Canada · field safety

Tree Stand Safety

By Hunters Guide. Checked against the Tree Stand Safety Awareness Foundation and CCOHS sources on September 22, 2026.

Falls, not firearms, are what put hunters who hunt from height in hospital. A full body harness worn from the ground up and back down again, on a lifeline, removes almost all of that risk for the cost of a few seconds.

Every climb runs in the same four steps.

1. Harness on at the truck. Fitted, not loose.
2. Clip in at the base, before your feet leave the ground.
3. Gear up on the rope. Bow or firearm comes up on a haul line, never in your hand.
4. Unclip when both boots are on the dirt, and not a moment sooner.

Every climb, including the short sit you almost skipped.

A full body harness is not a belt

A full body harness is a set of webbing that wraps your shoulders, chest and thighs. It spreads the force of a fall across your whole skeleton, and it holds you roughly upright afterwards. A belt is a single strap around the waist or chest.

That's not a detail. A belt folds your whole weight and the arresting force through one narrow band across your middle. Then it leaves you hanging in a position that compresses your chest.

A harness catches you through the thighs and shoulders and keeps your airway open. A belt isn't a harness. And a harness wants to be worn fitted, because loose webbing means a longer fall and more force through whatever catches you.

The lifeline, and why you stay connected the whole time

A lifeline is a rope running from the base of the tree to above your stand, with a sliding knot or device on it. Your tether stays clipped from the moment you leave the ground until you are back on it. Without one there's a gap: you climb unattached, then clip in at the top.

That gap is where it happens. The climb, the step onto the platform, standing up after four cold hours, and the climb down in the dark are when people come off. The foundation gives the sequence as an alphabet, short enough for five in the morning: "Buckle your full-body harness securely." Then "Connect to the tree before your feet leave the ground and slow down."

Keep the tether short enough to be caught standing rather than dangling.

What does three points of contact mean on the climb?

Three points of contact means two hands and a foot, or two feet and a hand. They stay on the ladder or the tree at every moment you are moving. CCOHS states it for ladders in exactly those words: "Maintain three-point contact by keeping two hands and one foot, or two feet and one hand on a ladder always."

Three points on the tree leaves no hand free for a bow, a rifle or a pack, and that is deliberate rather than an inconvenience.

Getting your bow or firearm into the stand

A haul line is a light cord you tie to your gear on the ground. You climb without it, then pull it up once you are in the stand and connected. CCOHS says the same of any climb: "Do not carry tools or materials in your hand while climbing." Instead, "Rise or lower tools and materials using a hoist, hand-line, bucket or other device."

A firearm goes up unloaded, action open, muzzle pointed away from you and from the climb, with the line tied so it hangs that way instead of swinging. A bow goes up with the broadheads covered, given how sharp they are meant to be, as our bowhunting basics guide explains.

Suspension trauma, and why a relief strap exists

Suspension trauma is what happens to a body hanging motionless in a harness, and it is why being caught is only half of surviving: "Suspension trauma, also known as orthostatic intolerance, occurs when a worker is suspended."

The mechanism is circulation: "the pressure from their body weight against the harness will result in the blood pooling in their legs. As a result, there will be less blood (and oxygen) available to the brain, kidneys or other organs." And the clock is short: "This trauma can occur in minutes and death may occur in less than 30 minutes."

Hence the suspension relief strap. CCOHS notes that "a relief strap or a loop tied to the harness that a worker can put their feet into may help relieve the pressure." Stand in the loop, take the weight off the leg straps, keep the blood moving. Keep it where you can reach it one handed, and know before you climb how you would get back to the stand or down.

Why falls are the thing to worry about in a stand

A tree stand fall is a drop from hunting height onto ground, rocks or your own equipment. It fills the hunting trauma statistics. Most are not freak events. They are ordinary lapses at a predictable moment.

The Tree Stand Safety Awareness Foundation publishes the number that settles the argument: "99% of falls victims were not attached at the time". And "86% of fall victims didn't wear a harness".

That is not a hazard you accept in exchange for hunting high. It has a cheap, boring answer that most of the people it hurt were not using.

Why inspect straps and stands before every season?

Inspection is a deliberate look at every strap, rope, cable, weld, pin and buckle before the stand carries you again. Webbing degrades outdoors: sunlight breaks the fibres down, freeze and thaw works at them, and squirrels chew what is left.

A stand left hanging for a year isn't the stand you hung. A strap can look fine and have lost much of its strength, because ultraviolet damage happens inside the fibre rather than as visible fraying. Fading, stiffness, chalkiness or any cut mean replace it, do not judge it. The foundation opens its alphabet with this for a reason: "Always remove and inspect all your equipment, practice at ground level." It also reports that "35% of falls involved inspection elements".

How ladder stands and climbing stands fail differently

A ladder stand is a fixed platform with its own ladder, put up once and left in the tree. A climbing stand is a two piece unit you carry in and inch up the trunk. They fail differently.

With a ladder stand the risk sits in installation. Raising a heavy section is a job for more than one person. The top straps have to be cinched properly. And it has to sit against a solid trunk, with no lean that lets it twist. Then it weathers all year, which is why inspection matters most for a stand you leave out.

With a climbing stand the risk is the climb. The tree has to be straight, sound and free of limbs, and both sections have to bite every cycle. Losing the bottom section is the classic climber accident, so tether it to yourself before you start up.

Who should know where your stand is and when you will be back?

Somebody at home needs the location of the stand you are actually sitting in, not just the general area, along with when you expect to be out and who to call if you are not. That is the D in the alphabet: "Destination: share your stand location for each hunt", because "In an emergency, every minute counts".

Carry a charged phone or radio on your body, in a zipped pocket. A phone in a pack six metres below you is not a phone you have.

Why first and last light catch people out

The first and last half hour of shooting light is when hunters climb in the dark, in a hurry, with cold hands. It's where shortcuts happen. You're late, so you skip the lifeline. The light goes, so you unclip early.

Your body works against you too. Cold fingers fumble buckles, low light hides a worn strap, and your eyes take longer to adjust than you think, which we go into in hunter fitness and vision. Add an animal in the trail at dusk and you get a hunter standing up fast on a small platform.

So build the habit until it stops being a decision. The four steps at the top of this page are the whole of it, and they take seconds. Dark and cold is exactly when you want them already automatic.

Questions about tree stand safety

Is a safety belt the same thing as a full body harness?

No. A belt catches you at one narrow band around the waist or chest and leaves your weight hanging on it. A full body harness spreads the load across shoulders, chest and thighs, and it holds you in a position you can survive being held in.

When should you be connected to the tree?

From the ground up and back down again. The Tree Stand Safety Awareness Foundation puts it as connect to the tree before your feet leave the ground and slow down, and reports that 99% of fall victims were not attached at the time.

What is suspension trauma?

CCOHS calls it orthostatic intolerance. Hanging motionless in a harness lets blood pool in the legs, so less blood and oxygen reach the brain and organs. CCOHS says the trauma can occur in minutes and death may occur in less than 30 minutes.

Should you climb with your bow or firearm in your hand?

No. Send it up on a haul line once you are in the stand and connected. CCOHS gives the same rule for ladders, saying not to carry tools or materials in your hand while climbing, and to raise or lower them with a hoist or hand line instead.

How often should tree stand straps be inspected?

Before every season, and again before you climb. Webbing and rope left in the weather lose strength to sunlight, moisture and freeze and thaw cycles, and animals chew them. The Tree Stand Safety Awareness Foundation advises removing and inspecting all your equipment.