ATLANTA — Forty feet up in a gorgeous willow oak, the sudden cool breeze on an August afternoon feels like a gift. A pair of woodpeckers zooms past, while the sounds of the busy city surrounding this arboreal retreat almost disappear.
It’s another world up here.
Peter “Treeman” Jenkins has been obsessed with the natural high that comes from climbing trees since he was a kid way back when in Dallas. These days he devotes his time to spreading the joy and adventure he’s found high up in the branches by teaching others the basics of a sport he largely invented: recreational tree climbing.
“I used to be a rock climber, and then I moved to Atlanta and eventually opened a tree service business,” said Jenkins, still sinewy at 59, with a bushy white mustache and easy demeanor that recalls his days as a self-professed “hippie.” “I kept getting requests from clients who wanted me to take them up in the trees. They said they had climbed trees as kids. All of us climbed trees as kids. So I thought, ‘Why shouldn’t there be a sport for climbing trees? And why not me?”‘ Twenty five years later, the group Jenkins founded, Tree Climbers International, is going strong, fueled by a wide array of enthusiasts: baby-boomers who want to regain touch with nature, middle-aged corporate types seeking adventure, kids, families and scientists hoping to expand their research horizons.
“Kids love tree-climbing,” said Jenkins, who teaches students as young as five years old. “They have no fear. Even the parents who worry get over it once they see how safe and fun it is.” But founding a new adventure sport hasn’t been easy. Jenkins’ vision of teaching the techniques used by arborists to the general public didn’t go down well with everyone in the trade.
“Some felt we were selling out trade secrets,” he said.
“Others simply couldn’t grasp the concept that somebody might want to climb a tree for fun.” The arborist profession consistently ranks as one of the nation’s most dangerous. Stick a guy 50 feet up in a tree, suspended on ropes, arm him with a chain saw and a goal of moving multi-ton sections of tree top to the ground and you can imagine why.
Recreational tree climbing is far safer, with no reported serious injuries, much less fatalities, in 25 years, Jenkins said.
There are no chain saws, and instructors constantly hammer home safety and the sport’s simple basics.
Tuition for Jenkins’ two-day course is $475. Taught at Blackburn Park in the north Atlanta suburbs, the lessons take place in the spreading willow oak that Jenkins has named “Sueno,” Spanish for “dream,” following the climbers’ tradition that the first to scale a tree gets to name it.
The course is physically demanding. Those with a fear of heights must overcome that, and those in poor physical shape will be challenged.
But the techniques are simple: climbers learn to toss a weighted bean bag attached to a light line over a limb, then use that line to pull up their climbing rope and a leather sleeve that protects both the rope and the limb it’s looped over.
Then come a series of knots that enable the climber to attach a waist harness to the rope. After a safety check, the climber ascends by sliding a special knot up the rope.
Once in the tree, the climber can then set up an new “pitch” to a higher branch, or swing around on the rope, enjoy the view, watch for wildlife or simply drink in the experience.
Eloise Carter, a biology professor at Oxford College, a part of Emory University, took the course with her daughter, Stefanie, to open her professional horizons.
“I’m really interested in being up there,” she said. “It opens a lot of questions about what’s going on up in the canopy.
And it seemed like a great opportunity and challenge.” “It’s awesome,” added Stefanie, 21.
(Story can end here; optional material follows.) Jenkins has trained thousands of climbers over the past three decades, and several of those have gone on, with advanced training, to open their own tree-climbing schools.
News of the sport has spread over the Internet, and by word-of-mouth among environmentalists and the adventure-seeking crowd.
Author Richard Preston took Jenkins’ course and later wrote a well-received book, “The Wild Trees,” which focused on the obsession of a scientist bent on studying the canopies of the West Coast’s redwoods, some of nature’s oldest, tallest and most magnificent creations.
Photographs of climbers suspended 200 feet up the massive trunk of a redwood are startling, as are details of the challenges and deeply moving, even spiritual aspects of spending time in the high canopies. You can even rig a platform and sleep up there.
Jenkins says he finds peace in the trees, and pleasure in introducing his students to the unique environment. Most people are so caught up in their lives they never notice trees, much less imagine climbing one, he said.
“My motto is to return the human race back to the trees,” he said, noting that our evolutionary ancestors spent most of their lives in the branches. “We’re helping people create personal relationships with trees.” (Story can end here; optional material follows.) A couple of companies now sell specialized recreational tree-climbing gear, and climbers hold competitions and annual get-togethers, like the up-coming September rendezvous near Atlanta, which will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Tree Climbers International.
Perched comfortably in “Sueno,” Jenkins seems a happy man.
“I wanted to create a movement toward natural adventure that’s safe,” he said. “I wanted to see people in the trees.” ON THE WEB: .
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