Low-Impact Food Hoists

Single-Tree Techniques

The simplest way to suspend your food is to throw a rope or cord over a stout limb 15 to 20 feet high and at least 4 feet out from the tree trunk. Tie your backpack or food sack to one end, and haul away. Getting the rope over the tree limb is not always easy. Parachute cord or braided Dacron, used by itself or tied to a larger diameter haul rope, is easy to throw when a rock in a sock or mesh bag is tied to the end. Be careful that the rock does not hit someone!

This technique is suitable for lightweight loads, 20 to 50 pounds. Minimal equipment is needed. Hauling the rope is tough on hands, especially if just parachute cord is used. Wear gloves! The abrasion from some ropes also damages tree limbs. This method offers no mechanical advantage, and the friction of pulling the rope over the limb makes it 30 to 50 percent more difficult to lift the load.

It is often difficult to find a tree with a stout enough limb to support the load, especially in lodgepole pine country. If the load ends up closer than 4 feet to the tree trunk, try attaching a second cord to the load and throwing the other end over a limb in a nearby tree, which is then used to pull the suspended load at least 4 feet away from the tree trunk (Figure 8).

All ropes should be tied off to trees as high as possible, at least at eye level, to keep bears, other animals, and humans from getting tangled.

Adding A Single Pulley Block

Adding a single pulley block to the single-tree system makes a big difference in the ease of lifting loads because the friction of pulling over tree branches is reduced and abrasion damage to branches is eliminated. More weight, 50 to 100 pounds, can be lifted, depending on the strength of the branch, the hardware used, and the person doing the lifting.

To use this technique (Figure 9), first throw a light line over the tree branch, as described previously. Tie your light line to a strong support line with a block attached to the end. Thread a separate load haul line through the pulley. Pull the support line, with load haul line attached, up to the branch, and tie it off to the tree trunk. Attach your load to one end of the haul line and pull the other end to lift it into the air. Tie this rope off to a tree to keep the load suspended.

Again, finding the right tree with a stout enough branch is often a problem. Another weak link in this system is not having the pulley securely fastened to the tree branch, but rather draped over it and tied off to the trunk. No mechanical advantage is provided with a single block, but it is possible to add any of the devices described earlier to the haul line to provide mechanical advantage.