I recently did a lot of research for the lightest climber I could find that still had good reviews. I narrowed it down to a X-Stand and the Summit Open Shot. I needed a lightweight stand for hunting public lands and hiking distances to my locations to hunt. After months of reading and looking, I bought the Summit Open Shot. It takes a bit of getting used to (where to position your elbows and such) while climbing, but after test-climbing several trees on our farm with it, I was pretty comfortable with climbing with it. Its safe and sturdy, grips the tree very well and with a little upper-body strength, aint that bad to climb with. I'm going to try the webbing/old safety belt loop mod on the end of the seat portion for a sit-climb soon and see how that works out for me. Overall, its really light weight (for a climbing treestand), packs together fine (with a little practice on how to nestle them together), and is as quiet as you make it. I found using a short cam strap joining the seat to the platform once in your desired position really makes it rock-solid to the tree. Always tether the sections to each other while climbing with a decent section of rope. The little bungee type cord tether that came with it is junk, toss it and replace with a better section of rope. I also gave mine a camo paint job, I think it looks much better now and will blend in with foliage. Good luck with your choice and hope you christen it with a nice buck this season!