there I set up my rappel rope and paracord pull down leash, removed the stick and rappelled down.

For the remaining climbs I got my son to come out and count how many times I moved the stick...

The next climb was with the micro, it went well but felt slower because of the rope mod. My feet reached the 24' mark in 7 mins 44 secs with 4 moves. It was almost 2 minutes longer and that extra time showed the difference between a cam cleat vs a rope mod, or so I thought...

Because I was unsure of the amount of moves with the 24" stick I made a second climb with it. This climb gave me a time of 6 mins 59 secs with 5 moves to reach the 24' mark. So the difference between the two sticks was now only 45 secs more and one less move with the micro stick, not too shabby in my eyes. I realized why there was such a time discrepancy between the first climb with the 24"stick and the micro stick vs the second climb with the 24" stick - the rappel rope was not there during the initial climb and it got in the way a few times during the next couple of climbs hence the additional time.

I wanted to do a few more climbs with each and take a time average but it got too dark and chilly to continue but so far I'm really liking the micro stick and these early test results are proving it's worth.

In the future I may try a cam cleat on it as the rope mod actually felt deathly slow even though it was only about 5 secs longer per detach/ reattach. That to me would make the micro unbeatable.
 
IMO you should build an aider that's heavy duty. If all your carrying is the little stick then the extra aider weight shouldn't be an issue. I've tried lots of things for aiders and the lighter the material it wouldn't be very user friendly. Each new aider I've made has been progressively more heavy duty. You'll have allot more confidence climbing with robust aider. All your stick is doing now is just an anchor and your aider is really the main climbing component so why not make it beefy. I was going to do the same thing your doing in this off season and make tiny sticks but went a different route.
 
I was thinking of doing the same with a Hawk Helium stick. Instead of cutting the bottom of the stick and removing the middle step, drilling new holes, then replacing the bottom step in the new holes, why not just cut the stick below the middle step? That would leave a shorter stick maybe 15" overall with 13.5" between steps. The added bonus being no drilling and I would still be using the factory steps. I guess my concern would be the position of the versa button. Has anyone else done this? Any problems?

I like the OP's mini stick but since I already have an uncut Helium, it just seems like a good thing to do.
 
I was thinking of doing the same with a Hawk Helium stick. Instead of cutting the bottom of the stick and removing the middle step, drilling new holes, then replacing the bottom step in the new holes, why not just cut the stick below the middle step? That would leave a shorter stick maybe 15" overall with 13.5" between steps. The added bonus being no drilling and I would still be using the factory steps. I guess my concern would be the position of the versa button. Has anyone else done this? Any problems?

I like the OP's mini stick but since I already have an uncut Helium, it just seems like a good thing to do.
I believe @denots has 15 inch heliums he uses with aiders. This may be the system I go with this year, except I’ll use multiple sticks. One sticking feels too much like using a climber for me
 
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