V. Richard Haro/The Colorodoan
TREEMENDOUS: The English elm that Jill Reynolds climbs in her back yard is a state-record 150 feet tall.
V. Richard Haro/The Colorodoan
HANGING OUT: Jill Reynolds of Fort Collins climbs an English elm in her back yard in June. Reynolds took a climbing class in 2000 in Georgia and has been an avid recreational climber ever since.
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Jill Reynolds is 45 but feels like a kid again, dangling from a tree branch 40 feet up the 150-foot English elm that dwarfs her South Washington Street home.
She's sitting in a climbing saddle, suspended by her weight on a rope that is slung around one of the tree's giant branches, which could pass for a good-sized tree. She pulls herself up on the double-rope gear she has set up in the tree, working toward her goal of finishing the pitch, constituted by the necessity of throwing the rope over the next branch to continue upward. She's worked her way halfway up this 75-year-old tree, but today she's content with climbing less than a third of the way.
"The squirrels get (upset) when I'm up here on their branches," she says while rubbing her fingers along tree's bark. "This reminds me of being a kid climbing oak trees in Indiana."
This is technical tree climbing, and Reynolds is, perhaps, the only Fort Collins resident to list among her hobbies this obscure sport, which differs from kid's play by the climbers wearing safety gear. There are even better odds that she is the only Fort Collins resident to have become a certified technical tree climber.
Before you think Reynolds is a certified nut, know that she is a very enthusiastic special education teacher who teaches her students through the use of outdoor adventure programs. Think of her as someone who thinks outside the box.
"The kids think everything I do is wacky," she says from her lofty perch. "A lot of people when they see me up here laugh because it's such a kid thing."
Reynolds's vivid imagination was captured by the sport after reading a story in the March 2000 issue of Outside magazine. She called up the instructor featured in the story, Genevieve Summers, booked a super-saver flight to Atlanta, camped out and spent a weekend with Summers learning how to climb in the oaks of northern Georgia. She said the $300 she spent on the weekend was money well spent.
"As soon as I read the story I knew I had to do it," Reynolds said. "Genevieve is amazing; she's like a monkey. She swings around the branches, hangs upside down and jumps up and down on the branches. I learned climbing techniques, how to spot good trees and bad pitches and even had to take a test. I'm a certified beginner tree climber."
Reynolds, who has been rock climbing but does not consider herself a rock climber, said recreational tree climbing may be kid-like, but safety isn't anything to fool around with. That's why she recommends taking a class, but you better be prepared to travel.
The sport, which grew out of the way arborists and canopy researchers scale trees to go about their business, can trace its American roots to 1983, when Atlanta tree surgeon and rock climber Peter "Treeman" Jenkins founded Tree Climbing International. TCI as well as a few other businesses, mostly in the South and East, offer classes covering all the skills and techniques you'll need to safely enjoy the sport.
And though recreational tree climbing has some crossover with rock climbing, where it differs is dramatic. The technique Reynolds uses is called a "double-rope technique." It works like this: She first loops the rope over a branch. If the branch is high, she uses a throw bag filled with birdshot to loop the rope over the branch. If you're really serious, and a good aim, you can use a crossbow to shoot your throw bag real high.
Once you get the rope over the tree, you tie the climbing rope to the thin throw line and pull it over. Next, you step into your climbing saddle, which is a padded climbing harness, and step up to the two ends of the climbing rope, which is where the double-rope technique got its name. Then you tie a Blake's hitch, which is a knot similar to a prusik knot in rock climbing and caving.
To make climbing easier, you attach below the climbing knot a foot loop, which is called a prusik loop and also used by rock climbers and cavers. To climb, you pull down on one side of the rope and slide the Blake's hitch up, apply weight to tighten the knot then move your foot loop about a foot up the rope and pull again on the rope. This is called a self-belay system, which means you don't need someone else around to provide protection.
Once you reach the branch your rope is over, you tie into the tree using a daisy rope for safety reasons then toss your throw bag over another branch. You descend by squeezing the Blake's hitch. The harder you squeeze, the faster you descend.
One piece of equipment critical to not scarring the tree's bark with the rope is a cambium saver, which goes between the rope and the tree and protects the bark. Also, the rope used in technical tree climbing is an arborist rope, not a rock climbing rope. The flexible rope can take the heat of the friction of the double-rope technique. Rock climbing ropes are static ropes and are not meant for such friction.
After Reynolds finished her climbing, she let me have a go at it. I've never rock climbed, but dangling a mere 10 feet off the ground I could get the sense of what draws people to this sport. At the end of my rope at 20 feet, the neighborhood took on a different perspective.
"It's so peaceful up there," said Reynolds, who has climbed halfway up this state-record 150-foot monster and hopes one day to reach the top. "It's fun to sway with the breezes, there are all sorts of cool noises the tree makes and you get really good views of the foothills. The thing I like about tree climbing over rock climbing is that you are climbing a living thing."
The sport has evolved to the point where the more adventurous and more skilled climbers do limb walking where you walk to the end of the branch. Some venture further by limb surfing, where you ascend high into a tree, walk to the ends of limbs and let the wind play with you while you're safely roped in, of course.
People into the sport now camp in the treetops thanks to the invention of tree tents and tree hammocks. New Tribe, a company based in Grants Pass, Ore., is the leading manufacturer of technical tree climbing gear. For those just getting into the sport, you can expect to drop about $400.
"If you want to go high tech, you can buy a lot of (junk), but I keep it simple," Reynolds said as I descended to her. "I've never tree camped because I've never figured out the bathroom situation."
While Reynolds has the luxury of climbing in her own tree, she said technical tree climbing can be done in trees on public land. John Bustos, a spokesperson for the Roosevelt National Forest, said individuals are permitted to climb trees in the forest as long as they do not damage the trees. Tim Buchanan, forester for the City of Fort Collins, said the city has no policy concerning climbing trees in parks but added that if people do climb trees, care should be given not to harm themselves or the tree. As with any recreation, climbers should not trespass on private land.
Also, deciduous trees make for much better climbing than conifers or evergreens, and dead trees should be avoided for obvious reasons.
