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One Stick Climbing: To Rappel or not Rappel

Do you Rappel after one stick climbing to make your descent?

  • I use a different climbing method

  • I one stick climb but have never tried rappelling

  • I one stick climb and have tried rappelling but don't care for it

  • I one stick climb but only rappel under certain conditions

  • If I one stick climb I'm rappelling down

Results are only viewable after voting.
dalton916 said:
No one has ever said “woooooooooooo!!!!!” while one sticking down.
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I came close once when I somehow set my daisy chain with a loop over the left step of my double step lone wolf stick. It went versa button...around the tree...to the step...versabutton. Stick felt mushy. When I realized what I'd done, so did my pants.
 
Cbigbear said:
I’m still old school & using a rch (paired with a fleece saddle) which I find the belay loop attachment point yields itself to one sticking better than a bridge.
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I'm on the fleece saddle train for this year. What RCH do you use? I can't seem to settle on one to buy.

Might or might not 1-stick. My Muddy which is my best 1-sticker weighs 3 lbs. My 4 DIY@s weigh sub 7. I could carry 3 DIYs with a CAYGA and be sub 5 lbs. The weight differential just doesn't justify the climbing effort differential IMHO.

I feel like there is a golden ratio of weight/bulk to effort/risk that exists. It probably varies for people depending on age, fitness, flexibility, daring, hunting terrain & distance, etc.

I've wanted to add the rappel system, but as you noted the extra gear/weight further exacerbates the tradeoff mentioned above. It does seem fun though!
 
My rappel gear weighs less than 2.5 pounds
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@DanO fleece bag. 40 feet of Oplux safeguard a carabiners a screw link


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TNSTAAFL said:
I'm on the fleece saddle train for this year. What RCH do you use? I can't seem to settle on one to buy.

Might or might not 1-stick. My Muddy which is my best 1-sticker weighs 3 lbs. My 4 DIY@s weigh sub 7. I could carry 3 DIYs with a CAYGA and be sub 5 lbs. The weight differential just doesn't justify the climbing effort differential IMHO.

I feel like there is a golden ratio of weight/bulk to effort/risk that exists. It probably varies for people depending on age, fitness, flexibility, daring, hunting terrain & distance, etc.

I've wanted to add the rappel system, but as you noted the extra gear/weight further exacerbates the tradeoff mentioned above. It does seem fun though!
Click to expand...
Takes no more effort for me to climb a tree with one stick than it does with 3 or 4. Not sure if that is the case for everyone.
 
Sweet little package. Definitely reduces bulk compared to full stick setup. The 2.5 lbs plus a 3 lb Muddy gets me too close to my 4 DIYs though. Tradeoffs again.

Climbing height options are better with the 1-stick rappel though. I can only get to 16' with 4 sticks. I suppose 24' if I used a CAYGA. 1-stick rappel gets you any height that fits your length of rappel rope I suppose.

For early season and lower heights it doesn't seem to add up for me, but maybe for gun season where I might hunt higher this becomes more advantageous.
 
Squirrels said:
Takes no more effort for me to climb a tree with one stick than it does with 3 or 4. Not sure if that is the case for everyone.
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I hear ya. Not trying to be argumentative here. Just thinking out loud and sharing ideas which helps me evolve.

I agree perceived effort varies by individual. In my experience I wouldn't say it is a lot harder. Just a bit. The effort to position one self off or to the side of the stick/tree, the effort to balance while you have no rope pressure, the effort to raise the tether up the tree (my least favorite part). While this is not all substantially difficult, I find it more so than simply learning on a LB and using my big thigh muscles to go from stick to stick. Just me though.

Given the weight differential of less than 2 lbs (for my sticks, which are not normal I realize) this small effort differential isn't worth it, for me.
 
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TNSTAAFL said:
I'm on the fleece saddle train for this year. What RCH do you use? I can't seem to settle on one to buy.

Might or might not 1-stick. My Muddy which is my best 1-sticker weighs 3 lbs. My 4 DIY@s weigh sub 7. I could carry 3 DIYs with a CAYGA and be sub 5 lbs. The weight differential just doesn't justify the climbing effort differential IMHO.

I feel like there is a golden ratio of weight/bulk to effort/risk that exists. It probably varies for people depending on age, fitness, flexibility, daring, hunting terrain & distance, etc.

I've wanted to add the rappel system, but as you noted the extra gear/weight further exacerbates the tradeoff mentioned above. It does seem fun though!
Click to expand...

I’m using an Alpine Bod with the side loops cut off & a sling for the linemen’s belt instead of tubular webbing.
 
