c903,

I agree it takes time and effort to find a safe stand. I also add extra straps to certain stands I have. Other stands I have confidence in them so I do not add extra straps and such.

I have a few questions about the hunter that died in your area. What type of stand was he using, how old was the stand, had it been damaged in any way, what exactly happened to the cables? You stated that you were told that the cables failed, was this information from a reliable source?

Even though you may add "higher" grade hardware, it too could fail due to engineering, manufacturing or material flaws.

I own a Summit Viper climbing stand and I feel it is the safest and best engineered stand I own. However, being a "dumbass" is NOT the only way someone could fall out of it. Anything mechanical can break. I can recall at least one post on this board about welds on fairly new Summit stands develpoing a crack. According to the poster Summit quickly replaced the stand.