climbing stand safety
 

I have read a lot on tree stand accidents and was wandering about the safety of climbers. Whenever someone gets hurt locally the only thing in the news is that a hunter fell from a stand but never any specifics. I have used a summit viper for a number of years and the only way i see to fall out is if the stand or cables break. It doesn't wobble side to side like the old ones with bars around the tree used to and with the shooting rail on the summit I just dont see how you could fall out. Has anyone ever heard of someone falling out of a stand of this type or of one just flat out breaking? I wear a harness but hunt alone and dont want to be left dangling from that thing very long

There are several very good threads related to this on ArcheryTalk currently related to rock climbing harnesses and their benefits - the Bowhunting area. Check them out!

most treestand accidents tend to happen with hang on stands. They have extremely smaller cables and after years, if defected can easily break.

No stand...
 

is absolutely safe. Most tree stand users fall (20 year observation) when no kind of belt or harness to keep from falling, is used.

And the difficulty in using hunting stands is the hunt often takes the importance away from mere climbing. When a hunter starts thinking hunting only, say in a stand 20 feet in the air, his troubles may be starting.

No stand...
 

is absolutely safe. Most tree stand users fall (20 year observation) when no kind of belt or harness to keep from falling is used.

And the difficulty in using hunting stands is the hunt often takes the importance away from mere climbing. When a hunter starts thinking hunting only, say in a stand 20 feet in the air, his troubles may be starting.

I replace the cables on my climbers every 5 years or so it's just cheap insurance.. I couldn't get cables for my north star climber so I bought cables for an ol'man and they work fine

Alright here we go. On January 1, 2014, I fell about 20 feet while climbing down in my summit climber. Its had just gotten dark and I start climbing down probably made it down approx. 5 feet when I notice that the bottom of my stand would not grab hold of the tree. I quick found out that the cable had come disconnect from the stand. I did not have a safety harness on. now have used them but never when I was climbing down. After discovering that my stand was not connected to the tree I kicked it from my feet as far as I could so that I would not land on it because I knew what was coming. I attempt to bear hug the tree with my legs and use top of my stand to come down with, however my weight was shifted different of the top part of the causing to slip. At some point I lost it and down I went. I ended up with a fractured L2 in my back and a torn ACL. I am now back to 100% and have changed my climbing style. I now use a harness at all times, use a rope for my backpack & weapons (i had my rifle on my back when I fell). Summit is a stand up company I contacted them and they requested I sent them my stand & they would provide me with a new stand.

here a photo of when we went to get my stand about 2 weeks after my fall.

Thanks for sharing and i am glad your ok. What model of summit where you using? Did you ever find out how the cable came unhooked?

Yeah it was the bow master(bushmaster), I think they renamed it the open shot. So on that model climber once the cable is inserted into the stand it has metal slide piece that prevents the cable from coming out. So I believe that slide piece came open and that the cable got hung on the tree, so when I was attempting to free the cable from the hang up it worked its way lose from the stand.