One Stick Fail

[CrackbottomLouis]

Now I look at the stick and the way u got it rigged I can see how it has rotational force.....i would think the rope attachment point would need to be as close to or under the cam cleat as possible

My conclusion as well. Cant believe I overlooked something as obvious as that. I think I tied it on quickly when altering my stick with plans to come back and redo which I never did.

 

[Kurt]

Thanks for sharing. I'll say a prayer for things to heal up well for ya. It is our combined experiences shared that will make us all safer in the long run.

 

[boyne bowhunter]

I'm sorry to hear of your mishap and hoping for a full and speedy recovery. Thanks for sharing, this particular failure mode is probably the one that concerns me the most one-sticking. I hope othere can use this to be aware of the potential downsides.

I try to keep my fingers out from between the rope and the tree as much as possible. I typically advance the rope primarily with my right hand holding the outer edge of the link making my girth hitch and then kind of push the rope up the backside of the tree using the top edge of my fingers/knuckles of my left hand. I'd like to say I never get a finger in the precarious position but sometimes it just happens.

I'm curious, were you standing on the top step when the stick kicked out or on the bottom step? Personally my most uncomfortable move is stepping to that top step. I only do that on my final move, after I've advanced my tether and set my platform. The stick is way less stable once weighted above the tie in, especially with your already noted separation between tie off points. For all my other advances I always just stand on the stick bottom step.

Again, glad you're not too seriously injured (although I can attest broken fingers on the right hand suck for so many reasons) and wishing you a speedy recovery.

 

[CrackbottomLouis]

I'm sorry to hear of your mishap and hoping for a full and speedy recovery. Thanks for sharing, this particular failure mode is probably the one that concerns me the most one-sticking. I hope othere can use this to be aware of the potential downsides.

I try to keep my fingers out from between the rope and the tree as much as possible. I typically advance the rope primarily with my right hand holding the outer edge of the link making my girth hitch and then kind of push the rope up the backside of the tree using the top edge of my fingers/knuckles of my left hand. I'd like to say I never get a finger in the precarious position but sometimes it just happens.

I'm curious, were you standing on the top step when the stick kicked out or on the bottom step? Personally my most uncomfortable move is stepping to that top step. I only do that on my final move, after I've advanced my tether and set my platform. The stick is way less stable once weighted above the tie in, especially with your already noted separation between tie off points. For all my other advances I always just stand on the stick bottom step.

Again, glad you're not too seriously injured (although I can attest broken fingers on the right hand suck for so many reasons) and wishing you a speedy recovery.

I was on the bottom step. Both feet.

 

[Aaronpaul14]

Glad it’s not worse!

I’ve thought about this a few times when it got close to pinch my fingers. I was thinking of rigging some kind of loops off my tether to grab and prevent fingers between the tree.

Girth hitched amsteel continuous loop is what I’m thinking might work. Heck even a nite ize gear tie might do the trick.


I’m nursing a broken finger at the time too. Keep seeing my target and ready to shoot the bow again.

Speedy recovery!!

 

[DanO]

This scenario has been on my mind too and I'm surprised it hasn't happened more. Perhaps short lengths of webbing could be sewn together with a loop that could be slid on the rope. Then you could use the "tab" to raise your tether up. Seems like it would be an easy fix, but I'm sure they'd never stay where you want them and you'd fight getting them to the right spot and give up. Could also use those mini Figure 8s with a paracord pull cord. Might require a "stopper" of some sort to keep them from sliding off the rope until you got it hitched to the tree and slid into position. Just thinking out loud. Another option - paracord tied in a prusik so it could be moved around but would stay in position better. Attach a toggle or something on the loop for a grab handle.

 

[CZMark]

Thanks for sharing. This has been on my mind lately, but I wondered if I was concerned for no real reason because I never heard of anyone actually getting trapped by their own rope. Now I know it can happen.

 

[Realpatriot74]

Thanking God you are alright. Praying for a speedy recovery for you. I was considering giving one sticking a go and didn’t even think about this potentially happening. I appreciate you sharing so we can learn.

 

[Bwhana]

This scenario has been on my mind too and I'm surprised it hasn't happened more. Perhaps short lengths of webbing could be sewn together with a loop that could be slid on the rope. Then you could use the "tab" to raise your tether up. Seems like it would be an easy fix, but I'm sure they'd never stay where you want them and you'd fight getting them to the right spot and give up. Could also use those mini Figure 8s with a paracord pull cord. Might require a "stopper" of some sort to keep them from sliding off the rope until you got it hitched to the tree and slid into position. Just thinking out loud. Another option - paracord tied in a prusik so it could be moved around but would stay in position better. Attach a toggle or something on the loop for a grab handle.

I've been using a small NiteIze twist tie for one hand and the Petzl ring for the other to lift my tether to prevent my fingers from getting caught in that situation (thanks to @mtsrunner for the idea).

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

 

[Newhunter1]

I've been using a small NiteIze twist tie for one hand and the Petzl ring for the other to lift my tether to prevent my fingers from getting caught in that situation (thanks to @mtsrunner for the idea).

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

I primarily one stick...Can you explain the use of the Petzl ring...or would one put a carabiner on the rope loop in order to raise it.

 

[LoadedLimbs]

I don't mind admitting my errors. Especially if it helps someone else not make the same mistake. I'll never move a rope with my fingers between the tree and rope again for sure. I seem to remember someone posting a solution to that. I'll have to hunt that bit of wisdom down.

@CrackbottomLouis - I'm REALLY sorry to hear about your injury ... I hope you heal up quickly and without permanent issues.

