Almost had a similar tumble yesterday. Morning hunt was good. Found a nice tree in a hot area but I think the snow on Sat threw them off a bit. Yesterday afternoon we went into an area that we typically see deer 75% of the time and my buddy took a nice 8 pt last weekend. I get there about 2PM and find a tree. I set up the Viper and begin to climb. At about 12 feet I drop a few arrows. Back down the tree. I start to climb and get up around 15ft and the platform seems tilted and is not catching the tree right. I figue I will go a little higher. At about 20 feet it still does not want to grip the tree right. So I go a few feet higher. Now the upper half doesn't seem to want to catch the tree right. No matter what I do at about 25ft the stand portions are sliding sideways on the tree. It was a red oak. Now i try to kick the platform into the tree and due to the melting snow my boots are a bit wet and the right foot comes out of the bungee as the stand tilts to the right a bit. As I am calmly trying to avoid the big drop gathering my thoughts being perfectly still resting on the upper portion it slips a bit. The old pucker factor runs high and the heart is in overdrive. All I could think of was not the fall but oh how it is going to hurt when I smack face first into the tree as I swing from my harness!. I finally managed to catch the toe of my right boot in the toe strap and stabalize the platform situation. Once all was under control I decided to gingerly climb down the tree and hunt from the ground. I didn't want to push my luck twice in one day.

I checked the stand over and all the teeth are fine as are the straps. Just seems to be a hard tree that won the battle. I even thought about shooting a field tip into the tree to see if it would penetrate the rock hard beast. However, I figured I'd let common sense prevail and save an arrow. It's amazing the thoughts that run through your mind when dangling precariously 25 ft up a tree. Some were my kids are going to have a paralyzed father, after all this there ain't a deer for miles, I'm going to kill my buddy for talking me into buying this stand and bow hunting on the Sunday of opening wek of rifle, man that tree is gonna hurt, well if I cut my strap I can deal with a broken leg. You name it it ran through my head. I don't feel so bad today as my buddy who I mentioned in my negative thoughts called me early this morning and it sounds like he has a poison plant rash of some type in his groin area!!! I'd rather hang from the tree for a while!