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One Sticking Mishap

C

CajunSlinger

Active Member
SH Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2021
Messages
125
Had a slight fall from one stick over the holiday. Fall was roughly 3 foot when moving to top of stick. Not too bad considering I move rope up each step. Few minor scratches on hands due to being on a pine tree but no other injuries.

Just wanted to bring it up since it was completely my fault. When setting rope in cam cleat I noticed it wasn’t all the way against stick going up. For some reason I did not correct that issue and when stepping on top of stick it kicked out and I slid down tree.

Lesson learned here is always snug rope tight to stick before moving up tree. Also would suggest if pulling bow up make sure bow is off to side and not directly under you when climbing. One stick fell to ground and would have landed on bow if it was directly under me. Was lucky bow was off to side.

Ended up rappelling down and starting over which wasn’t too bad. Be careful out there!!
 
Thank you for sharing. Would you provide a few more details for us like were you using a tether or only a lineman's belt? You're measuring the 3' fall from where, the top of your stick? If you were using a tether, what kind of slack was in your system? Was it an abrupt fall arrest or did you slide down the tree a bit? What are the specs of your tether, friction hitch cordage (or mechanical devices), knots, and/or lineman's gear?
 
Sure, I was only using my tethered rope with a Madrock. Don’t typically use a lineman unless going around limbs. Fall happened when moving from bottom step of one stick to top platform of stick. Tether was moved as far as I could reach while still on bottom step so slack was only whatever was there when making my move up. Believe I made it to top and when shifting weight it gave out. It was only a slide down tree.

Would have been nothing but a slide if I’d been wearing gloves. Hands were a little bloody grabbing the sharp pine bark on the slide down. Nothing deep just some scratches.

Will be wearing gloves while climbing from now on though, lol.
 
Thank you. Any damage to your Safeguard? Any burn on the rope? Was your Safeguard backed up at the time of the fall with an autoblock of some sort?What diameter rope were you using with the Safeguard? Do you plan on replacing your Safeguard with a new one since you dynamically loaded that one?
 
CajunSlinger said:
Had a slight fall from one stick over the holiday. Fall was roughly 3 foot when moving to top of stick. Not too bad considering I move rope up each step. Few minor scratches on hands due to being on a pine tree but no other injuries.

Just wanted to bring it up since it was completely my fault. When setting rope in cam cleat I noticed it wasn’t all the way against stick going up. For some reason I did not correct that issue and when stepping on top of stick it kicked out and I slid down tree.

Lesson learned here is always snug rope tight to stick before moving up tree. Also would suggest if pulling bow up make sure bow is off to side and not directly under you when climbing. One stick fell to ground and would have landed on bow if it was directly under me. Was lucky bow was off to side.

Ended up rappelling down and starting over which wasn’t too bad. Be careful out there!!
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Be careful out there. We all have let confidence in our climbing systems become complacency but it’s scary and I’d personally hate to lose a fellow hunter over a holiday weekend, so I can only imagine how people who actually know you would feel. Thank you for sharing. Glad you’re okay and able to help others on here to maybe not experience a similar situation. You’ve certainly reminded me to double check myself as I climb, and I don’t even one-stick.
 
Sounds like you may have been rushing or having "tunnel vision" by the way you say "I noticed it but did nothing"....

Just remember friends, take that extra second to just confirm things are set. Give it that extra "tug". This, while was minimal of a fall could have been more severe. Nothing is worth not taking the extra second to just "make sure" things are right before making a move. I work in Fire/EMS and believe me, we rush a lot of stuff but we are proficient in what we do.....so to some, it may look like we aren't checking ourselves when in reality, we've checked and doubled checked.....

Glad you are ok, and hopefully we all can benefit from this mistake.
 
@Red Beard - Finished the hunt with no issues. Got back that evening and tested Madrock and looked over rope with no issues. Plan to order another Madrock and have this one as a back up. I do not use an auto block or any other back up.

@MattMan81 - Yes, when I saw the rope not set against stick when climbing past cam cleat I definitely had that feeling. Guess complacency(not wanting to drop down to re-adjust) got me. Will NOT happen again for sure!!!

Hope this is a reminder to all that although we love to hunt there are risks to climbing trees no matter what method is being used. Slow and steady is the best way to climb a tree and don’t take short cuts. If something looks or feels wrong stop and assess the situation to correct or ensure things are set correctly before moving up tree.
 
