Arborists shinny up and down trees for sport

It's what arborists do for work — scaling trees and scrambling narrow branches to prune, clear, thin, remove and occasionally to rescue.

And a few times a year, climbing is also what some of them do for sport — competing among themselves to see who can shinny up a cedar the fastest, reach a simulated injured person the quickest or swing from limb to branch with the most skill.

About 18 arborists from across the region Sunday competed in the second annual Puget Sound Regional Tree Climbing Competition at the Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle.

The arborists are all certified by the International Society of Aboriculture. The top four finalists from Sunday's event — Dan Kraus, Joe Solomon, Shane Noble and Brian French — will compete in the chapter-wide competition in British Columbia in October, said Zeb Haney, one of the competition organizers and owner of Tree Resource.

The winner of that event will go on to compete in the international competition in Illinois next year.

Sunday's event, within the canopies of towering maples in the heart of the arboretum, drew a few dozen people — tree lovers, friends and families — clearly enthralled by all the movement above.

Competitors don't use spurs or spikes, which tend to damage trees, but are harnessed to ropes looped through the branch unions of trees. They then use hands and feet to pull, push and shinny their way up the thick trunks into the branches where they performed a number of maneuvers.

Some skipped breakfast to lighten their weight to make the scramble across smaller, weaker branches easier.

Kraus, of Everett, an arborist with Seattle Tree Preservation who has been competing for 20 years, was the day's top finisher.

Kraus, who also was the event's international champion in 2005, admits he still gets nervous with each climb.

"I'm not nervous about my performance as much as I am about something going wrong," he said.

Growing up in Hawaii, Kraus said he was always involved in sports and was thrilled when he realized that he could combine his love of sports with what he did for a living.

"Work is practice, as well."

This is the second year the competition was held in the Puget Sound, and the first time in Seattle.

Haney and other arborists walked through the park about a month ago to find the trees that would be most suitable for the competition.

They wanted some with a wide canopy so climbers could maneuver. The park wanted the competition to use only native trees.

They settled on five, big-leaf maples and a cedar.

"We try to be minimalist in our approach," Haney said.

Arborist and competitor Luke Montelius gets the same quizzical look when people learn he's from the Eastern Washington town of Tri-Cities. "Do they have trees there?' is a common question.

In fact, Montelius, who started competing in 2004 and works for Trees Inc., said he feels he has an advantage over competitors from the greener half of the state because of the types of trees he's used to climbing.

"Our trees were intentionally planted, fast-growth trees," he said. He said there are wonderful sycamores that don't grow terribly high, but "they are wide and broad, better for climbing, whereas the trees in Western Washington tend to grow straight up."

The competition, he said, was designed as a learning event. "I learned half of what I know from coming and watching these guys compete."

Tyler Sims, of Portland, also came to learn what he could from the professionals.

The 11-year-old got his first "official" climbing rope at Sunday's competition and learned from one of the arborists the proper way to keep it clean.

Tyler, who attended the event with his mother, Mandy, said he usually goes into forested areas in Portland to climb. "I've always liked to climb trees — and I've always been good at it," he said. "It's fun just to go up, sit and watch all the animals up there."

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com