Treestand safety, or not

[danarnold]

Monday one of my best friends was getting stands set up around his food plots when he climbed off the sticks to the stand this happened, he fell 16' landing on his side breaking his pelvis in 4 places and dislocating his shoulder, he has 17 different ladder stands and hang on's and was about a mile from his house by himself. Somehow he was able to pull himself up on his side-by-side after passing out a couple of times and drive himself back to his house where he was air evaced out to the local hospital then air lifted to St. Louis.
we had just talked about using harnesses the day before, I'm a big fan of using them but at the same time without a lifeline you're vulnerable when stepping off the sticks onto the stand, I'm not sure how much it would cost to outfit all of those stands with the lifeline but any cost is better than getting hurt like this or worse.
Be careful out there!
By the way the stand strap didn't break, there was a metal part that straightened out as he stepped on it, part of the strap lock, his son sent me this picture I have not seen it in person yet.
Hopefully everybody takes some extra caution to cover their ass that's my reason for posting this.

 

[Felix40]

What a way to ruin an entire hunting season. I've never used a harness until I had a baby last year. Now that I have someone else counting on me I'm a lot better about it. I started getting into rock climbing too and using a climbing harness has been a lot nicer so now I have no excuse. I don't have a life line but I always try to hook up before I step on the stand. Hope he gets back on his feet soon.

 

[Grumman]

Thanks for posting this always scares the heck out of me. Especially as the price/quality gets driven down on the stands. Something that I haven't heard mentioned much on forums or hunting shows is "suspension trauma". Even if safely caught by a harness during a fall, a person can still die if not able to keep movement/blood flow. It's worth a Google search for folks who haven't heard of this.

I hope your friend has a quick recovery!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[IdahoElk]

Sorry to hear about your friend and hope he is ok.What brand of stand is it?

 

[realunlucky]

Scary. Luckily your friend beat the worse case and made it to the hospital. Hopefully he'll make a full recovery

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[ChrisS]

Best wishes for your friend. That's a helluva fall. One of my coworkers came in the office a few years ago with what looked like burns on the inside of both arms. He was hanging a stand, lost his balance and grabbed onto a nearby tree. It saved his life, but he had to slide down 20 feet in a t-shirt.

I too use a rock climbing harness. It's small, keeps out of the way, and is easy to put on and adjust. When I'm in my climber, I attach the lifeline at the bottom and I just move it up as I go up. At any point, the rope has about 4-10" of slack. If I slip, I don't fall far.

Treestand are killers.

 

[charvey9]

Growing up, hunting on private land, we built our own stands right into the tree and never used fall protection. Although these were much more secure than the hang-ons, it was still pretty stupid.

I only have a few stands up now on public land, so I use hang-ons. No cell service in these areas and no one knows where they are. If something ever happened to me out there, I'd really be in a world of trouble. I always use a harness and a lifeline. It is a few extra steps to get everything set up safely when you are hanging stands, but worth the piece of mind. I also always carry my SPOT in my pocket when I'm tree stand hunting, in case I do fall and can't get to my pack.

17 would be quite expensive to outfit if you bought them all off the rack, but it would not be that difficult to make your own more economically.

 

[blake_mhoona]

all my stands have life lines. and i use a linemans belt when hanging the stands and the life lines. when my foot comes off the ground i am connected until it hits the ground again. i'll take some bruising and having the wind knocked out of me from that harness pulling tight if i fell over broken bones any day.

guy here in arkansas was hanging some a month or so ago. fell out of his stand 22' up. broke every rib except for one, collapsed lung, face swollen shut. he crawled to his 4 wheeler for an hour, drove with a swollen face for 4 hours and got cell service called and waited an hour to be air vac'd out. was in a coma for a couple days and got pretty close to losing his life a few times was in ICU for awhile.

