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Today's Mishap - Lessons Learned

dlist777

dlist777

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 21, 2019
Messages
711
Had a mishap. Got to the ground without injury. I thought I'd share.

I climbed a very hard and smooth barked tree with 4 beast sticks with amsteel daisy chain. As I was climbing I noticed they were hard to set. I bumped one with my knee and it came out of place. This was while I was climbing and had my weight on the stick below it. Like any fool half way through a screw up, I ignored it...re set the stick and continued to climb.

I got 4 sticks up. Set my ROS. Got all tethered in. All is good. Then I went to pull up my muzzy.

On the way up, it bumped stick #3 off the tree and stick 3 fell down all twisted to stick 2. I climbed down to stick 4 and tried to reach it but no dice.

My backup plan has always been a screw in step and my tether. Basically it worked. But it was ALOT harder than I thought. I nearly dropped the step once. It's hard to screw in as your hanging from your tether pressed against the tree....you have to go in very very small increments because it's hard to reach down and screw in. Then it's hard to get into the step...you kind of have to pull yourself up using the tether.

Anyway, it did work. Lessons learned?

1. Think about if you want to continue using amsteel daisy chain esp on smooth bark. I will be a cam buckle guy going forward.

2. Actually practice your escape method so that when you use it you know what you're doing.

That is all. I'm back in a tree with 4 beast sticks with cam buckles right now.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
As I say every time someone shares one of these stories, I really appreciate you sharing this. Although a handful of people will comment and say thanks, it will benefit many that read it.

This type of scenario is something I have thought about a lot and it was the main reason I started rappelling down instead of climbing down. IMO its a small amount of extra weight for what I think of as a large improvement in safety. Its also nice not messing with climbing down in the dark for end of day hunts.
 
Nice job getting back down. You and me both should practice one sticking if only to get you out of this particular situation. I’m considering going to buckless method instead of daisy chains for these issues.

Thanks for sharing and glad to have you here.
 
One thing to add. When I was hanging in my tether, I screwed the step in as low as I could (thigh level). Then, I could not get onto the step. For a brief moment, I started to panic. I was pretty close to pulling out my knife and dropping which would have been a horrible idea. I took a deep breath, waited a minute and then used the tether to kind of walk up the tree to the step. Then I unweighted my tether lowered it and repeated till I got down.

If I had actually practiced, I would have known it worked. Without actually knowing, the panic nearly set in.

So that's why I strongly recommend to practice your escape plan. It will help you remain calm
 
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