The Pacific Northwest chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture hosts an annual regional tree climbing competition in a Portland park, where arborists can compete for the chance to showcase their skills at a national and international level. This year, 35 climbers will compete in five events over two days.
Terry Flanagan is the chair of the Tree Climbing Competition Committee at the PNWISA. He competed in his first tree climbing competition in 1981 and has been working in arboriculture for 49 years. Kyle Thomas is the regional coordinator for the tree climbing competition, as well as the operations supervisor for the Urban Forestry Division of Portland Parks and Recreation. They both join us to share more ahead of the upcoming competition in Portland, which will take place June 6 and 7 at Farragut Park.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. Some of the best tree climbers in the Pacific Northwest will be in Portland this weekend. The Pacific Northwest chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture is hosting its annual regional tree climbing competition. This year, 345 climbers are going to be competing in five events over two days at Farragut Park. They’re going for glory and the chance to compete at the Chapter Championship in Boise.
Terry Flanagan is the chair of the chapter’s Tree Climbing Competition Committee. He’s been working in arboriculture for nearly 50 years. He competed in his first tree climbing competition in 1981. Kyle Thomas is the regional coordinator for the competition. In his day job, he is the operations supervisor for the Urban Forestry Division at Portland Parks and Recreation. They both join us now. It’s great to have both of you on Think Out Loud.
Terry Flanagan: Thank you.
Kyle Thomas: Thanks.
Miller: Terry, first – why were tree climbing competitions like this created?
Flanagan: They were created, first, for camaraderie and then, secondly, to help educate climbers in more efficient and safer ways to climb trees, to get the job done that we need to do to care for the trees in our urban areas.
Miller: Kyle, what’s an example of what you could learn as a professional tree climber, as an arborist, someone who’s already been doing this, say, for a couple of years, but then you go to a competition? What might you learn?
Thomas: Well, there’s a lot of gear involved in tree climbing, and depending on how you use the gear, you’ve got a lot of opportunities ahead of you for different methods. At the competition, you get to see these pieces of gear used in various ways that you might have never thought of before. And it helps in the way of [expanding] your mind for better use in the future.
Miller: So different people do the same job in different ways, and there’s more than one safe, effective way to do that same job?
Thomas: Certainly, yeah, there’s more than one way to do the job.
Miller: What’s it like to actually compete?
Thomas: It’s really thrilling. It’s probably one of my favorite things that I’ve competed in. You get your five minutes to shine in each event and you give it what you can. And if you love the work, the competition is where you should be.
Miller: So what are some examples of the events? So, as we just heard, five minutes to shine. Terry, what are the different competitions?
Flanagan: There’s the area rescue. You have five minutes to get a dummy that weighs 80 pounds – but feels like 300 – to the ground.
Miller: How high is the 80-pound dummy?
Flanagan: Forty feet up in the tree. So you start from the ground and you have to get up to him, the dummy, and get it down on the ground within five minutes.
Miller: You have to put this on your shoulder, an 80-pound dead weight?
Flanagan: It varies, depending on the scenario that you’re given. But you can lower the dummy on its own rope or clip him to you, so it’s dependent on your rope. There’s various ways to do it based on the scenario given.
Miller: But you need to be, in addition to having a lot of skills I imagine, very strong to do that?
Flanagan: It takes either a lot of strength or a lot of balance.
Miller: OK, so that’s one of them. What are some of the other events?
Flanagan: The Work Climb is where you start at the top of the tree and you work your way down through five different stations. You have the pole clipping, [where] you simulate clipping an end branch, all the way down to landing in a certain circle at the base of the tree. And then there’s the Throwline, where you’re trying to throw a line to the very top of the tree, so you can install the line to make it easier to get into a tree. And there’s also the Ascent event, which, after you throw the line in, you would ascend up into the tree using the rope that you just threw in. Then there’s also Belayed Speed Climb, which is just a speed to the top.
Miller: Kyle, do you have a favorite to compete in?
Thomas: The Work Climb was always my favorite. It’s the ability to swing and make really cool moves in the tree. That’s where the Word Climb shines.
Miller: Make really cool moves. What do you mean by that?
Thomas: So, there’s the ability to move around limbs and navigate through the tree. You can take different approaches to it, but it’s really an advantage if you can do some neat things, like get around in ways that other people didn’t think about or move your gear more quickly.
Miller: As you’re describing this, I’m hearing echoes and people talking about rock climbing and sort of the creativity of this three-dimensional problem, of a vertical problem in space. To what extent is style a part of this competition? Terry, you mentioned five minutes, so that’s just absolute clock time. But what about style?
