One-sticking Is So Easy Even a 13-year Old Can Do It!! 

And SO much less bulky!!

Yessir! Welcome to the club!

Thanks, and good luck!!

Appreciate you taking the time to comment Bob!

That’s awesome to hear, and we agree! We’ll follow up sometime in the next week or so with a final one-sticking video focusing in on the details of things like tying on a quick link, WHY you want to use a quick link as opposed to a carabiner, and other things we commonly get asked about. Thanks for taking the time to comment!

Best of luck to you in your pursuits … we made a follow-up video to this one that breaks the concepts down even further called “One-sticking: The Details…” on this channel. It might give you some additional help.

@@StaggsintheWild yes sir..I started it last night but bedtime called..gonna finish it today..appreciate u taking your time to help us..for some reason this saddle stuff is hard for the majority of ppl I spoke too , to comprehend

Thank you!

❤️

No problem, and thanks for the comment... I've had several discussions with hunting friends around this topic since we made the video. Thanks for taking the time to respectfully point it out. Good luck this season!!

@@StaggsintheWild you're welcome. There are several lightweight ways to climb out there and unfortunately there seems to be the lighter you go, the more you sacrifice safety in general. Using a multi step aider like that you're gaining a ton of height with one step, but you also have a great potential to create slack.. falling 6 feet will cause a bunch of damage. A couple of years ago i had about a foot of slack and my aider kicked out(it had never happened before) and I thought I had broken a rib. I can't imagine what the amount of slack you have in yours will do. When you start to move the aider up as you move up, it has the potential to make a less stable climb. It's a double edged sword.

So what do u mean by manage the tether..I'm new to this but wanna be very safe

@@StealthTRD falling with slack will increase your fall factor and can shock load the body when the tether catches

@@Rooster_king ty 😊

Thanks!

You’ll absolutely LOVE it, Tod! If you want to meet up somewhere and try out my gear, give me a shout!

Nice 👍

I also use hand climber but also doubles as a ground blind seat .

I have a video coming up that is going to do just that! Subscribe and hit the notification bell so you don’t miss it!

@@StaggsintheWild sure did

Yeah, that little Scout platform that sits at the top of the stick works really well and it’s only about $70

Check out this video to see me address your comment, as well as even more detailed instruction and options in one-sticking: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5iDtdKPyh8M.html

No using a tether is safer than a lineman’s rope. I lineman’s rope does not guarantee fall prevention because lineman belts slip down vs a tether which cinches down on the tree.

Thanks! Welcome aboard!

Be sure to check out our other one-sticking vids which slow down and go into a lot more detail over some of the basics.

@@StaggsintheWild yes I will, do you have any videos on assembling the platform shown here and in the links? Also I clicked on the bolt link but see various sizes listed so I am not sure which one would be needed. Soon as this stimulus comes through I will be set :D Edit: I see, Dano's ultimate one stick. Thats all I needed to know

@@davidschmidt5533 Yep. Here's the video you asked for, and I point out in it that the Ultimate One Stick was just about to be released... :) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CX6kVfkR4bI.html

Yeah tether slack alert. It’s all good until it isn’t... when one sticking I’ve got a force reducing screamer in line with my tether, and use a lineman’s. It slows me down a little but not terrible. Also not a bad idea to get a safety knot in the tether below the device and remove that before rappel, a 12” ride would be a lot better than a 25’ ride. A few little safety tweaks here seems worth the tradeoffs.

Nothing wrong at all with making the community aware of how to be safer guys... thanks for the comments!

You can also move your tether up the tree with each step instead of waiting until you've reached the top of the stick. This keeps the slack out while climbing.

@@robertlester4569 That's how Gabe and I plan on doing it when we get our gear in.

It’s high on the list once I get all my stuff in! Stay tuned!

@@StaggsintheWild thanks brother!

Dad is 52 and does it over 100X a season 😁👍

Thanks for taking the time to comment! I was being totally serious - I had zero interest in the method before even though a really good friend (Scott) kept telling me it was the bomb ... but when I saw it in person, it made all the difference in the world. 😊

@@StaggsintheWild It's easy to get the hang of it and once you do it becomes your go to method. Also implementing the belay device makes this method so much better.

You can pretty much find everything you’re looking for in the one-sticking playlist.

It has a spliced loop that fits over the tube … lots of closeups of it in the next video in the series called “We got our one-sticking sticks in…”. Or something like that 😂

I believe the order I just placed for both Gabe and me came to $627 ... now, that’s two of everything - so cut that in half for one person. That’s for every single item that’s on the materials list in the description of this video.

