Careless, Heart Stopping Event
Late this summer I purchased a new Summit Goliath climber to replace my old steel Summit Viper stand. The new Summits have the "trigger" release for the cables and while the cables are the same as my old stand, the method of securing them onto the frame is not and I guess I got a little careless in ensuring they were locked into place.
On only the second time I used the stand I was on an evening hunt and I attached it to the tree and climbed up. After sundown, and on the way down the tree I felt the platform slip on the tree. As it was pretty dark, I had assumed it slipped on the tree due to the slickness of the bark. I left the climber attached to the tree overnight and the next evening I climbed back up the tree. Once in the tree I noticed the front of the platform seemed more angled down than the previous evening but I assumed it was because I had turned the stand around to the other side of the tree and the angle of the tree may have been the cause. I was 15-18 ft up and at dark I began my climb back down the tree. On about the second sequence of the climb down the platform gave way and the front of the platform dropped several inches and then stopped abruptly. My heart just about stopped! I immediately sat down on the seat rail and used my flashlight to check out the platform. For those of you familiar with the Summit climbers know the cables use welded knuckles on the cable for adjustment. I noticed that the seat portion only had one knuckle outside the frame and the foot platform had four! Only one knuckle was left inside the frame to keep it from falling free. The slot that the cable fits into on the right side of the foot platform was severely gouged by the knuckles sliding through the slot at an angle. The only thing I can assume is that I did not have the trigger mechanism locked behind the knuckle in the frame allowing the cable to slip back and out as I was climbing down. The Lord must have been with me as the front of the foot platform dropped down the cable slipped back down into the slot locking on the very last knuckle on that side. Two of the three knuckles that were on the inside of the frame on that side had slipped by the cable slot before the last one caught.
I did not have my harness attached to the tree as I was climbing down but that procedure has now changed for sure! I am over 60 yrs old, 6-7 and 275 lbs and I don't bounce as efficiently as I used to.
This incident just proves that you can get complacent and careless. Take your time and make sure that the deer are the only thing that gets carried home.