• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Tying off to sticks

Jtaylor

Jtaylor

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2018
Messages
1,981
So I got this idea after watching "The Cain Method" of climbing for W.E. Stepps. Anyone try tying off to their climbing sticks using a prusik around the post or something similar? With this method I'd be climbing restraint style rather than arrest eliminating almost all shock load. I'm just trying to eliminate the need for a linemans belt.
 
So you're standing on the top of your first stick, ready to place your second stick, how are you securing yourself to the tree?
 
pesqimon said:
So you're standing on the top of your first stick, ready to place your second stick, how are you securing yourself to the tree?
Click to expand...
I don't ever stand on top of my stick to secure the next one. I'm usually about hip level on the stick im standing on reaching up to secure the next stick. I have cut down 2 step Lone Wolfs.
 
pesqimon said:
So you're standing on the top of your first stick, ready to place your second stick, how are you securing yourself to the tree?
Click to expand...
Tether maybe? Sounds like He'd have to do it that way. Which, that can just as easily induce a fall due to lack of balance. If it were me, I'd just tether to the tree, set the LB for balance, move tether up and place the stick.
 
Basically "Cain Method" with sticks. Probably would be better than the method I use now on a tree with a lot of limbs :)
 
I personally like to have my tether high and set my stick from the middle of the stick I'm standing on. I'll slip the stick in under the tether and the tether will usually hold the stick in place so I can pass the attachment method I'm using for my stick around the tree instead of trying to throw it. This reduces noise and rapid movement as well as allows me to work hands free without have to suck up my LB to get close enough to the tree to use my chin or forehead to hold the stick to the tree while I set the attachment method.
 
trailblazer75 said:
I personally like to have my tether high and set my stick from the middle of the stick I'm standing on. I'll slip the stick in under the tether and the tether will usually hold the stick in place so I can pass the attachment method I'm using for my stick around the tree instead of trying to throw it. This reduces noise and rapid movement as well as allows me to work hands free without have to suck up my LB to get close enough to the tree to use my chin or forehead to hold the stick to the tree while I set the attachment method.
Click to expand...
I understand, just trying to eliminate the tether around the tree, linemans around the tree, blah blah blah when climbing. I guess a guy could have a carabiner attached to the end of the tether making it a simple clip and unclip rather than pulling the length of the rope through the loop every time.
 
I personally like the idea of a petzl ring for that. That's what I'm moving to for one stick+rappel. I honestly would never clip in to my stick because you're adding a point of failure, right? We tie off too the tree because the tree is that bomb proof anchor that we like. Sticks kick out and fall off the tree all the time.
 
Yeah true. A majority of the trees I'm in aren't telephone pole straight limbless trees. It's a real pain to tie in, untie, repeatedly. I think there is something to be had if someone could design a portable anchoring/step system to work from a restraint position. You can't tell me the guys that can't cut limbs from trees on public ground are fully restrained the whole time in a tree full of branches going up the trunk, right? I guess unless some sort of SRT/DRT is being used.
 
Jtaylor said:
Yeah true. A majority of the trees I'm in aren't telephone pole straight limbless trees. It's a real pain to tie in, untie, repeatedly. I think there is something to be had if someone could design a portable anchoring/step system to work from a restraint position. You can't tell me the guys that can't cut limbs from trees on public ground are fully restrained the whole time in a tree full of branches going up the trunk, right? I guess unless some sort of SRT/DRT is being used.
Click to expand...
This is gonna be complicated.

I have a lineman's belt.
I have an adjustable, removable bridge (from one side)
I carry a long tether/rappel rope. As I climb, (one sticking) I take my first step from the ground onto an aider, so I also do so with a relatively loose LB. Once I hit my steps on my stick, my LB gets cinched. Mid way up my stick I lean on my LB and set my tether and bridge, advancing the tether up the tree as I top my stick and then reset the tether. Down to the stick, remove LB. Step off the stick and hang in the saddle. Move the stick up, pinning it between my tether and the tree, as high as I can while still being able to get into the aider. Then the process repeats itself.

When I HAVE to cross a limb that I simply cannot cut, I'll do one of two things.

A) I'll rely on moving my tether above the limb (which sucks, until I starter using a screw link so I didn't have to feed the rope back through the eye) while using my LB.

B) If I'm not currently relying on my tether I will sometimes disengage it completely and use my bridge as an alternate lineman's belt. This way I'm literally never disconnected from the tree. Once I get the climb above the limb done, I switch back to my regular LB and bridge configuration.

Is this perfect? No. But I do feel pretty safe doing it. It might seem complicated but it is actually really simple and intuitive.
 
trailblazer75 said:
This is gonna be complicated.

