Going up?
Tree climbing gets technical
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Sam Stowers, 15, a sophomore at Williamston High School, climbs during a workshop held at the Harris Nature Center in Okemos. Photo by John Paul / The State News |
Nathan Hartley looks down: his legs are dangling, relaxed. Beneath him stretches the bottom half of a 100-year-old Tulip Poplar tree. The children, ages eight to 15, who have joined today’s technical tree climbing lesson are below him, grunting and laughing, trying to catch up, some determined to reach the highest branches. Hartley wears only his tennis shoes, a pair of khaki shorts, tree climbing harness and t-shirt that reads, “Get High, Climb Trees.”
He swings from his rope off the second branch he’s roped, held tightly by the Blake’s hitch—a special “friction knot” that keeps him suspended. Surrounding Hartley are orange and yellow leaves that have just begun changing color, ready to fall from the far-reaching poplar limbs. Through the bright foliage he’s able to view the forest below from a unique perspective—the canopy.
Hartley is a member of Vertical Ventures, an organization that provides outdoor-based programs like rock climbing and camping. He is working with Karl Pearson, a Vertical Ventures colleague, who leads the climb. Pearson partners with youth groups to offer technical tree climbing to children with disabilities. Today he and Hartley are teaching kids from East Lansing, Mich. how to technical tree climb. Hartley has been climbing for 11 years and travels the country finding trees to climb. “My wife gets jealous,” he said, “the way I ogle trees.”
Technical tree climbing has only recently developed as a recreational activity. Vertical Ventures typically specialized in rock climbing and added tree climbing to their activities two years ago. It is usually used for utilitarian purposes. When tall trees need to be cut without falling far, for example, ropes and harnesses assist in hauling a climber with a chainsaw behind, cutting the tree in sections. Michael Hood, owner of Vertical Ventures, said scientists use technical tree climbing to study habitats that are otherwise almost inaccessible in an environmentally safe way. Now, tree-climbing harnesses are available for recreational use and designed to be more comfortable for climbers.
Pearson and Hartley lead their group through the woods at Harris Nature Center, walking single-file along a dirt path that winds toward the climbing tree. “It’s a great tree, so it’s worth the hike,” Kit Rich, who works at the nature center, assures them, halfway there. Today’s students are mostly children, though Vertical Ventures teaches adults to climb too. Some parents have come along to try the climb. After walking through a brief clearing in the woods, Pearson steps from the path, crunching leaves and weaving through saplings toward the poplar.
Nathan Hartley looks down: his legs are dangling, relaxed. Beneath him stretches the bottom half of a 100-year-old Tulip Poplar tree. The children, ages eight to 15, who have joined today’s technical tree climbing lesson are below him, grunting and laughing, trying to catch up, some determined to reach the highest branches. Hartley wears only his tennis shoes, a pair of khaki shorts, tree climbing harness and t-shirt that reads, “Get High, Climb Trees.”
He swings from his rope off the second branch he’s roped, held tightly by the Blake’s hitch—a special “friction knot” that keeps him suspended. Surrounding Hartley are orange and yellow leaves that have just begun changing color, ready to fall from the far-reaching poplar limbs. Through the bright foliage he’s able to view the forest below from a unique perspective—the canopy.
Hartley is a member of Vertical Ventures, an organization that provides outdoor-based programs like rock climbing and camping. He is working with Karl Pearson, a Vertical Ventures colleague, who leads the climb. Pearson partners with youth groups to offer technical tree climbing to children with disabilities. Today he and Hartley are teaching kids from East Lansing, Mich. how to technical tree climb. Hartley has been climbing for 11 years and travels the country finding trees to climb. “My wife gets jealous,” he said, “the way I ogle trees.”
Technical tree climbing has only recently developed as a recreational activity. Vertical Ventures typically specialized in rock climbing and added tree climbing to their activities two years ago. It is usually used for utilitarian purposes. When tall trees need to be cut without falling far, for example, ropes and harnesses assist in hauling a climber with a chainsaw behind, cutting the tree in sections. Michael Hood, owner of Vertical Ventures, said scientists use technical tree climbing to study habitats that are otherwise almost inaccessible in an environmentally safe way. Now, tree-climbing harnesses are available for recreational use and designed to be more comfortable for climbers.
Pearson and Hartley lead their group through the woods at Harris Nature Center, walking single-file along a dirt path that winds toward the climbing tree. “It’s a great tree, so it’s worth the hike,” Kit Rich, who works at the nature center, assures them, halfway there. Today’s students are mostly children, though Vertical Ventures teaches adults to climb too. Some parents have come along to try the climb. After walking through a brief clearing in the woods, Pearson steps from the path, crunching leaves and weaving through saplings toward the poplar.
“Protecting the resources is something we always want to do,” Pearson said before the students begin climbing. “This is a beautiful tree and it is possible to overuse and abuse it.”
The first step of technical tree climbing—and the hardest, according to Pearson—is taking a light line, weighted at one end and tossing it over the desired branch. The other end of the line is tied to a rope, which is then hoisted up and around the tree by pulling on the line. A leather sleeve is wrapped around the section of the rope that will be resting on the branch, to prevent rubbing the tree bark. Without the sleeves the rope would cut through the bark, killing the branch.
The students then strap into harnesses designed to keep them in a sitting position, and learn how to tie the Blake’s hitch knot. Once a student frees their feet from the ground, Pearson has them let go of the rope and lean back until hanging upside-down to demonstrate the safety of the harnesses.
Soon the students are making their way up the tree. Hartley leads them. Once they’ve reached the branch their rope is tied to, they can throw the slack left over to a higher branch, tie a new knot, and continue up the tree.
The students were encouraged to bring a lunch with them, and hear they will be dining in the tree. From the ground, Pearson tells two students how to suspend a hammock and a hanging chair, giving them a place to lounge while they eat. Others choose to hang from their harnesses, enjoying the view.
And enjoying the view is what Pearson and Hartley say technical tree climbing is all about. While Vertical Ventures is known for rock climbing, Pearson and Hartley are quick to make the distinction between rock and technical tree climbing.
“It’s a different attitude,” Pearson said. “There’s a goal-oriented thing in rock climbing. Trees—it’s about a place to be.” Some days, he said he and the rest of his climbing “grove” will reach the first branch and spend the afternoon there. On other days, they climb as high as they can.
Hartley, who enjoys sleeping overnight in trees, agrees. When asked about the highest tree he’s climbed, he said, “He was about 200 feet. It was gorgeous and we were just hanging out. And that’s the best part about it. We were just hanging out talking in the top of the tree.”
Ten-year-old Mitch King grasped that attitude during his first climb in Okemos. “I liked sitting in the hammock and just hanging there,” he said.
Pearson is working to make tree climbing accessible for children with disabilities. Arbor Quest, a technical tree climbing organization based in Ann Arbor, Mich. provides innovative adaptations to tree climbing harnesses. With the help of Pearson and Arbor Quest, children with handicaps as severe as paraplegia can be hoisted through the limbs of some of Michigan’s taller trees. Pearson said the children first leave the ground with terror in their eyes, but are “all smiles” by the time they reach the top.
“What an experience,” he said, “when a wheelchair is your point of view for your whole life, and to be able to rise above it. [F]ree from the chair and flying.”
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