Originally Posted by
BGfisher
LMAO, yeah, that too. And FYI, the Summit Viper tips the scales at just about 20#. That seems to be about the average weight of these type of stands. You only save about 1 1/2# by not having the bar and the bar does make sit-n-climb a whole lot easier and quieter than using a hand climber. Trust me, I've been playing monkey (climbing trees) for almost 40 years now. I started with no cimbing aid. then went with hand climbing aids. Now I use the sit-n-climb method and wish I had changed several decades ago.
Yeah, I started using a climber around twenty-five years ago when the "light" ones were around 45-50 lbs.. That was some hard climbing. My stepfather had a welding machine and made some for us, and I was always waiting for a weld to fail (which happened one time twenty feet up).
Even my "heavy" Summit Titan, at 26 lbs, is a lot easier to lug and climb than those old steel stands were. And I feel a lot safer in the current crop vs the old climbers.