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The Dangers of Short Static Falls

Yates Shorty Screamer arrived. It's almost 7" end to end and 2.04 oz. I just took it out of the package and haven't loaded it yet, so it may stretch a little more. But at this length its in the same range as the 20cm Petzl Sorber. Using a typical caribiner to include it in the system its a net add of roughly 10".
In general it looks really good, definitely clean and compact, should pack easily with the rest of my kit.

As you can see in the provided paperwork snaps the Shorty model is intended for Fall Factor .25 - 1.0. and is supposed to activate at > 2Kn.

My intended use is on my tether attached to a secondary bridge on my linesman loops to backup my SRT/RAD climbing system. In this application depending on whether I tend the tether after each pull on the ascender or not I should never have more than 6"-12" of slack on roughly 30" of tether.

Maybe some of the propeller heads on here can sanity check me on this, but I'm calculating my rope segment of the FF formula as the length of tether where it exits the girth hitch eye at the trunk, plus the friction hitch length to the caribiner that attaches to the Shorty from its place on the tether. In reality there is probably some shock absorption from the length of tether constricting around the trunk, plus some stretch or creep of the friction hitch on the tether as it comes tight, but I think its safer to assume those are zero.

So using my estimates a fall factor with 6" of slack is .2, 12" = .4, 15" = .5 and so on.

In any event, as long as I'm advancing my tether to head height or above as I ascend I'm never falling from above my girth hitch attachment point, which keeps me below a FF of 1. Well within the Shorty's effective range.

Unless something comes up I'm going to try to hunt this afternoon and will give this thing a try and report back, hopefully with a hero shot too. :)
Where did you buy this? I am not sure if I am just not bright enough to find the purchase spot on the Yates site, or if they don't sell direct to public.
 
This is a hunting accident. Or a fall down the stairs acident. Can't decide which. Sometmes these are classified in the strangest ways.
It appears a slip and fall approaching the base of the ladder, but the info is a bit sketchy. So who really knows.
 
Where did you buy this? I am not sure if I am just not bright enough to find the purchase spot on the Yates site, or if they don't sell direct to public.

I got the shorty sceamer from these guys. Same day turn-around too. Its the only thing I've ever ordered from them, but total props on this one and will consider them on other climbing related items in the future.

 
that looks good too.

How do you plan to use it?
I'm going to put it between my distel hitch carabiner and my bridge carabiner. It adds some length but that shouldn't bother me climbing. Once I get to height I swap my bridge to my lineman's belt so I can adjust the length so I'll just hook the replacement bridge in the distel biner and take the screamer out of the loop. My only need for the screamer is when I have slack in the tether and that only occurs when I'm one sticking up.
 
I'm going to put it between my distel hitch carabiner and my bridge carabiner. It adds some length but that shouldn't bother me climbing. Once I get to height I swap my bridge to my lineman's belt so I can adjust the length so I'll just hook the replacement bridge in the distel biner and take the screamer out of the loop. My only need for the screamer is when I have slack in the tether and that only occurs when I'm one sticking up.


cool, that's basically my application too. I'm begining to think there are more of us climbing ropes than I realized.
 
I got the shorty sceamer from these guys. Same day turn-around too. Its the only thing I've ever ordered from them, but total props on this one and will consider them on other climbing related items in the future.

I've bought a ton of stuff from blackjack. They have great deals on quality gear and some of the best selections of rope by the foot around. Two thumbs up!
 
In my industry and more specifically my job within my industry falls are the number one killer as over 70% of all of my work occurs at heights that exceed what is considered the threshold for a more than likely fatal fall, especially considering I would either impact on concrete, steel or 80-90% compacted aggregate laid down over concrete.

Every time threads emerge about falling, the number 1 cause of serious injury and death in deer hunting and they do every year prior to hunting season I cuss myself out for loosing my copy of the OSHA study on the affects of falls with and without wearing a fall restraint system. The data I read was absolutely shocking beyond my personal belief. It said essentially all depending on how you hit and what you hit, if you fall much over TWO FEET (26"-30")you are now past the threshold of the forces needed to brake bones, rip large gashes in your body and extremities and inflict serious injuries'.

Suffice to say it exposed the severity of my near complete ignorance concerning falls and how short one needs to fall to suffer without doubt at a minimum sever to life changing if not life ending injuries. Now bare in mind all these studies were based on impacting either concrete, asphalt, or aggregate compacted to be 80-90% as hard as concrete but still have quite valuable data that we can apply if falling from a tree.

What shocked me the greatly was how much you weigh at impact from just a 10' foot fall and what was the most shocking is how dramatic the increase in your weigh at impact is for each additional 3-5' of added height you fall above 10'. I can not say if when you fall and are impacting on the forest floor VS much harder concrete at what height your odds of survival decreases to the point of dying is more likely than not. And how you hit has a significant affect on your odds of survival VS death, what type and severity of your likely injuries etc, etc. But I do recall a fall above 15 feet for a man who weighs above 200 lbs that lands fully on his back or front were grim to say the least.

Considering most 90% or more stand hunters hunt above 15' a fall especially onto frozen ground the odds of sustaining significant life changing injuries has to be in the range of 85% or above. At 20' and above I feel its safe to estimate your odds of sustaining life altering if not permanently life altering injuries is above if not well above 90% and life ending not for behind.

