Teach me about climbing with sticks?

I have a set of Tethrd Skeletor sticks and like them a lot. For a mid-priced stick set, they are well designed and fairly light. Coupled with a LW Assault stand, carry strap harness and small pack to hold necessities, the setup weighs about 22#....about the same as my previous Millennium M7 setup with the same sticks. In comparison, my Cougar Claw climber weighs 19#, but is a bit more bulky in size. I sweat a LOT less using the climber than I do installing sticks and a stand, so if the trees in the area are suitable, I opt for the climber.

Height achieved is relative to your physical height. A guy that is 5'6' is not going to get as high with 3 or 4 sticks as a guy 6'6" because their legs are plainly that much longer. I set my sticks about the distance from foot to knee....so at ground level the first one is set so the bottom stick is about the height of my knee. That way with hunting clothes on I can easily step up without straining for the next stick. Being 6' tall, I get to about 15' with four Skeletors or three LW full length sticks. That is why some add an "aider" to the bottom stick so they get a boost and start up higher for another couple feet. Another way is to carry a strap-on step to install above your highest stick to give you another 18-24" of height.

I had a couple errands to "run" this morning.....if you want to see a photo of my Jeep it indeed "runs" and transports me places. Since I was going to be close to the local hardware store, I stopped by with a small parts list to try the retracting cable aider mod from the forementioned video on this same thread. They didn't have the precise bolts the DIY fellow used.....apparently those are often used for mounting flat screen TV's and they don't stock them. So I subbed a 1/4" flange bolt to see if it would work. The DIY guy suggested1 1/8", but I found 1 1/2" to work just fine with a lock nut on the outside edge. As noted previously, I opted for the cable instead of Amsteel because I only modded the bottom stick to give me another 20" of height if so desired. 1/8" vinyl coated cable is rated at 325#, which is a lot more than I weigh and again will just take me from the ground to the first Skeletor step for just a few seconds. At present it has just one dual stop, but I think I am going to add an extra single one on each end.....just because. So this is what it looks like.






Later this afternoon, I was out getting lunch and running an errand with my wife and we stopped at a True Value hardware store. While she was looking for something, I went back to hardware and found the bolts shown in the video. They were called "furniture bolts" on the bin and didn't cost any more than the flange bolts I purchased earlier. When we got home, I swapped them out and there is definitely more surface area to keep the aider in place.