Thank you for the kind words... However, I don't have anything to do with the vendor that sells them. You can obtain all the information you need on that stick in this video... It's sold at www.doublesteps.com ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CX6kVfkR4bI.html

@@StaggsintheWild you are extremely helpful & i appreciate that. Thank you so much for getting back to me and I have a great day

Once again thank you so much for your help. If I can ever make you any custom leather please let me know. Your knowledge is very valuable to us new guys

Not a true ascender probably like you’re thinking about like a Kong Duck or a Ropeman ... we’re using a Madrock Safeguard in this video. Check out out video on this channel called “One-sticking: The Details” for closeups and detailed video explanations of everything.

Scott’s stick is 10” ... I just placed an order for two 12” sticks for Gabe and me. Going to make them out of the same fluted tubing that the new Ultralight sticks are made from that I highlighted in my last video.

We have a full one-sticking playlist on our channel with over 20 videos in it, including how to retrieve your rappel rope and a full-climb demo … but to answer your question, we don’t use gear ties any more because we lower ourselves down enough to reach the cleat on the stick and ease the rope out so there’s no noise. At that point, we just grab the platform and pull the stick up.

Eastern Woods Outdoors (doublesteps.com). There's a link to it -- I believe -- in the video description. Thanks!!

It's in the links :) ... made by Eastern Woods Outdoors and sewn to order. You can also buy very similar from backwoodsmobilegear.com but if you order from EWO, he'll sew it to your step, which is pretty nice.

The stick/step combo weighs 2.7 lbs ... 40’ of Sterling Canyon rope weighs 1.3 lbs - so 4 lbs total. The Madrock, carabiners and everything else weighs well under half a pound. So I can walk into the woods and climb any tree up to a height of 40’ with right at 4 lbs of gear minus my bow and saddle.

Wow, that’s awesome. Eagerly awaiting a video on rigging this setup! I’ll be giving this a go this summer for next years hunting season!

@@lovejoy1230 About halfway through filming for that one... gonna try to wrap it up today before the rain moves in and do all the editing over the weekend.

It’s built using all parts from Eastern Woods Outdoors (doublesteps.com). A complete parts list is in the description ... and I will be building one myself and video it for this channel once all my parts come in. Stay tuned ... 😊

Yes, Scott's rope was indeed out of spec in that early video, and he was also fairly new to using the Madrock... now that we all have a better understanding of its capabilities in this application. Madrock's own PI (Package Insert) actually recommends against using a device below it that could interfere with its actions. Once you closely look at a Madrock and investigate how it works, you'll see it actually stops the rope on a binding principle and not with anything mechanical. Provided you're using an in-spec rope, I see no reason to use anything else ... but each individual needs to evaluate that for themselves.

I continue using the Madrock in lieu of a Kong or RollNlock... think about it this way: if a Madrock is capable of halting a 300-lb person in mid-rappel, it's MORE than capable of holding my weight up as I simply lean against it in almost a static position. The duration of time I'm doing so is irrelevant. Hope that makes sense.

@@StaggsintheWild good point. Thanks.

@@wadzilla3711 To further clarify (sorry for the delay; we just got back in from running our trapline and I was thinking about this out on the farm...), there are no real mechanical or moving parts inside the Madrock once you really analyze how it works; it operates on a principle of "binding" the rope in such a severe turn inside it (easily seen by swinging the top portion open) that once under pressure, the rope can't slip through. What you're doing when you pull on the handle is you're actually turning the device to allow the rope to slip on freely through... so the act of placing your weight against the device -- or having it hold you in place, as another way of looking at it -- isn't stressing out any mechanical parts that could fatigue the longer you used them... that actually may be more of the answer you're looking for and may help alleviate your concerns and explain things better. :)

Go to the 18:00 mark of this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5iDtdKPyh8M.htmlsi=C5JEN9IC1wOKTrNN

Not a concern whatsoever ... these ropes have sheaths that are super tough and just having the tether/rappel rope lay over the top shouldn’t do a thing to it. It’s just steady pressure vs sawing back and forth. Obviously you still want to inspect your ropes from time to time as a precaution.

If you haven’t watched the other videos on one-sticking on our channel, I’d highly encourage you to do so - especially this one: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5iDtdKPyh8M.html

22”. Foot to knee would work perfectly.

Yes. One piece of Canyon C-IV that’s 40’ long. 👍

Scott says his is 10” long, though DanO told me he sent him a 12” one ... maybe Scott cut it down after getting it. He’s sending me a pair of 12” Featherlight sticks (one for Gabe and one for me). I would think you could get by with an 18” stick, though it may be a tad more unwieldy handling it in the tree.

Got ya. I figured there was a reason for using the short stick. I think I'll go with 12 also.

@@StaggsintheWild what stick are you using

@@Kipp.Carter ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CX6kVfkR4bI.html

It's one of those things where you just have to decide for yourself how much redundancy do you want or feel you need in everything? I don't back up a Kong Duck either when using it to hold me at hunting height ... or a Ropeman or CT RollNLock. If you DO decide to back it up, do so with some sort of autoblock-type knot ABOVE the Safeguard, as the instructions (PI) clearly warn against doing so BELOW it.

