I'm just using 550 paracord.
One more climb of shame from last week. After a particularly eventful evening sit I decided to revisit the same tree the following morning. This is something I rarely do. Excited from the previous evening's activity I got an extra early start in the morning planning to be set up and ready at least 45 minutes before shooting light. I made my way to the somewhat unfamiliar area in the dark and started my climb. After 3 moves of the stick I encountered a branch I needed to go around . . . . "I don't remember that branch????" Well, after further evaluation I discovered I was in the wrong tree and I really needed to be in the tree about 3 feet away.
With my rappel gear buried in my pack under all my upper layers I had no choice but to one stick back down, a process I hate with a passion. I hit the ground, move over to the correct tree and reset and start up. Three stick moves into that climb I'm passing a limb from an adjacent sapling and it pulls my platform out of my pack and sends it to the ground . . . . guess what . . .yep. One sticking back down to collect my platform. So much for getting an early start. By the time I was set up I figured I climbed an equivalent of 3 trees. I'm getting too old for this.
Wasn't trying to one up you, just wanted to share that even guys who've been doing this a long time make "the climb of shame" occasionally.
My issue was wet snow/raining and I was trying to keep both from hanging in the leaves at the base of the tree so I hooked the pull down line to my pack while I was sitting after I had pulled up my bow. When I dropped the rappel line I dropped it through that loop. Then, when I attached it to my bow I put another wrap on it. Lowering the bow just tightened the whole mess up. In the dark I had no clue how screwed up I was making myself. Bottom line is I varied from my normal process and it bit me in the dark. Moral of the story, don't deviate from a process that works.
I use a turkey vest as my pack. The pouch on the vest carries my rappel rope, platform, stick and extra layers. I pack it so that the items are layered in the order I ordinarily would need to use them. Stick on top, platform, extra layers next, rappel rope on the bottom. In a true emergency I could shed the layers and get to the necessary rappel rope but in this instance I didn't deem it an emergency, more of a inconvenience . . . twice.
Had my first occurrence having to climb back up the tree to get my rope unstuck from a crotch in the tree.
That really sucked after getting shut out for the day
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This sounds kind of familiar. Which is why I switched back to the doyle's. Its redundant to have this and the dyna-glyde throw line for rappel line retrieval but I am the king of mishaps like this when I'm first getting back into my routine and so yeah..... I empathize completely.
One more climb of shame from last week. After a particularly eventful evening sit I decided to revisit the same tree the following morning. This is something I rarely do. Excited from the previous evening's activity I got an extra early start in the morning planning to be set up and ready at least 45 minutes before shooting light. I made my way to the somewhat unfamiliar area in the dark and started my climb. After 3 moves of the stick I encountered a branch I needed to go around . . . . "I don't remember that branch????" Well, after further evaluation I discovered I was in the wrong tree and I really needed to be in the tree about 3 feet away.
With my rappel gear buried in my pack under all my upper layers I had no choice but to one stick back down, a process I hate with a passion. I hit the ground, move over to the correct tree and reset and start up. Three stick moves into that climb I'm passing a limb from an adjacent sapling and it pulls my platform out of my pack and sends it to the ground . . . . guess what . . .yep. One sticking back down to collect my platform. So much for getting an early start. By the time I was set up I figured I climbed an equivalent of 3 trees. I'm getting too old for this.