TNSTAAFL said:
I hear ya. Not trying to be argumentative here. Just thinking out loud and sharing ideas which helps me evolve.

I agree perceived effort varies by individual. In my experience I wouldn't say it is a lot harder. Just a bit. The effort to position one self off or to the side of the stick/tree, the effort to balance while you have no rope pressure, the effort to raise the tether up the tree (my least favorite part). While this is not all substantially difficult, I find it more so than simply learning on a LB and using my big thigh muscles to go from stick to stick. Just me though.

Given the weight differential of less than 2 lbs (for my sticks, which are not normal I raise) this small effort differential isn't worth it, for me.
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There is less noise rappelling. And it easier to pack up IMO.


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TNSTAAFL said:
Sweet little package. Definitely reduces bulk compared to full stick setup. The 2.5 lbs plus a 3 lb Muddy gets me too close to my 4 DIYs though. Tradeoffs again.

Climbing height options are better with the 1-stick rappel though. I can only get to 16' with 4 sticks. I suppose 24' if I used a CAYGA. 1-stick rappel gets you any height that fits your length of rappel rope I suppose.

For early season and lower heights it doesn't seem to add up for me, but maybe for gun season where I might hunt higher this becomes more advantageous.
Click to expand...

Number of sticks shouldn’t limit your height. I can one stick to any height & the same can be said if I’m using multi sticks. I never carry more than 3 sticks. With 3 chopped & a movable aider standard height is 18’ but if I need to be 22 or 24 or whatever height I move the last stick until I get there.
 
TNSTAAFL said:
I hear ya. Not trying to be argumentative here. Just thinking out loud and sharing ideas which helps me evolve.

I agree perceived effort varies by individual. In my experience I wouldn't say it is a lot harder. Just a bit. The effort to position one self off or to the side of the stick/tree, the effort to balance while you have no rope pressure, the effort to raise the tether up the tree (my least favorite part). While this is not all substantially difficult, I find it more so than simply learning on a LB and using my big thigh muscles to go from stick to stick. Just me though.

Given the weight differential of less than 2 lbs (for my sticks, which are not normal I raise) this small effort differential isn't worth it, for me.
Click to expand...

Oh I wasn’t trying to be argumentative at all. We can all agree there is more than one way to climb. Lots of good ideas have been born/shared here. I’ve tried a bunch of it. I suggest everyone try as much stuff/methods as they can and find what they are comfortable with and works best for them.
 
Squirrels said:
Oh I wasn’t trying to be argumentative at all. We can all agree there is more than one way to climb. Lots of good ideas have been born/shared here. I’ve tried a bunch of it. I suggest everyone try as much stuff/methods as they can and find what they are comfortable with and works best for them.
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I did not sense you were at all argumentative brother


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TNSTAAFL said:
Given the weight differential of less than 2 lbs (for my sticks, which are not normal I raise) this small effort differential isn't worth it, for me.
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This is kinda where I am at as well. With the beast sticks with amsteel daisy chains it would probably only be about a 2lb difference for 4 sticks vs 1 stick and rappel gear. The other thing for me is I am not a fan of heights so I am not going over 20'. I do have a single step attached aider that I use on my lower stick only.

That being said I am going to play around with 1 sticking this summer and see how I like it. May even try 1 sticking up and down for a while when hunting before going the rappelling route. I am thinking early season hunting, it may be appetizing as I could ditch the pack, attach the 1 stick to my platform and carry that in one hand while carrying my bow in the other. Could use my Sys haulers to hold everything else.
 
Jokerswild said:
Is there a way to truly rappel, Solo, one rope, that any climb instructor would say is safe? Im looking at it as a " last resort self rescue" option though.
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Every manufacturer and tons of experts have videos on YouTube talking about doing this exact thing and not just in an emergency.


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Squirrels said:
Takes no more effort for me to climb a tree with one stick than it does with 3 or 4. Not sure if that is the case for everyone.
Click to expand...

I find it more work to use one stick. Maybe it’s a flexibility issue. I found that I do better if I put my tether as far up the tree as possible, then descend down my rope so the stick is more chest height, pull it off and then ascend my my rope SRT style and put my stick on again.

I bet if I took up yoga I could do it the regular way!


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TNSTAAFL said:
Given the weight differential of less than 2 lbs (for my sticks, which are not normal I realize) this small effort differential isn't worth it, for me.
Click to expand...

I didn’t weight them, but holding my 3 hawk helium sticks weights the same as the base from my hawk self climber.

If the base was smaller I would use it instead of one sticking, which is why the LWHC idea appeals to me.

As for rappelling, I tried it with the self climber base and it was AWESOME to just zip down in one go. I always hated climbing down with the thing as a self climber.




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