Thank you for the reply. I was being half facetious. With respect to jungle penetrator sounding like your friend, I won't go down that path. Here is the real thing, though. Jungle (or Forest) Penetrator. (Be sure to click on "SAR." I was in a FAC outfit...forward air controler.) (You can also click on "aircraft" in left margin of page. We flew O-2's at day and OV-10's at night. 24 hour mission of the outfit.) http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~tpilsch/AirOps/sar-penetrator.html In addition, in Vietnam, if an airman parachuted into and got hung up at canopy level of a tree, he had his own personal lowering device in his survival vest made of a nylon strap tightly wound up. He would take the free end out of the vest pocket and wrap it around a suitable limb (it had a hook on the end for attachment) and lower himself down. (He wore flight gloves.)
Seems like it is strong enough. But as a kid I built a few tree houses (just platforms) and wind action/tree movement would inevitably bring them down after a few years. Granted my building skills at 12yo were not that great, but does your design allow tree movement from storms and other severe wind events? IOW without loosening bolts and supports, etc.