It was February 1, 2011Tuesday morning. The ground was covered by a layer of frozen snow and ice. The temperature was 29° and the forecast was bleak, with freezing rain on the way that evening. Like so many mornings before I headed for my treestand at 0 dark:30. Finding it was easy without the aid of a flashlight with the white of the frozen snow. I had placed the treestand last September in a silver beech tree along a creek where the deer cross. This was the first year I decided to put a rope that would bear my weight from head high at the treestand to the first treestep at the base of the tree. Then using a prussic knot I would be able to ascend and descend the tree using my safety harness and sliding the knot as I went. As I arrived at my tree I started my ritual of putting on my gear. I always dress and undress in a particular order so that I can reach into my backpack and pull out what I need without the use of a light or forgetting something. • First my binoculars on Crooked Horn® harness • Then my Seat-O-The-Pants® safety harness • Then a fleece hand muffler. It doubles as a pocket to hold my facemask, grunt tube, release and gloves After I got myself together I hooked my harness to the ascent rope, donned my cotton gloves, you know the ones with the little gripping rubber dots on them and up I went. I got up onto the fourth step when my hand slipped off the treestep. Because of the cold the dots on the gloves became hard and slick. I fell backward away from the tree and would have most likely landed flat on my back. Luckily the prussic knot worked flawlessly. It cinched down on the leading rope and held me from what might have been a catastrophic fall. As I dangled there for a brief moment I said a quick THANK YA JESUS! I grabbed the tree again and thought, well that knot is probably so tight I’ll have to cut the rope to get myself back to the ground. But because of the simple design of the prussic knot all I had to do was pull the coils in reverse and it opened easily to slide and let me back down to the ground. After regaining my composure and checking to see if I didn’t have to change or shake anything out of my underwear I removed the gloves and climbed the tree once again this time without incident. As a former Hunter Education Instructor I always opted to do the “Treestand Safety” part of the class. I had always vowed never to become a statistic in the state incident reports given out every year. I urge everyone to learn to tie and to use this simple knot. Please ALWAYS attach your safety harness while going UP and DOWN a tree, not just after getting to the top. Hunt well, hunt safe,
Wow, glad you're okay, I've been lucky enough to never have an accident while climbing, hopefully the luck continues.
Good deal. I tied one, just last night. I've got a roof to go on, tomorrow, that's pretty steep. I'm throwing a rope over the house and using my harness and a prussic/carabiner to go up. Glad it worked for you.
Glad you're okay, and that's a great story. Todd had a very close call last year and narrowly escaped falling from close to 20 feet up. After that he become a huge advocate of the Life Line systems from HSS and Muddy. After using them a few times at his property, my personal goal for 2011 is to outfit all of my stands with them.
I've always wore my harness up and down the tree with my climber. After hunting 10yds away from a good buddy and listening to the thud he made from falling 25ft and breaking his back (he was using a tree saddle), it backed up everything i ever thought about falling out a of a tree....it sucks. I'm glad you were wearing yours and you're safe
