dkbs

The other day at work three of us were discussing the use of safety harnesses while hunting from tree stands. This thought hit me about using the safety harness while climbing up and down with a climber.
I always wear a harness once in the tree, but this does not cover the period of time climbing up or down. Once this year with the climber l left the saftey belt fastened to the tree while descending. However I forgot to work the strap down as I went and needed to climb back up and loosen it since it cinched tight to the tree.
Heres my thought. Some people probably already do this and I'm sure theres some scenarios that could still go wrong. Once both sections(seat and platform) of the climber are fastened to the tree, strap yourself to the seat portion until you reach your desired spot on the tree. Naturally the safety belt would need to be as short as possible and positioned in a manner not to choke you if you fall. This way if your platform breaks or you fall free of the tree hopefully the seat portion of the climber can withstand the jar and hold you suspended by the harness. If the seat portion of the climber is what breaks initially, the platform should still be under you.
The real test would be if the seat portion of the climber could take the jar of you falling to the end of your harness. I think ultimately doing this would be safer than not being harnessed to anything at all while climbing. The real plus would be that your attachment to the tree would climb as you did, no hassles.
Any thoughts
Dan

Rickmur

Treelounge employs this method.

willtill

Not good. You need an independent connection to the tree; hence the body harness and safety rope. This is for redundancy, what you're proposing defeats that.

What is the hurry? It's not hard or really time consuming to climb a tree with a traditional climber; and simultaneously moving your safety rope up the tree (or down the tree) as you go.

Kindest Regards,

-Will in Maryland

5 shot

I agree with will. Doing it your way would be better than nothing, but what if the stand breaks or fails? I know it's a pain the the #$^# but I have a wife and 6 year old son that Need me at home. That's why I don't skimp and the treestands I use, and I always wear my saftey harness.

davidmil

NOPE.... you got to be fastened to the tree. I hook up before I start and don't undo it until I'm down.

A little story about your method from about 6 years ago. I bought a new composite arm stand that was made by the old Loggy factory at a show before they hit the stores. Brand new deal. (They took it off the market almost immediately after I bought it.) Anyway, I tried it in the yard a couple times and it seemed fine. I had owned climbers since the early 70s. The first trip to the woods was a 400 mile drive to the Adirondacks.

I walked in about 3/4 mile, put it on a tree and started up. I usually take a pretty big bite by putting the top part to my shoulders or doing a big pull up/push up pulling the bottom section with my feet. I was about 12 feet up when I took one of these bites. The top section broke dumping shoulders down on the bottom part which then broke leaving me hanging sort of upside down from a safety belt. Had I not been wearing the belt or had I been doing it your suggested way I would have ended up slamming into the ground from 12 or 14 feet head first. Had that happened you wouldn't have had any "Potty pictures" to adorn your screen.[]

Cougar Mag

My safety harness is on as soon as I step out of my vehicle.

As far as taking big climbs at a time, its unnecessary. Haste makes waste, and I don't want to waste my life.