Same here, I'm hooked to the rope going up AND coming down. I fell out of a tree when I was about 11 or 12 and have never been able to shake that feeling of helplessness in a tree.That's why I have been wearing a HSS harness for years.
I switched to a ladder stand last year after breaking my leg in Aug. 2015, the climber I had was too hard to use anymore. But, I've used a HSS harness for I don't even know how long, got the whole outfit climbing rope and all. I take the rope first time up and for the rest of the season I clip to it before I take the first step up that ladder, when I get to my seat I clip to the strap on the tree with the carabiner and stay that way till time to climb down and get clipped back to the rope to get down. I'm probably going to sell the stand though, it's gotten to be too hard on the leg I broke to go up & down the ladder. Lucky for me I can still just sit on the porch or back deck at my son's house where I hunt, the deer pass by usually twice a day no more than 20-25 yards away. Sometimes within 10 yds.I use a ladder stand to hunt from. It is not very portable on the fly but it feels good having something on the ground keeping you steady