I have seen the smitty sleds, keep thinking about building one. I did go to fleet farm and get one of those deer dragger harnesses, which works great. It’s a big orange harness with a rope on the back that I just tied off to my sled rope, a lot more comfortable walking long distances hands free. When you get deep snow though this will still make it easier, but a smitty will have more of an impact, both a harness and the smitty would be ideal.

I cut the leg part off of one of those cheap saftey harnesses that comes with treestands, leaving just the upper part, and attatched the tether to the sled rope, I can leave that top part of the harness on and just hook it up to the sled when i want to go, leaving hands free and makes it a lot easier to walk out long distances with less fatigue