The vast majoity of the weight/bulk is in the rope itself. I carry 40' or Teufelberger Tachyon 11.5mm rope (6 lbs/100ft so a little less than three pounds). You can use an ATC (Black Diamond is about 2 oz) and prusik (approx. 3 ft of 6mm rope, negligible) for your descender. A lot of guys are using smaller/lighter rope so I'd say I'm on the conservative side at right around 3 lbs. You'll also need 30 feet or so of paracord or something similar for retrieval line (again negligible) but that doubles as my pull up line as well.
Under 2 minutes
I'm not as quick as @Squirrels but I'm definitely under 5 minutes. I stop on the way down to remove my platform and stick. Once down I unhook, pull the rope down and coil it and and my pull down cord up. Pack it up in my pack and I'm off. Really very quick.
I cut mine at 23.5 inches from the top, primarily because I didn't want to the leave the sharp corners open on either side of the long slots. I was afraid they'd cut my pack bottom. I then used the cut off bottom as a template to locate the screw holes for the steps and lower standoff holes. I eyeballed the position so the two step holes are centered on the wide non-relieved potion of the stick and clamped the cutoff portion on to provide a good template. That mimics the original design in terms of support for the step screws.
I cut mine at 23.5 inches from the top, primarily because I didn't want to the leave the sharp corners open on either side of the long slots. I was afraid they'd cut my pack bottom. I then used the cut off bottom as a template to locate the screw holes for the steps and lower standoff holes. I eyeballed the position so the two step holes are centered on the wide non-relieved potion of the stick and clamped the cutoff portion on to provide a good template. That mimics the original design in terms of support for the step screws.
Ontariofarmer posted a pretty good reference video as well. I'd make sure the center the step holes pretty close in that unrelieved section to keep the strength.
https://saddlehunter.com/community/...-a-detailed-way-to-modify-a-hawk-stick.22532/
I wouldn't want to outfit a whole set of sticks with them but I wouldn't trade the one on my single stick for any other attachment method. I tried a versa button and daisy chain but its difficult for me to undo at my knee level when I'm hanging in the tree. With the cam cleat I just lift the stick to take the pressure off and pull the rope out. It doesn't get any easier than that.