I had almost the exact same failure on Tuesday evening last week. felt my one stick moving as i was moving up my tether and just about when i got the tether to eye level, the rope slipped out of the cam cleat and i dropped maybe 6" before the tether caught me. my one stick fell all the way to the ground and i had to repel down. That part was really tricky, i was connected to the tether with a prusik which of course locked down tight. it took me a while to get my figure 8 tied in and release tension on the prusik.

in hind sight, it would have been easier to set another prusik down by my foot and step up in it to relieve tension on the prusik that was locked down
 
metty said:
I had almost the exact same failure on Tuesday evening last week. felt my one stick moving as i was moving up my tether and just about when i got the tether to eye level, the rope slipped out of the cam cleat and i dropped maybe 6" before the tether caught me. my one stick fell all the way to the ground and i had to repel down. That part was really tricky, i was connected to the tether with a prusik which of course locked down tight. it took me a while to get my figure 8 tied in and release tension on the prusik.

in hind sight, it would have been easier to set another prusik down by my foot and step up in it to relieve tension on the prusik that was locked down
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Exactly what practicing self rescue is all about. Thanks for posting.
 
I kinda figured with the gain in popularity of one sticking we would be hearing of more cam cleat issues. I try to encourage the use of a cam buckle, but for some reason cam cleats have been deemed necessary. Guess it’s due to YouTube climbers.
 
Cbigbear said:
I kinda figured with the gain in popularity of one sticking we would be hearing of more cam cleat issues. I try to encourage the use of a cam buckle, but for some reason cam cleats have been deemed necessary. Guess it’s due to YouTube climbers.
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yeah, I’m starting to question the cam cleat. It’s fast, but who cares if you’re dead!
 
Cbigbear said:
I kinda figured with the gain in popularity of one sticking we would be hearing of more cam cleat issues. I try to encourage the use of a cam buckle, but for some reason cam cleats have been deemed necessary. Guess it’s due to YouTube climbers.
Click to expand...
This is the exact reason that i have not changed from using a cam buckle. all the rope mods and things like that are neat and all but as most know or should know. Some of the items we use are used outside the scope of how they are intended to be used. I have found that by just making one additional move and allowing myself to hang off to the side of my stick just a bit that using a cam buckle is just as easy as using a rope mod or some other type of attachment mod.
 
Schemeecho said:
This is the exact reason that i have not changed from using a cam buckle. all the rope mods and things like that are neat and all but as most know or should know. Some of the items we use are used outside the scope of how they are intended to be used. I have found that by just making one additional move and allowing myself to hang off to the side of my stick just a bit that using a cam buckle is just as easy as using a rope mod or some other type of attachment mod.
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I would like to get a side by side comparison video of a cam cleat vs cam buckle climb. Just from being at saddle demo’s and conversing/watching climbers I do not see a noticeable height difference in cleat vs buckle.
 
This is exactly why I climb using my rappel rope and madrock. No need to transfer ropes, just rappel down, get the stick and SRT back to where I left off.
 
Cbigbear said:
I kinda figured with the gain in popularity of one sticking we would be hearing of more cam cleat issues. I try to encourage the use of a cam buckle, but for some reason cam cleats have been deemed necessary. Guess it’s due to YouTube climbers.
Click to expand...

Cam buckle user here. I see no need to ever change. I don't understand the obsession with the cleat. Switching would make nothing faster or easier for me. I don't get it.
 
Cbigbear said:
I kinda figured with the gain in popularity of one sticking we would be hearing of more cam cleat issues. I try to encourage the use of a cam buckle, but for some reason cam cleats have been deemed necessary. Guess it’s due to YouTube climbers.
Click to expand...
You have to think about what a cam cleat is really heavily used for. It's original intended purpose was for the sailing industry, to be able to run ropes and rigging quickly. The CAM cleat is meant to take a lot of abuse, but able to hold a rope tight.

While I don't think it is necessary, I do think they are more then enough for what we use them for....look at home much stress one of those are put under while sailing.
 
DB4x4 said:
Cam buckle user here. I see no need to ever change. I don't understand the obsession with the cleat. Switching would make nothing faster or easier for me. I don't get it.
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I mean, it is one step vs 2-3 step.

Cam cleat you slide the rope into the cleat and pull tight

Cam buckle you have to connect and pull tight....

I guess it depends on your climbing style, how big of tree, etc....
 
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