I never had any trouble with my older style API (not the bass pro models) or my two summit stands. Now my old loggy bajou is a whole different story. That thing was scarey in the rain. I remember one morning that was raining and I had reached about ten feet. In a blink of the eye, I was at the base of the tree again. I was pretty young then and apparently stupid also because I climbed back up. Looking back, nothing happened but back then I didn't use a safety strap even.