For you tree climbers...

I bought the Millennium M210 stick ladder the other day and it seems to be fairly well constructed. Their instructions say to assemble the entire 20 foot section, then lean it up on the tree, and add the straps as you climb up. This is a pain in the rear with my current safety harness. Does anyone have tips they use to speed things up and staying safe at the same time? I thought about loosely strapping the top section to the tree first, then the next one, and continuously pushing things up the tree. I'd only have to tighten the straps as I go up, but this would only work if there are no limbs along the way. Got any other tips worth mentioning?

On a side note, 20 feet up is a lot higher now than it was 20 years and 75 pounds ago.

I put my sticks together and do as your instructions said. I use a linemans rope with a HSS ultra light harness. If you are gonna hang loc-on stands and sticks, a harness and linemans rope is a must have.

Lineman's belt. A must have.

Awesome, great. Thought "lineman's belt" sounded right. Thanks guys.

Linemans belt, go slow and think about what your doing. Thats how i fell oct.25

Got one in the mail heading this way.

Which one did u get?

Linemans belt makes it easy. Just take your time and get the straps good and tight.

this one

Just making sure you didnt get the Big Game one

You already have the "belt" part in your harnes. You're looking for a "flip line". Go to wesspur.com and get you a double flip line and learn how to use it. It allows you to get above limbs without unhooking. They make life much easier when hanging anything, especially a loc-on. I use tree gaffs and loc-ons. Also use the gaffs to put up ladder stands. Much safer than climbing up a ladder that's not secured if you learn how to use them.

Same here. It's worked pretty good for me so far...

Bought the x1 bowhunter safety harness today and used it with a lineman's strap...I was up and down the tree with hardly any effort. Thanks for helping me get set up guys.

Something wrong with Big Game harnesses?

This my seem extreme, but I use 2 lineman's straps. This allows me to stay connected when going past a branch on the off side of the tree.

Turkey that isn't extreme at all, its brilliant! Not dying or being crippled is worth the extra time.

Yeah, I ran across a pretty good YouTube video showing how helpful 2 lineman's straps are. I'll probably set up the same. I'm 99% sure the tree I'm hanging my stand on this weekend does not have limbs in the way (only going up 17 feet).

Double Lineman's Belt Video

Im sorry but he needs to learn how to extend his stick ladder above his stand so he doesn't have to step up to get on the platform, just step off the ladder onto the platform. And, that had to be most unstable lockon I have ever seen, just my opinion but I would be putting some more straps around that platform before I hunted from it. Hell, I thought he was about to fall while I was watching it.

Tree Hopper makes a fine lineman's belt

muzzie is right, you should always step down into a stand.

Yes the tag end of the linemans belt is not thick enough to prevent it from going back through the cam buckle under load. If you put just enough pressure to break the tension on that cam buckle while under load it will let completely loose in milliseconds. I was going to loosen mine a few inches while climbing down and two foot of loose end went through the buckle before I could even react. I basically just heard a zip(tag end going through buckle), wind rushing by my ears, and then my tail bone hit the dirt from 15 foot up.

I can assure you when I am cleared to climb again that a redundant system of some type will be used.