Flanagan: Style comes into play a lot, in the sense [of], how do you hook up to the victim? And how do you get the victim down without jostling them to death? So there’s a lot of style and there’s a lot of role playing.
Miller: And it’s up to the judges to figure that out, to look at what’s happened to the dummy, for example, and decide if the climber has treated it well?
Flanagan: Yes, exactly.
Miller: What about the non-rescue parts? How does style figure into the other events?
Thomas: A couple of them don’t have it as much, [like] the Ascent event, because it’s just a really fast climb and you’re connecting as quickly as possible, going up as quickly as possible. But say you got the Belayed Speed Climb. What that event does is you get to climb the tree without worrying about gear, as quickly as you can. But maybe you did something cool like jump from one stem to another to circumnavigate a really problematic gap, versus everybody else who keeps climbing. That could be a style point addition.
Miller: How much do arborists use the various skills that you’re all describing, the skills that are being shown off and tested in a competition? How much do you use them in your day to day job?
Flanagan: The reality is competition is a little bit different than the climbing you would do day to day. But like Kyle said, it’s definitely going to show you some techniques that will make your job easier day to day, if you’re paying attention. So, a lot of the gear that we use gets developed to a larger degree or a higher level through these competitions.
Miller: In general, are arborists professionals who loved climbing trees and then found a job that entails tree climbing? Or are they people who found a job and then learned to try to climb trees because that’s how they had to do their job?
Thomas: That’s exactly where I came from.
Miller: Which one?
Thomas: Oh well, I didn’t even know tree climbing was a thing until I moved to Portland. I got a job tree climbing. I asked the boss three times to make sure, “you’re gonna pay me to climb trees, right?”
Miller: So you weren’t an 8-year-old who loved climbing trees?
Thomas: Well, I was, but I didn’t know it was a job. Eventually, I found out about the climbing competition and did that. And that took a couple of years, and that’s when I got there.
Miller: And Terry, what about you? How did you become an arborist and tree climber?
Flanagan: A unique story in the sense that, in the Boston area where I grew up, we had a May 5th wet, heavy 8 inches of snow that busted up every tree in the region. So a local tree company had a “help wanted” sign on. I went down to apply, and of course they laughed me out the door because they were looking for people who had experience with their open saddle. I didn’t even know what that was. But as I walked out the door, in walked an assistant gymnastics coach from high school, and he said, “Oh, wait, why are you here? Stay right here.” Ten minutes later, I had a job.
Miller: Because the gymnastics coach knew that you might be good physically doing this job?
Flanagan: Yeah, he basically told the bosses, if you don’t hire this kid, you’re stupid. [Laughter]
Miller: What’s it like for an arborist to be able to compete and showcase their skills in something that’s usually just a sort of a regular job, even if some of the details are different? This is still, it’s a competitive version of daily life. What’s that like?
Flanagan: It’s pretty interesting to see a really good climber throw their line into, say, the Master Challenge, and as he throws it to the crotch to get him set up to go up the tree, his gear rope is coming out of the bag at just the right height for him to hook into this carabiner, it’s ready and willing to go. So, they’ve got this all mapped out as to how they’re going to do the competitions. And to see how smooth they are, with the flow, is pretty amazing.
Miller: Kyle, what are you most looking forward to this weekend?
Thomas: I’m looking forward to having a slightly larger competition. We’ve got more competitors this weekend than we have in the previous couple of years from the Willamette Valley Regional, and it’s expanding. I’m looking forward to meeting new folks who haven’t participated in the competition before. That’s where I always find the most information and learning really happens.
Miller: The winners of this will go to Boise, as I mentioned. Then the Pacific Northwest winner from there will go to the international competition. In general, how do climbers from the Pacific Northwest fare at the international level?
Flanagan: One of the reasons I’m so involved with this competition is I want to see the Pacific Northwest climbers beat the Aussies and the Kiwis.
Miller: They’re the best?
Flanagan: They’re the best at this point in time. We have had some champions from the Pacific Northwest chapter. I mean, we’ve got the size of the trees to really get good at it. Every day, the guys and gals are climbing these huge trees we have. So we should be able to beat the Aussies and the Kiwis pretty easily.
Miller: And what about the folks from Boston, your old stomping grounds? Not so good?
Flanagan: Not so much.
Miller: Terry Flanagan and Kyle Thomas, it was fun talking with you. Thanks so much.
Thomas: All right. You’re welcome. Our pleasure.
Miller: Terry Flanagan is the chair of the Tree Climbing Competition Committee for the Pacific Northwest chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture. Kyle Thomas is the regional coordinator for the competition happening this weekend. He’s also an operations supervisor for the Urban Forestry Division at Portland Parks and Recreation.
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