I too am learning to saddle hunt and remember reading about the safety issue of trapped fingers which you recalled in your original post. It was posted by @Kenbama here: https://saddlehunter.com/community/...ciency-for-1-stick-climbing.17404/post-320310

Back when I read his post, I started to think about how to change my setup to prevent trapped fingers when moving up (or even just adjusting) my tether. (Same sort of thing that @DanO was doing in his post above.) What I came up with was the same thing that @Aaronpaul14 mentioned above: Putting two Nite-Ize gear ties on my tether at ground level after completing the girth hitch. I went with 18" gear ties to make nice big loops that will accommodate heavy winter gloves. I put one at 3 o'clock and one at 9 o'clock so that I have makeshift handles to lift up my tether without putting my fingers around the rope itself.

Another idea that I had for makeshift handles was to use extra-long paracord bracelets with plastic side release buckles for quick setup & takedown. You could also just use a piece of 1" tubular webbing made into a loop with plastic side release buckles - if you insert a large zip tie into the tubular webbing before attaching the plastic side release buckles, it will have some stiffness to keep the loop open when it's attached to your tether.

I like using gear ties because the loops are stiff and stay open, making them easy to slip your hand into the gear tie loops to raise your tether as you work your way up the tree, and they're reasonably quick and easy to setup and takedown. The paracord bracelets stay open nicely too, and they're even faster to setup and takedown using the side release buckles if you don't want to mess with gear ties.

It's really good of you to share your story for the benefit of this community - Thank you!

 

[Bwhana]

I primarily one stick...Can you explain the use of the Petzl ring...or would one put a carabiner on the rope loop in order to raise it.

In this pic, I have a Camp oval ring, but the Petzl triangle is basically the same thing. I use my rappel rope as my tether, but this would work the same way for a tether. I move the rope up by pinching the part of the ring away from the tree and the nitize tie, which prevents fingers/hands from being between the rope and tree. When I rappel down, I remove the tie so it doesn't interfere with pulling the rope down once I'm on the ground. About as simple as it gets.

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

 

[melocal]

I don’t reply to many posts, but I always make a point to reply to those that share safety related mishaps. Thank you for sharing. There will be a few people that reply on the post, but hundreds more will read it and hopefully you having shared this will prevent untold numbers from repeating the same thing. I have also thought about this when one-sticking, but am gonna make a mod like the pic above I think.

Wishing you a speedy recovery.

 

[Newhunter1]

In this pic, I have a Camp oval ring, but the Petzl triangle is basically the same thing. I use my rappel rope as my tether, but this would work the same way for a tether. I move the rope up by pinching the part of the ring away from the tree and the nitize tie, which prevents fingers/hands from being between the rope and tree. When I rappel down, I remove the tie so it doesn't interfere with pulling the rope down once I'm on the ground. About as simple as it gets.

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

I use my oplux rope (52') to climb up and rappel down. I'll be adding this mod tomorrow. Thanks.

 

[Wirrex]

Thinking I'm going to explore spurs. Not giving up one sticking though.

Thank you for taking one for the team and letting us all learn from it. This is a great post because I have made that move a thousand times without even thinking that could happen. Everyone will be more cautious.

If your going to try spurs because you think they could be more safe I would not suggest it. I have been saved by my lineman’s several times over the last few years.

 

[Kenbama]

I remember reading in a thread about the danger of moving your tether up with your fingers between the rope and the tether and thinking "that won't be problem for me, I can't see that happening, etc".

Thank you for posting your accident. I cringed when reading the details of the event. I lost a thumb and index finger due to a water skiing when I was 18 years old. The rope wrapped around my fingers pulling them off. Living 2/3 of my life with missing digits i know how important it is to consider where you put your hands. Thanks to everyone on this forum for looking out for each other and sharing information.

 

[slonstdy]

An unfortunate event for sure and I wish you a speedy recovery. Thanks for being man enough to share with us and hope this will help to prevent future occurrences.

Think I've pushed my luck long enough and will quit as a winner so going forward I'll add a couple of paracord loops to my tether for repositioning it during the climb.

 

[bj139]

This scenario has been on my mind too and I'm surprised it hasn't happened more. Perhaps short lengths of webbing could be sewn together with a loop that could be slid on the rope. Then you could use the "tab" to raise your tether up. Seems like it would be an easy fix, but I'm sure they'd never stay where you want them and you'd fight getting them to the right spot and give up. Could also use those mini Figure 8s with a paracord pull cord. Might require a "stopper" of some sort to keep them from sliding off the rope until you got it hitched to the tree and slid into position. Just thinking out loud. Another option - paracord tied in a prusik so it could be moved around but would stay in position better. Attach a toggle or something on the loop for a grab handle.

I think the webbing could be sewn to the rope to keep it in place.

 

[DOMMA]

That really sucks hope you recover quickly.

 

[dlist777]

In this pic, I have a Camp oval ring, but the Petzl triangle is basically the same thing. I use my rappel rope as my tether, but this would work the same way for a tether. I move the rope up by pinching the part of the ring away from the tree and the nitize tie, which prevents fingers/hands from being between the rope and tree. When I rappel down, I remove the tie so it doesn't interfere with pulling the rope down once I'm on the ground. About as simple as it gets.

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

Great idea. Thanks. I think I will implement this on my tether as I have often found myself digging my fingers behind the rope as I move it up.

Question: I like the idea of using a caribiner on the end rather than a loop to make it easier to undo and move round limbs etc. I've heard others warn about cross loading here. What do you think about that? I guess my feeling is my tether is short as I'm climbing so I don't know if I need the full 23 KN. But, I've stuck with using the loop and pulling the tag end all the way through....the triangle caribiner is OK, but it's a bitch to open and close so I don't use that....