They were tied together , both halves of the stand let go at the same time . It was my own dumbass fault for not checking that the stand was mounted to the trunk properly before ascending , and the trunk was also wet at the time . I ended up dangling by my harness(which did work) with the stand hanging from my feet . Have you ever seen an out of shape fatboy try to do knee lifts with a 21 lb. weight attached to his ankles ? It ain't pretty ... [&:]