@@StaggsintheWild I agree. I’m just saying all the videos on this method no one backs it up. It is a mechanical device. There is more to it than the ropeman, Kong or roll n lock. Which increases the chance of failure. Just my thoughts....

@@jcarter2575 There's actually less to a Safeguard than there is all those other mechanical ascenders mentioned above, as they all have internal springs that probably need to be inspected periodically... the Safeguard just works pretty much on a leverage principle, binding the rope through a very sharp turn -- that's really all pulling the handle is doing: UNbinding the rope. It's also the reason using a rope "in spec" with the diameter it calls or is important... I'm not saying you should NOT back it up; if you feel safer doing so, then by all means -- do so. We take risks every time we leave the ground and climb a tree, and each of us have to decide what we're comfortable with.

It's a scaffold knot... I give very detailed instructions on how to tie it in this follow-up video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5iDtdKPyh8M.html

Petzl's recommended loading axis for the delta and the oval link are exactly the same.

Scott said he thought it was 22"

He did, and so did I on Gabe's and my platforms when we got them in... I did it like I was serving a peep in, and so far it's held very well. Helps if you happen to slip off the side of the platform with the sole of your boot; sometimes, those lugs on your soles can catch and "pop" when you least want them to...

Just regular 550 paracord.

Great question, and one that we've discussed much on the forums/FB pages... You could just go slower and move the tether up with you as you went. Another option (albeit more unwieldly) would be to use the lineman's belt during your climb.

Actually, a quick link is the preferred method by rock climbers and mountaineers.... carabiners aren't rated to handle side-loading like that; quick links are. That's why it's being used in this application. Thanks for watching and good luck in your pursuits! :)

Ok thank you for the clarification, will definitely have to try this

To build the actual stick ... I ended up contacting DanO and he cut me down a couple of his new Ultralight sticks. Should get those in today.

Scott has a few different ropes he employs in conjunction with his one-sticking; most of them are 8MM, but he has had them slip on him ... a couple of times pretty badly. He advised us against ordering 8MM ourselves because of that fact, and in talking to him just a couple days ago about it, he said he was about to order some 9MM Canyon rope because of it.

Watch around the 4:10 mark of this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xYgf1Xe6HyM.html

@@StaggsintheWild I sure will. Didn't make it to that one yet

You absolutely can and a bunch of folks do.

@@StaggsintheWild thanks!

Thanks! It was my intent to show how easy this method actually is, because I scoffed at the concept any time my buddy Scott talked about it prior to him showing it to me in person. I did it myself for the first time last night (took a while for our gear to come in ... ) and it’s SO freaking easy!! Plus, rappelling out of the tree was fun! And a lot safer and quicker, too!

We didn't weigh all of Scott's stuff... only his one-stick/platform combo -- which was just shy of 2 lbs. Add in the 40'-long rope, the pull-down rope (which honestly couldn't weigh like 3 ozs.), the Madrock and even a bag of 5 squirrel steps to be able to compliment the little platform at the top and I bet you're under or right at 5 lbs of gear to get up a tree and hunt at whatever height you wanted.

#truth 😂

It’s a custom-built stick with an Out On A Limb Solo Scout attached to the top ... a complete materials list is in the description.

I actually clip it just BEHIND the scaffold knot onto the main line; it seems to break everything free easier from there.

@@StaggsintheWild thanks, bit what keeps is from sliding off the tag end? Is there a stopper knot behind the scaffold knot? Sorry if that's a dumb question.

@@Toddicus2914 not a dumb question. You don’t need anything behind it because all you’re wanting to do is “break” the rope loose … once you pull it away from the tree, it’ll either fall to the ground or you’ll be able to pull the tag end through the quick link if it’s over a limb. It just works 😊

I have two follow-up videos to this one on my channel that will help you, one called “We got our gear!” and the other is called “One-sticking: the details”. Both should answer all your questions.

So am I looking at this right? The one stick as seen is like $350 plus you need the repel system which is $160? Is that correct?

@@toby4132 Let me make it easy for you: Here's a package that has everything in it needed to rappel with... doublesteps.com/product/one-stick-rappel-kit/ And here's the Ultimate One Stick we use ... doublesteps.com/product/ultimate-one-stick/ Our sticks are 12", we use a flat Scout, a two-step aider, and you'll need two standoffs on the stick. Those are the choices you'll have to select on the page to buy exactly what we use.

@@StaggsintheWild so the two together are approximately $320.

I use just a normal TX5 pouch and it holds 40’ of rope, my carabiner and Madrock Safeguard ... plus 40’ of Dynaglide and a small carabiner I have on it with no problem.

@@StaggsintheWild thanks just ordered one.

