This is the long tether from areo hunter. 12' if I remember correctly. I'll measure it at some point today and let you know for sure.
I personally like this way better because when I take the loose end and turn it into my tether I disconnect my carabiners from my lineman's loops and I have nothing hanging on me. Everything is on the tree and out of my way.
It’s really not any better or worse. I use a 2-1 as well and like it but I’m just as comfortable with two separate ropes. It really just comes down to personal preference.
There's several things that led me to wanting to use, and liking this method better. One of them being I do not like pouches on my saddle. I don't know why, maybe it seems silly, but I just don't like them. It's probably because I don't put my saddle on until I'm ready to go up a tree so everything is in my backpack. The second reason and probably more importantly is that I tend to hunt larger trees. Not always, but a lot of times I'll pick a pretty big tree. The six foot rope that came with my saddle for a lineman's belt would be too short. So I'd end up having to use my 12 foot tether as my linemans belt which meant I ended up switching things around instead of just climbing the tree. Now I have a 12 foot rope that serves both purposes. So now when I need to climb a larger tree than what my shorter linemans belt would allow me to climb, I just make the adjustment on a prusik and start climbing. When I get to hunting height I cinch myself real tight to the tree make my tether, clip-in, unhook everything else, make my little fine-tune adjustments, and I'm done. Nothing on my saddle, plenty of rope to climb large trees, and the ability to maneuver around limbs without a second rope on a carabiner clicking together. Just a win-win for me. I'm not much of a video person but I'll try to make one and get my niece to put it on my YouTube channel so I can share it here with everybody. It's definitely going to be a personal preference thing though, to be honest.
I would love to see the video even if it's a little rough. My biggest concern is having to turn the rope into a tether once you get to the top of the tree. Do you disconnect completely to feed the rope through to make the gerth hitch? Or do you have enough slack to feed the rope through the loop and connect back to the bridge? Maybe some pictures. I'm heading on a trip soon and was thinking about doing this method, but I don't know if I will feel 100% comfortable with this method by them.
I do it one of two ways but neither involve disconnecting from the tree and neither does @denots judging from his previous explanation. The first method I use is to simply complete my girth hitch using a carabiner instead of running the entire tag end through the end loop. The second way is to just pull a 2-3’ loop of top through my end loop after girth wrapping the tree and use this as my tether. Hope this is clear enough.
Yup, that is essentially what we are doing. I even use a prusik as you have drawn to cinch my tether portion to the tree so that it doesn’t slide while I make the transfer. I don’t put my linesman’s portion in my bridge, I want my bridge uncluttered and to slide with little effort so I loop my linesman and it gets gear tied to the prusik loop securing my tether portion. This way everything is off me and out of the way.This was exactly the point that I am trying to figure out as well...how the tether when connected. Unless, instead of pulling the rope through the loop as normally thought, a Carabiner is being used to clip into end loop from a prussik/Ropeman. Maybe like this?
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I see what your saying. Yes exactly. That is essentially my entire system. There’s some things I’ve added for preference and usability for myself. I have a third prusik and prusik renders in a couple locations (this took a bit to figure where I wanted them) but other then a little customization you have the entire concept in those two drawings.Maybe like this...
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Sorry for some reason the picture of the section I turned into the tether is sideways and when I edit it, I can't upload it. The black auto lock Carabiner with the ropeman hooks on my right side the silver Ascent light on the long prusik goes on my left side and is in the middle of the rope. The other end of the rope I pull the excess through my eye in the end of the rope to make my girth hitch and tether. Hope this helps.
I never said giant, I said larger and I use climbing spurs for the most part. But other than that I do use sticks. So far I've not climbed anything big enough to where I need to unhook my linemans belt before I'm clipped into my tether and Bridge. I take up all my slack One Direction when I get to where I'm going to make my tether up so I have plenty of extra on one end. Worst case scenario is I would have to clip in low, unhook my linemans belt, and then raise it up and set it. I would still be completely tied into the tree in case of a complete platform failure or slip. I'll be honest going around limbs is a bit more of a challenge because it's a pain swinging the Rope around the tree(as you pointed out). Typically the larger trees as a rule of thumb don't have limbs till 15 or 20 foot up so it's usually a non-issue. A tree would have to be absolutely perfect to be a very large tree I had to try to go around a limb.
