No photo or video was taken, because the task itself was quite enough for 3 people…

No photo or video was taken, because the task itself was quite enough for 3 people.
And this task was “merely” moving from the tree stand 18m from the feeder to a spot 8m up in a beautiful old alder tree with a trunk a fathom thick, located 7m further away.
It’s worth mentioning that the rigid, knobbed steel cable of the Summit Viper Pro SD climbing stand is sized for only one trunk diameter optimized for the toothed tree bracket (Tree diameter range: 8″-20″, i.e., a 20-50cm trunk diameter).
Well, this alder, with its nearly 1m diameter, is considerably thicker than what could be considered ideal.
For this reason, I replaced the factory steel cable with a Petzl Zillon work-positioning lanyard, for securing both the platform and the seat frame.
This work-positioning lanyard is a 3m-long, static 12mm braided Dyneema rope that is “soft,” and you have to make sure that during positioning and adjusting the stand, it sits exactly as it should — all with one hand, since it’s proper to be holding on with the other at the same time 🙂
That’s one struggle; the other is that because of the spread of the toothed tree bracket, with a trunk this size only its tip would reach the trunk.
And that is by far not a safe, stable solution.
This also needed remedying, namely with small notches, mini steps, cut with a one-handed arborist’s chainsaw for the toothed tree bracket of the stand’s platform.
Once the platform was in place and its angle was right, anchoring it followed.
After pulling it tight to the trunk with a ratchet strap, the platform was finally rock solid against the trunk.
Securing the seat frame is a somewhat easier operation, since by then you can do it while standing on this solid base.
Here, though, I had to pay close attention that, alongside the correct seat height, the plane of the seat and platform and the vertical centerline all lined up.
This means a bit of fiddling, but it’s worth the effort.
Once everything looked good, all that remained was “pulling” the seat frame level with the safety and retaining straps.
Setting up the stand took over an hour.

Besides all this, of course the problem of vertical movement also had to be solved, since I won’t just be using this stand once, but probably many more times over the coming year.

The question arises: why was all this necessary in the first place?

I noticed that, on the one hand, the trail the game takes to the feeder runs right next to, almost directly under, this current sprawling old alder, and this is how they approach the feeder.
This spot is 7m further back and one and a half meters higher than my previous stand.
So if the wind blows from the feeder toward me, it carries the scent right behind me, toward the path the game uses.
And here, all this happens from 8m up, above the animals’ heads.
So the scent that a person carries with him, even with the greatest care, will be dispersed by the wind much further back.
The other important point is that I simply felt the feeder, at 18m from the stand, was too close.
I concluded this from observing the nervous reactions of the game arriving at the feeder.
Based on quite a few years of practical experience, in my humble opinion 25m is exactly the distance that falls outside the range where scent, noise, and the sense of being seen become an issue.
It really seemed to me, with a lot of wary, experienced game, that they have some sense we don’t know about, but which exists nonetheless.
Just as we somehow sense that we’re being watched, they sense it too, but far more distinctly.
At a distance of 25m, though, I haven’t experienced this.
The current lighting setup’s control range is also around 30m, so 25m is perfect.
During the day, this 25m isn’t a great distance at all for a bow shot, and it’s still well within the ethical shooting range of 35m-40m.
At night, however, under severely limited visibility, it’s just barely adequate for me.

With the stand moved 7-8m further back, I’ll also have a considerably better view of the surrounding open woodland.

I was planning to sit out again at this new spot on the 25th.
If I get the chance and I’m in the mood, I’ll take a few photos of this new stand.