Wear a good headlamp and it should be just as easy as it is in the daytime. 😊

It's actually C-IV Canyon Rope, which is 9 mm... that way, it's in spec to be used with the Madrock Safeguard. Scott said he HAS had the Oplux slip slightly on him before in a Madrock, so that's why he started using the Canyon Rope. doublesteps.com/product/sterling-c-iv-canyon-rope/

I will check it out. Thanks for the quick response!

We’re all saddle hunters ... so what you’re seeing are tree saddles, not harnesses like you’d see with a traditional fall-arrest harness that treestand guys use. Both Gabe and I wear TX5 saddles, and Scott makes his own saddles.

12”

Believe it or not, he still climbs & hunts out of Crocs until early November when he finally has to switch to boots, lol

He’s doing it right. Love the crocs!

Nah. Age is just a number ... Scott’s close to 50. 😁

Don’t limit yourself. I’m 60.

Super-simple solution: I just rappel down and pick it up 😂 Or … I can do this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9pZxma4aWcY.html

It’s a Scout by Out On A Limb ... all parts and materials are linked in the description, and we have a follow-up video on this channel where we order our own parts and build our own sticks.

If you did, you'd just rappel down in about 5 seconds, pick it up and start over. :)

Gotcha.

This was my first concern when looking at the links he provided to build the stick. The micro cam is a little light weight. I'm 200 lbs without clothes and gear.

His website is doublesteps.com. Lots of cool products on his site!

@@StaggsintheWild do by chance a any coupon codes

@@304deerslayer I don't have anything to do with Eastern Woods Outdoors... I'm not sure if he offers any coupon codes or not. I really don't ever recall seeing any...

Way, way less weight and bulk. My complete one-sticking setup including ropes and carabiners is less than 6 pounds. Add in my saddle and I’m still way less than 10 lbs. Add your tether and your safety harness to your climbing stand and you’re at LEAST twice that - with the most extreme lightweight stand available -and WAY more bulk. I can get in any tree I want ... no matter if it has branches, split trunks, whatever ... doesn’t matter. Now I’m hunting EXACTLY where I want to instead of possibly hunting for a straight, limbless tree that might not be in the best location. And - like Scott says - I get to play Batman on the way down. 😎

Eastern Woods Outdoors Ultimate One Stick

Scott custom-built his ... complete materials list in the description. We just got all our product in this afternoon and we’ll be shooting a video describing what we ordered and showing assembly. Subscribe and stay tuned!

Carl, hopefully you would never expect me to utter a snide comment and I'll be honest -- I won't stand for it in the comments section of my channel, either. Everything you see in this video should work for you -- with the exception of the cam cleats that Scott uses. I am editing a new video right now that I'll have up on this channel in the next few days showing Gabe assembling our new one-sticking sticks -- and I talk about how we went to a heavier-rated cleat as opposed to the one featured in this video. The cleat we use on our sticks are Shaefer cleats and are located here... doublesteps.com/product/schaefer-fast-entry-cam-cleat/ There are even heavier-rated cleats than that, I believe... These are rated to a 500-lb safe working load: www.westmarine.com/buy/schaefer--fast-entry-cam-cleats--P006725576

@@StaggsintheWild wasn't directing that part at you. I do appreciate you thinking of us bigger guys. I am looking forward to this new video.

Do me a favor and watch the first few minutes of this video... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5BwQAJ_EAeE.html ... and then tell me what's so hard about hanging lifeless by a rope, exerting ZERO calorie burn. Literally... you HANG limp. You reach down, remove a rope from a cam cleat and place it over your head and climb up the aider and stick. Someone with four sticks and aiders will have to do the exact same thing, with WAY more weight and bulk, AND they have to worry about keeping all those different metal tubes from clanging into one another or something else. I have ONE 12' stick that's always in my complete control. But if you think carrying four sticks is easier, be my guest... :)

😂😂

😆

How much and how used are they?

Lots of guys do just that! 👍

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CX6kVfkR4bI.html Tune in tomorrow morning and I’ll have a video up of a brand-new platform/stick offering from Eastern Woods Outdoors as well.

Unless you weigh more than 5,750 lbs, it’s a non-concern. 😉

@@StaggsintheWild I’m also referring to the straps attached to the platform. Those are bound to go to snap city. What brand would you buy? Is tethered good?

@@James-pl4dw if the strap to the platform breaks, you’re still tethered in with your rappel line … that strap holding the platform onto the tree is full-bury 3/8” Amsteel. That means the rope has been doubled inside itself … just one of those ropes has a minimum breaking strength of 17,600 lbs. Doubled you’re looking at somewhere around 35,000 lbs. Yeah, we’re not worried about our gear not being able to support us 😁 As far as saddles go, we’re big believers in TX5 custom gear. (TX5customgear.com)