I picked up my first climbing stand yesterday, it's a gorilla, wolverine climbing stand I got it from a guy that only used it twice, i set it up on a pine in the front yard and started going up, tried to adjust the foot platform cable and it got away from me, luckily I was only 5 foot off the ground, it was attached to the top by a strap, so it didn't go to the ground but I got down anyway and re- did it. I did grab a real harness and lanyard from the garage and went back up with a little more confidence and security, I got about 12 foot up and sat down. These stands are really cool and pretty safe if safety is on your mind imo. Can't wait to put it to use out in the woods.