The Adventures of a Professional Tree-Climber

Tim Kovar is a master tree-climbing instructor and the founder of the Tree Climbing Planet. He has introduced over 10,000 people to treetops, including bestselling author Richard Preston. Kovar has climbed trees all over the world, including the remote areas of India, Central America, and the Amazon Basin. The canopy explorer recently told us how it feels to reach the top of a tall tree and why it won't help to call 911 if you get stuck.

What was the first tree you’ve ever climbed?

One of my earliest memories as a little boy was climbing the neighbor’s apple tree. I remember getting stuck up in the treetop. My friend’s father had to come and help me get out of the tree. I was maybe five years old at the time? And of course, I loved it. My mother and father did not enjoy that so much. And as a five-year-old, it felt like a hundred feet up. When in reality, I was only two feet up.

Why do people climb trees?

People have different reasons for wanting to be up in the canopy. Some people come around to do tree work, some people are tree doctors, some people are doing canopy research. For some people, it’s just for inspiration, to get away from it all. Personally, when I climb up trees, I find peace up there. For me, it’s like a meditation. It’s almost like going to church.

What are some essentials for a tree-climbing expedition?

With this kind of technical tree-climbing, we stay tied in the whole time. So we’re always on a rope and in a saddle. These are specially designed ropes and specially designed saddles. It’s not the same that we’re using for rock-climbing. You gotta make sure you’ve got the proper gear for it. Another big essential is proper training. You have to get out there and get proper training from a proper instructor because being up in the treetop, it’s one of the last frontiers of the planet. If you get 200 feet up in a tree and you get stuck or you drop your rope, there is no one to really call to come and get you. You can try calling 911 but they’re going to show up and they’re going to have no idea how to get up into a top of a tree to rescue someone.

What do you do to prevent the tree from being damaged while tree-climbing?

We have devices called cambium savers, which protect the tree bark and branches. So as we’re climbing, we’re not digging the rope into the tree branch, which would be damaging the cambium layer of the tree. Also, we want to make sure to stay on the rope the whole time. When you’re climbing on a rope up into the treetop, you have minimal impact with the actual tree. This is very important when you’re climbing, for example, the redwood trees. But more importantly, it’s to make sure you’re not damaging the plant life that’s happening up the treetops too. Down in the jungle, majority of the life forms actually live up in the trees. It can take 200 years or more to grow on a branch. But just one kick with your boots and you can dislodge an entire ecosystem and send it crashing down to the ground. You have to be very, very mindful about where you place your feet in the treetops.

What can you see from treetops that you could never see from the ground or even from high up in the airplane?

I had one example of taking a guy in the Amazon, a community member. He probably was in his early 60s or so. He saw me climbing the trees and he came over and said (through a translator) that he’d like to give it a shot. He’s lived there his whole life. He gets up maybe 30 feet or so and starts looking around. You see a tear well up in his eye. I could tell he was having a good time but something deeply emotional touched him. The translator told me as he came down that the man thought he knew the jungle. He can walk along all the trails blindfolded, no problem. But when he got up in the tree maybe forty feet or so, when he looked around the forest, he saw his home from a different perspective and he had no idea where he actually lived.

You’ve climbed trees with indigenous people all around the world. Have you ever encountered cultures where adults climb trees?

There are quite a few cultures where adults still climb trees. Usually, it is to gather honey or some are helping canopy researchers. They’re finding a way to make money by climbing their trees. Some of the others, when they watch me climb with all my ropes and saddles and all the gear I have, they kind of laugh at me. When they climb, they just grab a tree, put a little rope between their feet and just shoot up the tree.

Which tree is on your bucket list?

Madagascar, climbing the Baobab trees. And also, while I’m in Madagascar, I want to climb with the lemurs. I’m fascinated with the primates in Madagascar and would love to get up there and join their troop for a few days.

--Images courtesy of Tim Kovar

Ailsa Sachdev is an editorial intern at Sierra. She is a rising senior at Mount Holyoke College and spent the last semester reporting on witchcraft in Morocco. She is passionate about food and travel, and knows how to say "I'm hungry" in over 10 languages.

09/11/2013

The Adventures of a Professional Tree-Climber