Originally Posted by
angrysparrow
I put a lot of thought into that, too. The weight of long huggers can render the weight savings of switching to Whoopie Slings a zero sum game if you carry ones that are too long. But, if you go too short they become less useful.
As a starting point, I keep sewn loops on both ends of the huggers. That adds versatility in many situations.
I worked with 6 foot huggers for a while, but found them to be longer than needed for many hangs. After much debate, I changed to 4 foot huggers and I've been happy with that so far. 4 feet is adequate for most hangs, and short enough to be lightweight. When I need to 'extend one' beyond 4 feet, I keep a simple piece of 6 foot long Amsteel (with an eye splice in each end) that I attach to the hugger I need to lengthen via a lark's head method with the loops. Then, I just use some twigs between the Amsteel and the tree (ala Rope Tree Huggers method). I tend to let the Amsteel end of the hugger be the end that drapes down to have the marlinspike hitch tied in it.
That might sound clunky, but I'm very happy with it's ease...and even more so with it's weight.