I think taking them DOWn is worse than putting them up........whoa nelly.
That first pressure you let off the ratchet strap is a treat
That is very true. The first moment when you let loose and then say "good I'm not laying on the Earth" is always a good sign.
I like the extra ratchet strap idea. Or even just a tie strap to go around the tree and tie it to each end of the ladder 3/4 of the way up or so.
I used to just run up the things, ratchet them on/off and not think twice about it. For some reason this year it seems different [:-]