Climbing stick straps

[TOLeary]

Cam or no cam on the climbing stick strap? What’s your go to?

 

[Kobudo]

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[LCsmith]

Ropes

 

[WCB]

Cam

 

[*zap*]

Cam buckle on straps. Chinese finger knot on rope steps.

 

[TOLeary]

Thanks fellas. Cams make more sense to me. I’ve used both but don’t have a streamlined system. Was curious to see what your thoughts were

 

[TN2shot07]

I used the tethrd versa straps last season for my sticks, dropping the weight of those buckles was nice

 

[Macintosh]

I use amsteel daisy chains on my light sticks and like them a lot. IIRC I lost about 1.5+ pounds (which is 25% of the weight of the full set of sticks) compared to the camlock straps by doing this, they take up much less room in my kit, as well as being quieter. I've found them to work easily and reliably over the past 2 seasons, and would buy the same thing again if I had a need. I also have a set of lone wolf sticks that I used to use 8mm cord with before I had the daisies--I dont know how to describe it but the cord is sized so if you crank it under itself in the versa button, it locks in place. Also quiet and lighter than cam buckles, but more fiddly and doesnt save much/any room over the cam buckles--once set it's very secure though, sets much more like a cam buckle strap. camlock buckles are easy and very secure, but for me the advantages of my other systems outweigh that (no pun intended).

re: the video--I havent seen the need for something like this. I always use a linemans cord when climbing up/down so even if a stick kicked out I dont think I'm in danger of serious injury. I also dont love the way that guys does that--dyneema/spectra (which is what amsteel is) has an extremely low melting point and cuts into itself even more than nylon does--so friction from running back through itself to tighten will significantly weaken it over time since that wear will be concentrated at specific points on the material. It's also extremely slippery and does not hold knots well, so I personally would prefer to rely on the loop over a versa button rather than any knot. In my former life I used to work for a manufacturer of climbing equipment and have done quite a bit of testing on various materials uses in applications similar to this, so this jumped out at me. It doesnt have to hold much more than body weight so it may not be an issue in most cases, but if you are worried about safety with the dyneema daisies, to me this danger seems every bit as-likely as getting hurt from a stick kicking out.

 

[Ouachita Walker]

Amsteel Daisey chain on shikar sticks. Those sticks bite a tree well. Ivthinkvthats why I don't have issues with kick out.

 

[Bkelly]

Amsteel seems like the go to now.

 

[TheBootBowhunting]

A lot of it depends on the stick. LWCG doubles, I prefer rope mods. LWCG minis I prefer the 3/4" buckless straps - I dont feel like safety is compromised at all using those. With the novix double step minis and the old lone wolf full size steps Ill just use the cam buckles, mostly because I leave those in the tree for a while on private land and im not concerned about weight.

All things equal, the cam buckles are the easiest and hard to mess up, usually come with the sticks, but also are easily the heaviest. 5 1/2 times heavier than the rope mods. The others just take some practice figuring out how to tie them and which works best for which stick.

 

[Kroach]

Switch to Amsteel daisy chains from cam buckles. I don't have any concerns with the switch. I feel its just as safe. Quite and lighter also.

 

[Yoder]

I use Amsteel ropes on my sticks and the cam straps for my stand. I just switched to the Amsteel. I like there are no metal buckles to worry about making noise. Other than that I don't see a big advantage. I'm not concerned about the weight. I think it's negligible. I'm not using daisy chains, just wrapping the rope around the versa button. If you were concerned about weight you could go with a lot smaller size Amsteel rope and use the daisy chains. I think mine are 8mm.

 

[spar84]

Eastern woods outdoors USA pro ropes with tenders. Basically two prussics/ truckers hitch setup that quickly gets steps super tight to tree. Used them all last season & im very happy with them.

 

[jeffb321]

A steel daisies. Got sick of banging cam buckles around.

 

[dr.mooseknuckles]

I've been using Tethrd Versa Straps on my Hawk Mini's for the last 3 or so seasons. No complaints with them and they're still solid. Looking to try some one-sticking, so I'll be interested in how they do for that. May go back to a cam buckle for speed.

 

[Swamp Fox]

Can

Eastern woods outdoors USA pro ropes with tenders. Basically two prussics/ truckers hitch setup that quickly gets steps super tight to tree. Used them all last season & im very happy with them.

Would you mind posting a link? I didn't spend lots of time, but I didn't see this when I went over there.

Thanks.

 

[Szwampdonkey]

Amsteel rope mod. Not daisy chains as i found those can be a pain sometimes compared to just cinching the amsteel under itself and the button then wrapping it a few times. They don’t budge at all with the Amsteel/Rope mod.

 

[Swamp Fox]

Can

Would you mind posting a link? I didn't spend lots of time, but I didn't see this when I went over there.

Thanks.

Never mind. Found it on the third try by accident. This was under a tab I wouldn't have expected. There's a good video here, too.

USA – Ultimate Stick/Stand Attachment

The new and improved USA! *Please allow up to a few days for these as we are getting these direct from the Amsteel Guy now The new USA features comes in four options and are as follows. USA STICK &…

doublesteps.com

 

[ffiivvee]

Cam cleat and Amsteel rope for me. Before I got the cam cleat I was one sticking with a daisy chain and before that I was using a versa strap….I’d rather climb using chewed bubble gum that’s been left on a dashboard in the Texas heat than use versa straps again.

They were just such a pain in the ass to use for me. They held just fine but I always seemed to be in between two loops so that was always fun. Plus I’m in NY so that pesky thing we have called winter made them even less fun as soon as it got cold/snowy. The dexterity in the fingers went down and thus the ability to even get on a loop tanked as well.


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