Just because we can cut them off, doesn’t mean we should.
These pine tree “ladders” remind me of the time I was a kid about 20 feet up a pine tree climbing with my cousin, circa 1982. I slipped and fell all the way to the ground. Luckily, I survived with nothing broken, but I was a lot younger then. I’ve since also learned that they get your hands and clothes sticky with sap. And that’s the point, isn’t it? When we are young we do some things because we don’t understand the dangers, we haven’t experienced the risks and our minds aren’t fully able to grasp it without that experience. As we grow older, we have experiences and learn from the example of others what those dangers are and we make plans, according to our own tolerance for such risk. We do it everyday. Some people are so anxious when driving, they refuse to drive more than around town. I am thankful when older people who’s reflexes, eyesight and other physical abilities aren’t what they once were, make that decision. They, and the rest of us are safer for it.
Some people will never climb that extension ladder because they are afraid. That isn’t most hunters. There is a certain machismo in the hunting community and in most of us. We are brave. We are independent. We love the freedom time spent in a tree provides. In every conversation on safety, those ideals are things to be aware of, as we are simply more risk tolerant than many.
More than that, as we grow older we have a recognition of the responsibilities we have toward those who are dependent on us, our spouse and children in particular, but others too. Our parents might one day need our helping hand for work around the house or our time spent with them for their own sanity.
As has been said, we can’t remove all risk from life. But personal experience and that of others is often ignored to our own peril. And in the sport of tree stand/saddle hunting, for me, adding one more dangerous variable simply isn’t worth the risk in a sport that carries it’s own inherent dangers.