 

[LaGriz]

Wow,
Have a friend that still refuses to ware a safety harness. He owns an archery shop, and has been pleaded with by many of his customers. He too has a small child. Brandon hunts lock-on stands as a rule in several states. I worry about him too. Best wishes on your friends full recovery.

LaGriz

 

[LostArra]

Jim makes the highest quality lifelines/prussics that I have ever seen.
Makes climbing from the ground with a connection much easier.
It's amazing what we spend on hunting gear and clothing but worry about the costs of multiple lifelines.

Products >> SafeTree Hunt Systems

 

[hflier]

I never get into a tree without a harness and I really try and influence others to do the same. I also have given up cheaper stands and climbers and now only hunt from ladder stands to have more stability. Just not worth your life. The stats are crazy as to how many people are hurt each year. The other precaution I take is using a descent device. It would be just as bad to have a fall arrested by a harness and then die hanging there due to blood flow issues. I hope your friend makes a full recovery.

 

[Luked]

our family has been pretty lucky since there are quite a few of us hunt from stands. i have fell from about 10ft. climbing up and hit an iced over step and went down. didnt get hurt which was lucky, my oldeer brother on the other hand did fall and got banged up pretty bad. he had went out and got all the way to his stand and realized he had forgot his harness in the truck. instead of turning around and going back the 150 yards to where his truck was he went ahead and climbed up. he got into the stand and was there about 10-15 min and when he moved both cables that hold the stand platform upright broke at the same time. he went down. caught a screw in tree step to the chin which was lucky it didnt break his jaw or worse and he got stuck in the fork of the tree 12' off the ground. he managed to get down and get back to the truck. he got lucky with no broken bones just brusied up badly.

making lifelines isnt as bad as most think the biggest cost to it is buying the rope. once you have that then just learn to tie a prussic knot and your set. its well worth the expence to be able to hunt another season as far as i am concerned.
we have went to more ladder stands on our property but there is still always a chance for a fall.

stay safe everyone

 

[AdamW]

Scary, scary stuff. Hope he makes a fast and full recovery.

 

[camping1601]

Another RC harness user here. I don't get more than two step off the ground without attaching to the tree or a lifeline. You can get a 3 packs of lifelines for around $100 bucks.

Glad he's OK.

 

[George]

I add 2 or 3 fresh ratchet straps in addition to the straps that come with the stand. The straps that come with the stand are secondary. The accident above would have been avoided with additional straps.

G

 

[rfc86]

all my stands have life lines. and i use a linemans belt when hanging the stands and the life lines. when my foot comes off the ground i am connected until it hits the ground again. i'll take some bruising and having the wind knocked out of me from that harness pulling tight if i fell over broken bones any day..

^^^2

 

[the big Mao]

we were discussing this earlier this week, and it occurs to me that once the stand is secure, tying a lifeline above the stand, extending to the ground, and hooking a Jumar Ascendur or Gibbs Ascender-you can get them anyplace that sells climbing and mountaineering gear-and clipping your harness into them would save your butt from a truly nasty fall.

I'll have to pop for a treestand this Winter, and you can bet I'll have my climbing harness clipped into the Jumar. We can take lessons from the guys who climb things like Trango Tower and El Cap in Yosemite---having been on that wall twice myself, I can tell you, you'd have a lot of time to contemplate why you just made that bad move without making sure your "pro" was working!!

 

[jaredlef]

Hope your friend makes a speedy recovery. With harnesses made these days being light, comfortable, and relatively inexpensive, I can't understand why anyone wouldn't use one. It's 100% worth the money and time putting it on to know that you're not taking your life in your hands every time you go to sit. I'm sure most, if not all, of us hit the woods pretty hard - it only takes one mistake once.

 

[danarnold]

Don't know brand yet, He thought the strap broke but the metal hook straightened out

 

[Readypro1]

Looks like a Grizzly stand i have one that is identical. I will be adding a second strap to mine for sure. Not wearing a harness is like driving with out a seat belt its all good til you need it...

Prayers for a speedy recovery