I have not tried a pole with the Houdini Maverick. I will put this on my list of things to try. But as I think about it, after rappel and exploding the Maverick from the ground, wouldn't the carabiner simply fall down on ya? And possibly get lost or hit you?

@@jrbtc tested at ground level with a larger carabiner and upon release the carabiner stays on the rope, so it slid down and fell with/ on the rope, will play with it more. What happened my first climb was that the Maverick tightened up, locking loop and all so at hunting height I did leave the carabiner in as my weight was on the hitch, didn’t want to attempt to loosen the hitch to remove the carabiner and my locking loop was pulled in tight too with the retrieval/working end of my rope still within it, so just rappelled down safely, and pulled on the retrieval cord which did cause slack in the hitch loop around the tree, the hitch pulled out from the tree and slid/fell on down, no real problem. I used a non climbing small carabiner as the Houdini carabiner, maybe a larger climbing carabiner would be easier to work out of the hitch at hunting stand height, but since you mentioned it no need to remove it. Installation was nice with the Houdini carabiner, hmm just thought of putting the retrieval cord directly on the Houdini carabiner, so I have a couple of things to test, good for off season due diligence, also just breaking in this new 11 mm Samson Predator rope, it is slick but ties the Maverick nicely, feels good in hand, also breaking in new 8mm Samson cord, good color combo black cord woodland camo rope, the Samson 8mm is slick but grabs and breaks good using compact 5-2-3 with a 34 mm anchor ring on bridge and soft bridge 5-2-3 on permanent foot loop, liking this SRT rig , just playing with the Houdini . Will make sure to enlarge the locking loop and maybe tie a very short small cord on the Houdini carabiner attached to the rope and stand back fin the tree a little cautious of the carabiner. Glad you gave me that feedback, no need to remove the Houdini carabiner, will leave it but make a way to keep it in place safely on the rope with a short cord maybe, somewhat like the cord on a ring with the JRB cinch? No wouldn’t want to get dinged in the eye or head after a hunt that’s for sure!👍

@@jrbtc ok been playing around with the Houdini rigging, for pole hitch climbing specifically, turns out simple is always better ! So I just replaced the Houdini carabiner with the upward prong of my pole rope hook, a modified paint roller bent onto an S, the S being sideways when the pole is held vertical, so that S is effectively two hooks, the prong for pushing the bend of the S for pulling, my only little problem has been that at around 20 feet up, maximum extension , the weight of the rope, (11mm Predator) and it is fairly slick compared to my DSRT rope (8mm Resc Tech) tend to tighten the loop of the Maverick around the tree prematurely, it seems that tightening the hitch before sending it up is the remedy and the hook in the Houdini position seems to help keep the hitch dressed and tight. With the hook in the locking loop and rope the hitch seems to loosen and lose its correct geometry resulting in a jam when my weight is applied.

Cool. Like i said in the video, i like to think i have fully explored what I can do with the jrb climbing system and now I do realize it's completely feasible to climb this way. However, that is not to imply that we can't do better if we rigged a dedicated system specifically for this type of climbing. And I look forward to working on that and my guess is that you will prefer it if ya know you're going to climb this way.

Thx brother. All my methods have a low wear profile compared to MRS or methods with mechanical devices. And a 'season' for one climber could be a lot different than another. But from prior experience, I went 4 seasons on a single rope and only retired it because it was getting old relative to the manufacturer recommendations, not because it wasn't passing inspection. I put another rope in and used it 4 seasons. And so that's a fair number. Friction hitches i replaced seasonally. In general, I would say to go with the manufacturer recommendations, as well as execute regular inspections, looking for deformities or sheath damage.

@@jrbtc good to know👍 im really digging this method to add to the arsenal.

Well i do have an improvement coming. I built a system which is optimized for hitch climbing. The rope can be shorter, say 40ft. It uses a retrieval line. It doesn't use the garda footloop. And it is less complex.

@@jrbtc will it be like drt where you use a blakes hitch and pull yourself up while pushing the hitch up?

@@tommydansby5481 no. It's an improvement to the JRB Hitch Climbing method. See the two vids on that playlist and then think about how to make it better.

@@jrbtc thank you. I have watched them. I will have to really analyze them because I don't see it getting much better than that. I am still new to climbing a tree to hunt from. I grew up on ladder stands. I love to climb with your system on a single rope. I am getting ready to do it with 90 foot of rope so I climb with both sides. I probably won't buy a single stick because you will have something better. I sold my sticks but I have a ton of pine trees in South Mississippi so I will need a quiet and easier way to climb than with a stick.

There's several options. 1. If we are building a system explicitly for Hitch Climbing, then yes, I am recommending 4 JRB Ascender Hitches: 2 on each end and providing hold such that we climb towards the END of the rope. (That's the opposite of the hitches in my doubled rope method.) The hitch closest to the end is the one that connects to our bridge. Ideally, it is a Compact, non jamming Ascender Hitch. And i feel it's best to leave the carabiner on the hitch and clip our bridge to it. This elimintes the chance of us putting the carabiner in the small loops incorrectly, as they can jostle around in handling. The next JRBAH is for our footloop. And we have options for how to rig it. My dedicated Hitch Climbing system uses Compact, Non Jamming JRBAH which are fixed onto a Rappel ring. The rappel ring has a loop of webbing in it. Everything is tied in; nothing can be dropped or fall off. Ok, now note that it's still possible to build ONE system that we can use for BOTH the Doubled rope method and hitch climbing. That system will be described soon, as i am still doing testing.

Tommy, i don't own that particular rope but have tied TRC on 9mm and 8mm ropes with good results. Buying a couple different hitch cords is a fairly inexpensive proposition and sometimes i will tie and test two different cords in a side by side test and see which i like better on a particular rope.

I don't have a video yet on my "false crotch" design but its really just a Carabiner which is affixed to the tree via a web sling in a running girth hitch.

This is a good question. When i climb DSRT or SRT, i just use my climbing rope to pull up my bow. But when hitch climbing, we use each end of our rope in an alternating fashion and so we can't have a bow attached to the end. It's best to have a separate pull up rope. In terms of it getting tangled, what i do is set my gear line directly behind me and i operate my hitch climbing system on the left and right side.

@@jrbtc ah, that makes sense. I sent you a PM on saddle hunter figuring that you’d be less likely to see all the comments here. But I’d like to see the 40’ rope alternative of this if you’ve done it.

@wurdwalkupridedown7829 Yes, the technique has evolved and the rope length determines how high we can go. With 40ft of rope, assuming the tree is of 5ft in diameter, we can get our tie in at about as high as 30ft and our feet to about 25 ft. I owe you an update and will get a new video up asap. But here's a summary, and ya can use my website and channel to locate all the details: Using a Pole to set Maverick hitch greatly extends the height of each move. If we don't have a pole, a Saddle Hunters Hitch still works. In terms of the system, the friction hitches have been reversed in direction so that we climb towards the end of the line. In terms of friction hitches, the JRB ascender or Longhorn Agile work. In terms of footing, the Garda works if shortened OR we can make dedicated footloops from friction on one or both sides.

If its news worthy of spreading, it will spread. Thx.