Those are a bear to get up, but here's how dad and I did it. We put the SEAT end about a foot away from the base of the tree. Also, taped the ladder sections together to prevent them from sliding apart while lifting.(Some of them now come with pins to prevent this). We each had an 8' 2x4, with a 16 penny nail nailed in the end of it, leaving a couple of inches sticking up from the end of the wood. We first lifted, by hand, the platform as high as we could, and proped the stand against the tree. Then, we put the nail end of the 2x4's through the expanded metal flooring of the stand, and used the 2x4's to lift the platform up the side of the tree. Make sure there is nothing on the forest floor that can obstruct the end of the ladder from sliding as you lift the stand up. After doing all this, some mook came by 3 weeks later and stold the stand. I hope he got a hernia.