Guys,

This past weekend one of our club members was climing into a elevated shooting house. The stand floor is about 12 feet off the ground and has a 2x6 straight ladder for access. The stand is about 3 years old. All pressure treated lumber.

On the 5th step the board broke were connected to the side rail. Luckily he caught him self and did not fall.

We all use saftey harnesses when using climbers or lockons. The type is the old style that goes around the user and attaches to the tree and is moved up as you climb.

What we are considering for our elevated houses is a climbing system made from mountain climbing equipment. Our thinking is that if the equipment is designed to withstand a fall while rock climbing it should be more than sufficient for our needs.

We want to use ropes that are designed with an impact force = 8.9 kilonewtons (about 2000 pounds of stress). This is not paracord or the rope you buy at Home Debot.

We would then connect our climbing stand harness to the rope with a weight rated carabiners and a Prusik knot.

I cannot think of any other way to do this, do yall have any ideas?

Below is the info:

Rope specs

Carabiner specs

Prusik Knot info

You can get these 3 for $100, just slides up the rope with you. We have several on some tall ladders. and use them some on climbers that we leave in the tree.

For ease and convenience you are correct- the prusik is the way to go. A couple of wraps and clip in to a carabiner and you are good to go.

Make sure you tie the main rope in a way that is convenient for you to climb and downclimb. Remember, the prusik has to be "scooted" up and down by hand but it will catch a slip or small fall easily. Also, tie the bottom of the rope to a leg of the ladder or a heavy rock at base of the stand.

You don't need an expensive dynamic climbing rope for this application as a caving, or forestry line will do just fine. Any static line that is load rated will be fine as you are not going to encounter a "fall factor 2" in a regular ladderstand application.

bgarrett

Where did you find those ropes. Do you have a link?

They are HSS lifelines... just google it.

Sportsman's guide has the Muddy brand life lines for around $30. We just put them on all of our lock ons.

treated lumber is fine but always build like its a deck on a 2 story house. type of fasteners you use are just as important.