Tree Stand Safety... Lifeline Ropes

[Nole]

Hey Everyone,

With hunting seasons open all over the U.S. I want to encourage all of you that hunt from tree stands to use the Safety/Lifeline Ropes that keep you tethered to the tree from bottom to top start to finish.  Two weeks ago this past Sunday I learned the hard way falling twenty feet while descending from my stand at dark.  I am not sure exactly how the strap failed but somehow the top section of the stick ladder came loose from the tree resulting in my fall. 

I had put this stand up along with 4 others three weeks prior.  As a general rule all of my stands have Lifeline ropes and the day I hung these I left the Ropes at my barn and I told myself just to add them as I hunted them which I forgot on this day.  I did use my normal rope once in the stand but most accidents happen going up and down.  I am not new to hunting out of stick ladders and hang on stands as I have been doing it for 30 plus years.  I pull my stands at the end of each season but leave the stick ladders.  I loosen the straps then tighten and replace the next year as I put them back up.  On many of my ladders I add a ratchet strap to the top section to keep them tight to the tree as the factory straps seem to loosen.  The bottom line here is that I try to be as safe as I can but a Lifeline Rope would have prevented this and I knew better. 

As far as my injuries I have 3 vertebrae with compression fractures and 6 broken ribs which earned me an ambulance ride and a week stay in the hospital.  I am very thankful and blessed that it was not worse.  My doctors told me some really bad stories that they have seen first hand and basically said I was lucky.  Thankfully I did not need surgery and the Neurosurgeon said my back would recover 100% on my own and return to doing all the things I did before the accident.  I am home now healing and doing much better.

Some key takeaways other than using a Lifeline.  I was fortunate that I had other members in my lease that could find me but tell someone where you are gonna be as a safety measure.  Keep a battery back up for your phone and spare batteries for lights.  On a side note if you are hunting in the South wear snake boots.  With these warm/cool days the snakes are crawling trying to find a home and I killed this cottonmouth walking to my stand that afternoon... maybe it was a bad sign of things to come.  Stay safe and keep posting the awesome hunting stories & pictures as for now I am hunting vicariously through you all! 

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[Friend]

All 47 stands have lifeline ropes....we believe in it and mandate their use.

[blacktailbob]

I just bought 100ft of reflective rope from Atwood and replacing my life lines with it. Should anything happen and people have to come looking for me those things light up like a christmas tree in the dark from a long ways.

Also will be using it for a drag rope in case I have leave an animal and go get help it'll be easier to find it again.

[woodchucker]

Back in 1979, I fell 22' out of a wooden stand that I had built the year before. Lucky the only thing badly hurt, was my pride!! However, I have never felt comfortable, in ANY kind of stand ever since.... Regardless of harnesses, lifelines, etc.

Glad you're not crippled!!!! Hope you get better and back out there soon!!!

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Thanks for the tip. Glad you will recover.

[tippit]

Add a Petzel GriGri Belaying Decender to your life line so if you fall and are hanging on the rope, you can easily descend to the ground...tippit

[SlowBowKing]

So glad you're not any worse off than you are!

I hunt almost exclusively off of the ground, but when I do go up a tree, I am all about the safety gear for exactly this reason. I cringe to think about what passed for "safety gear" when I started out early.

[degabe]

This is why this old guy stays on the ground. I'm too old to be climbing trees.