Make sure you attach your safety belt to the tree before you start to climb, this helps with the fear of falling...

With a bow, somewhere between 18-22 feet is where I like to hunt...Once you get much higher the target area on a deer is smaller, so I try to keep it in that range...

With a gun sometimes I'll go 30 feet, but I have also killed deer as low as 12-15 feet...

Once many years ago, I went up 20 feet or so and couldn't see because of all the holly trees in the area...I kept backing down until I could see 30-40 yards...The bottom of my stand was about 8 feet off the ground and I killed a deer...