great advice, i'll only add a little, first if you buy one get a sit and stand climber, hand climbers are great but they will fatigue you very quickly, even if you have great upper body strenght, i took a spill with one, luckily i was only 8-10' up, i was in a hurry and in the dark and chose the wrong type of tree ( a scaley bark hickory) next, make sure you buy a quality stand, you can ask some of the ole timers about things like a "baker death trap"it dosen't have to be the highest priced model, but if you find one you like ask questions about it here, there is avery good chance someone on this site has had experience with the climber your considering, last thing, get with someone who has some experince with a portable climber, you will be time and safety ahead of a bunch of us that had to learn the hard way, and always, always, always wear a good safety restraint device like a seat-of-the-pants harness, i would rather you maintain you current lifestyle than go to your funeral or spoon feed you for the rest of your life, you owe it to your friends and family to do the right thing, never leave home w/o it, if you do hunt from the ground
