I use a 40’ rappel line with my saddle and one stick. There have been a bunch of times while rifle hunting where I got to a height that I could see everything I wanted to and looked down to see then end of my rappel line was 5-10’ up off the ground.

I got up p about 40 on my climber on the edge of a deep bluff and it looked even higher cause I was looking down the bluff. Wind got up and scared the hell out of me I got the only anxiety attack I have ever had. This was before cell phones and I was in the middle of nowhere by myself. Kept looking down and panicked the whole time as the wind was whipping me around. Finally got it together and came down. Never again.

Cotton picking spindles bring back memories..

up to 50 ft overlooking a young clear cut…

Just picked up a lone wolf hand climber to do that this weekend. Generally speaking, how high can a regenerating pine thicket get before you can no longer see down into it well enough to shoot from a very elevated position 30-40 foot up on a ridge overlooking (or opposite) said pines?

I was watching one of Michael Waddel’s youtube videos about this old stand his daddy built back in the 80’s and how tall it was……They went and measured it and it turned out to be right at 38 ft……It reminded me of the climber that was on a pine tree at our old club in Camp Hill back when I was about 16-17 years old. It was one of those first climbers people really started using….I forget the names of them that were made out of square aluminum.

Anyways, the other guys that my dad and uncles were in the club with had this climber on a pine tree that had been limbed up to 50 ft overlooking a young clear cut…..It was a measured 50 ft too so there was no doubt. Well, I decided one day I was gonna hunt there and go all the way up to that limb where the other guys were hunting……

It was all good until probably the 35 ft mark when the little up/down ratchet process you do when climbing turned into baby steps of about a foot at a time…..Then at about 40 ft it turned into sitting there thinking about it awhile and looking around deciding how bad I really wanted to go up to that limb……Finally at probably 43 ft or so the wind started blowing some and that’s when I said screeeeeeew this and went back down about 10 ft for my afternoon sit. I remember looking up at the limb thinking….its only another 6 of 7 feet but that swaying around boogered me up.