Got out in the woods today and started going up a tree with my wife's summit treestand. I think it is a viper. I've hunted out of it many times with no problems. Today I was going up this tree with really thick bark and the cable for the platform got wedged in pretty good. I put my forearms on the climber and tried to free it up, but I felt something bend. I was only about 6-8 feet up and the time and decided to head back down to inspect it. I saw that the left 'arm' was bend up and back a bit. I wouldn't be able to climb with it like this and didn't feel safe using it so I grabbed both arms of the climber portion and attempted to bend it back. Rather than bending back to original position, the arms basically snapped off. Glad it didn't happen when I was up the tree.
Dude, that could have been a very bad thing.
Close shave! Hap
Glad it happened on the ground. It could have been so much worse if you were 15 ft up a tree.
My family has been using Summit's and LW's for along time and thank God we have never had an issue.
I would call Summit on Monday and let them know what happened. They will make it right.