That great.

Hunted for 25 years in climbers with now safety device. 7 years ago I went to a safety belt and last year started using a SOP or/HSS.  I hunt mostly public land thus the climber. To be honest I felt much safer without anything.  The people I know about getting hurt were all safety belt related. I now feel unsafe until hooked up comletely and find messing with the thing to be a pain that has caused loads of grief. Before I used them I felt safe and sure in the tree, now not so much. If you use a hang on I do recommend the prussic rope safety line sold for about $40 because it is a pretty slick arrangment (although it adds $40 to the cost of each stand site) as tree steps and hang ons are far more dangerous (IMHO) making ground up hookup a wise idea.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r224/REALVTer/Bowseasonplacingstands09001.jpg

I'll see if this works. This is a picture of the whole works. Kind of far off but you can see the prussik loop towards the bottom.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r224/REALVTer/Bowseasonplacingstands09002.jpg

More of a close-up of the bottom. The Prussik loop is the orangeish collored smaller rope.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r224/REALVTer/settingforyouthday09250.jpg  

The all important harness. Its not a good picture of the prussik, but you can see the tether on my son's harness as it goes up and clips to the prussik behind the seat cushion of his treestand. The red rope is the lifeline. This is a different treestand than in the two previous pictures, just to avoid confusion.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r224/REALVTer/settingforyouthday09257.jpg

Picture of my son as he's making his way down. He's pushing the prussik loop down with his hand so you can't see it.

For Chris.

Michael, Keep using your harness with your climber on the way up and down. I work shows for Summit ever year and hear the stories of the fallen. Yes you can fall out of a climber! So wear the harness your family will thank you.

Your family will appreciate it.  Your friends will appreciate.

Stop by your local firehouse, most of those guys can show you how to tie a prussik (most of the time)if you are having trouble. It si a good idea to use such a system and they are super easy to put together yourself.

J

Thanks guys, haven't been able to log on to read up on my question, my home PC is in the "hospital" for a while.

Do you use a mounting bracket for the main line or is it attached directly to the tree, and if so...how?

Tie it around the tree as high as you can comfortably reach. I use two half hitches, that way the rope tightens up on the tree when you pull on it. With the rope being above your head like that it allows your tether to be attached to the rope above you so you can take all the slack out of the tether while sitting.

Thanks for posting this, I think I have a project for next year now.

I have a friend who used to mountain climb in the Alps . I once made the comment that a stand wasnt high enough to use a saftey rope- his reply was " anything you wouldnt care to jump off of is high enough for a safety rope

Safety,Safety,Safety