My son has the old version of the Summit Viper that is made out of steel and weighs around 30lbs. I don't know about the new versions but the old versions they provided you with a rope to tie the bottom stand to the top stand just in case your feet slipped out of the straps or whatever. Needless to say my son thought they were a waste. Yep you guessed it. About 18ft up the tree as he was climbing his feet slipped out and the bottom stand fell about 6 feet. Thankfully he was hunt with a friend and they both had their cell phones with them. After about 40 minutes my son's friend climbed up the tree where my son was perched sitting on the bar of the top stand. and gave him the bottom stand so he could climb down. Don't know what would have happened to my son had his friend not been there. Plus I did not know where my son was hunting that day and to top it all off he was not wearing a safety harness because he felt the Summit Viper stands are the safest stands on the market and felt there was no way he could fall out. Needless to say he now uses both ropes to secure both sides of the top and bottom stands and wears a safety harness.