Thank You - Bass Boy & Boyne Bow...

[bigjoe]

I want to take a moment and say thank you.

I was doing a practice climb and limbing up some of the oaks in my yard.

I tried the WE aider yesterday along with the WE Stepps. I had the WE clip slide to one side and really torque the above steps.

I was in no danger as I was climbing with the tree squeeze.

I got frustrated and came down. I can see where attaching the aider to the stepp can be challenging and possibley have a stepp release the Cam. Now I know why Boyne builds the tape up to keep the clip centered. I remember reading about how Bass.. said you and Boyne... were using the Red Squirrell aider to prevent this from happening.

Needless to say I have all 51/2 months to get my system down.

 

[BassBoysLLP]

With a tree squeeze, it likely doesn't matter as it provides both work positioning and fall restraint. With your system I would consider modifying your aider to attach to your foot and just keep moving up the tree. If its attached to your foot, you can clip to the V. This works well with 3.5 - 3.75 foot step spacing.

Tethering above the step makes most sense when you drop the linemans belt during climbing, self belay with the ascender, and rely on the tether for fall restraint/life support. I'm not a fan of clipping to the stepp for life support. Risk seems to high to me. I would rather be wrapped around the tree. This would also apply to the 3.5 - 3.75 foot step spacing.

Once the stepps get farther apart, the linemans belt almost becomes a necessity both for work positioning and climbing. You can self belay to tether height, but you eventually need to transition above the tether. This is a whole lot easier and safer with a linemans belt.