I have a lineman's belt.
I have an adjustable, removable bridge (from one side)
I carry a long tether/rappel rope. As I climb, (one sticking) I take my first step from the ground onto an aider, so I also do so with a relatively loose LB. Once I hit my steps on my stick, my LB gets cinched. Mid way up my stick I lean on my LB and set my tether and bridge, advancing the tether up the tree as I top my stick and then reset the tether. Down to the stick, remove LB. Step off the stick and hang in the saddle. Move the stick up, pinning it between my tether and the tree, as high as I can while still being able to get into the aider. Then the process repeats itself.

When I HAVE to cross a limb that I simply cannot cut, I'll do one of two things.

A) I'll rely on moving my tether above the limb (which sucks, until I starter using a screw link so I didn't have to feed the rope back through the eye) while using my LB.

B) If I'm not currently relying on my tether I will sometimes disengage it completely and use my bridge as an alternate lineman's belt. This way I'm literally never disconnected from the tree. Once I get the climb above the limb done, I switch back to my regular LB and bridge configuration.

Is this perfect? No. But I do feel pretty safe doing it. It might seem complicated but it is actually really simple and intuitive.
Click to expand...
I'm with ya, I understand the method just seems like there could/should be a simpler way. This year I've been hunting out of a different tree almost every sit meaning there isn't a possibility of cutting limbs. Nor do I want to for 1 sit, I'd have the woods looking like an arboretum. I like the idea of the bridge/lineman belt I knew about it but forgot and never tried. I appreciate the input!
 
Jtaylor said:
I'm with ya, I understand the method just seems like there could/should be a simpler way. This year I've been hunting out of a different tree almost every sit meaning there isn't a possibility of cutting limbs. Nor do I want to for 1 sit, I'd have the woods looking like an arboretum. I like the idea of the bridge/lineman belt I knew about it but forgot and never tried.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty much the same way as you. Plus I just hate getting saw dust in my eyes or having limbs falling 15-20 feet to the ground. This is the best my peabrain has come up with so far.
 
I also noticed SS have a nice round machined hole that could accept some climbing rope possibly for an anchor point...maybe somebody some day could do a shock test on that system
 
Something like this and some SS? Limbs wouldn't matter. Clip into saddle/rch, clip into the SS, set the next SS clip in, unclip from first one and repeat.DSCN0403-768x1024.jpg
 
First...what is an SS? Lol.

Second, it still doesn't eliminate two things, A) your biggest point of failure is still your stick. And 2, you LB is there to provide balance. I don't see how falling on this would be better than falling on your tether. I'm not intentionally just being obtuse either, I love trying new stuff, ask my ex wife.
 
Squirrel steps. What if the stick was made not to fail and be a tie off point? It just eliminates throwing a rope around the tree at every limb. Just looking at more of a anchor system like rock climbing. I'm not super concerned with my balance personally just trying to figure out something better. If you keep the shock load at a minimum, it might be enough to hold up but I don't have qualifications to test that.
 
Jtaylor said:
Squirrel steps. What if the stick was made not to fail and be a tie off point? It just eliminates throwing a rope around the tree at every limb. Just looking at more of a anchor system like rock climbing. I'm not super concerned with my balance personally just trying to figure out something better. If you keep the shock load at a minimum, it might be enough to hold up but I don't have qualifications to test that.
Click to expand...

Oh I see what ya mean now. Its plausible that one could set up a stick with two mounting points. Set one like normal and use the other, lower one to cinch it down and lock it in. I run some API steps that let me clip my aider in. I could see that working, but your next hurdle is that you'll be clipping and unclipping a lot if you did a load sharing anchor like that. You'd have to run two of those anchors to remain constantly clipped in.
 
If a guy wasn't worried about balance and only cared about fall arrest, you could probably run a prussic with a tender from either LB loop (IF THEY ARE FALL RATED) with a single strand through it. At the end of this rope, tie a figure 8 with a carabiner that would allow you to clip in and adjust each side independently of the other. Stopper knot on the tag end. Then you just leap frog each one like you would a lanyard on the climb. You could potentially clip them to your steps, like I do and clipping both evenly WOULD provide you with the stability of a LB as long as you placed it correctly and adjusted the sides to be even. That would give you the ability to hang your next stick and advance your climb. You could achieve the same thing by adding a "Y" connection to your LB loops and clipping into preset loops on your sticks, but I like that a whole lot less because they aren't independent of one another and then, if your connection to the stick fails, you fall.
 
We use them occasionally at work. We call them 3-ways but not sure what they're technically called. You'd clip into your saddle with carabiner #1 from the 3-way, set your first stick/step and clip into with carabiner #2 from the 3-way. Set stick/step 2 and clip in with carabiner #3 from 3-way. Unhook carabiner #2 from 3 way stick/step and step up. Repeat. You're constantly connected and don't have to deal with limbs. Essentially leap frogging with the 3 way.
 
Maybe I'll rig something up and take pics and then you guys will say ***? you're going to fall and that sucks and that'll be the end of that, ha!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top