That reminds me of a group trip to the North Cascades 20-some years ago. On the way in, we saw 2 bear, about 2 miles apart. The trip leader insisted it was the same bear following us on the far side of the creek. He never saw the first bear, which disappeared before he got there, so how did he know? Anyway, the leader insisted we do a group food hang. So 10 people's food bags (4 days each, so a fair amount of weight) were tied to a rope and two intrepid guys got the rope over a high branch and started hauling. The bags got almost to the branch when the rope broke, and down came 10 food bags! There were some bruises on the part of the rope haulers, but fortunately no serious injury. I removed my food bag (as did several others) before the broken ends of the rope were tied together for the next attempt!

And yes, our old growth Pacific NW trees do present a special problem!