But what I personally found even more shocking was haw badly you could get injured in falling while wearing our state of the art fall arrest systems. In a worse case scenario if I were to fall while wearing my FAS I would fall my Hight + my lanyard length + length of my deceleration pack which is 3.5' or: 6'2"+6'+3.5'= 13' minimum even though the deceleration pack will help per our safety dept they were blunt in stating expect to sustain injuries to your internal organs and muscles of your back and legs and if you impact anything during your fall add broken bones to the list of injuries. To state it plainly per our safety department, FAS are essentially intended to save your life but can not prevent mild to serious injuries up to and including permanently disabling injuries and in a worst case scenario in the event of a sever enough head impact, even death.

So bottom line is do what ever it takes to never fall in the first place and take what ever precautions you must to ensure if you fall its 2 feet or less
I personally had to as close as you can nearly a experience a potentially fatal 17' fall while climbing up a tree to my stand that I thank God save for the worst batch of scrapes on by torso and and arms I ever suffered, I emerged relatively unhurt. I have worn either a FBH or a RCH ever since. Crazy stupid thing about me at that time was I was religious about wearing a lineman's rope while setting up and taking down my stands but wore no FAS while hunting before suffering the above described significant emotional event.

Now I will not even consider ascending a tree without a FBH or RCH and have even given up a few mornings hunt because I discovered once at my tree I had failed to pack my FBH.

Be safe everyone as being paralyzed and suffering regret induced self loathing is no way to spend the remainder of your days when it could have been easily 100% prevented.
 
As I have gotten older, my risk aversion has increased. Now I am mostly just using SRT with a redundant bridge so I am never introducing any slack in my system and I am never off my climbing rope. It means more work up front setting presets, but I feel so much safer than any other climbing method I have ever used.
 
I've bought a ton of stuff from blackjack. They have great deals on quality gear and some of the best selections of rope by the foot around. Two thumbs up!

I ordered a screamer from them today and time from order confirmation to shipment notification was 35 minutes.
 
I wish i would have studied harder in school, this stuff is way over my head. I use wildege stepps as my platform, i have never come close to falling off them.
 

Great video explaining the forces around falling. The video is broken down into different sections if you don’t want to watch the full thing. It’s been said before but a short fall we could experience in some hunting situations could generate a devastating amount of force. Be careful out there folks and mitigate risk. We don’t have a belayer to catch us when we fall!
 

Great video explaining the forces around falling. The video is broken down into different sections if you don’t want to watch the full thing. It’s been said before but a short fall we could experience in some hunting situations could generate a devastating amount of force. Be careful out there folks and mitigate risk. We don’t have a belayer to catch us when we fall!

Good video. I think every saddle hunter should especially pay attention to the video after the 18:20 mark.
 
That's a great introductory video on the subject. Here's a good YouTube demo of a "DMM Ripstop" screamer in action:

Link: DMM Ripstop Deployment Demonstration

And here's a tether configuration to consider if you're interested in further reducing your risk of injury during a fall. Shout out to @kyler1945 for this excellent contribution to the forum:

 
The buzzword in my Rock Climbing harness hunting days was the Beal Dynaclip used between the tether and harness. Funny that it's not mentioned much if at all in the Saddle hunting world.
 
The buzzword in my Rock Climbing harness hunting days was the Beal Dynaclip used between the tether and harness. Funny that it's not mentioned much if at all in the Saddle hunting world.

I like this but it seems it would be too long after extending off of the bridge and then to the safeguard or knot(distel, etc) to attach to the tether. Am I picturing the use correctly? I am looking to get a shorty screamer or something similar for next year.
 
I like this but it seems it would be too long after extending off of the bridge and then to the safeguard or knot(distel, etc) to attach to the tether. Am I picturing the use correctly? I am looking to get a shorty screamer or something similar for next year.

He said he used it with a rock climbing harness (I'm assuming sitting on a stand). Different kettle of fish regarding hook up. The probably connected this right to the belt/leg loops by girth hitching with the big loop and clipped the little one to the carabiner on the tether's prusik and then adjusted to length. With a saddle, you need your bridge to glide through the carabiner. The only place I can see hooking this up would be between the prusik's carabiner and then a second carabiner that you clip your bridge into. It would increase distance. An easier thing to do is to replace your tether rope with a dynamic rope, similar to the Beal he posted being dynamic rope. Blue Water makes a dynamic prusik, which I would try out (would be slicked paired with a dynamic tether rope), but it is not heat resistant. So, if it started to melt (loose knot, hard fall) I'm afraid I'd go for a ride when it got slick suddenly.

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I like this but it seems it would be too long after extending off of the bridge and then to the safeguard or knot(distel, etc) to attach to the tether. Am I picturing the use correctly? I am looking to get a shorty screamer or something similar for next year.
I don't think I'd use it when set up and ready to hunt. If you shortened your bridge to the minimum and used the Dynaclip from bridge to tether, it would offer shock absorption during the climb or anytime you had slack in the tether.
Once you got to hunting height and eliminated all slack, you could remove the Dynaclip and hook in with the connection of your choice.
Or let it hooked up (not under tension) as a backup in case of failure with your primary.
 
I don't think I'd use it when set up and ready to hunt. If you shortened your bridge to the minimum and used the Dynaclip from bridge to tether, it would offer shock absorption during the climb or anytime you had slack in the tether.
Once you got to hunting height and eliminated all slack, you could remove the Dynaclip and hook in with the connection of your choice.
Or let it hooked up (not under tension) as a backup in case of failure with your primary.

Good point. I can see using it that way. Not a bad idea at all
 
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