№ 7: Gear
While I eschew the complex and expensive apparatus of technical climbing, that doesn’t mean that I head out to the trees without bringing anything special along. So today, let’s talk about my gear.
Attire
When climbing trees, I mostly wear my ordinary day-to-day clothes. But, while I don’t own any specially designed athletic wear, I do dress specifically for climbing. To prepare for the rough surface of tree bark, and a hundred twigs poking at me, I usually wear old shirts short-sleeved that I am willing to expose to the risk of damage (though, so far, I’ve managed to avoid any serious snags). If it’s cool enough out, I will add a light jacket to protect my arms from scrapes. But, it’s usually warm enough that I just accept the consequences of the tree biting me.
For the legs, I generally wear jeans, which are sufficiently durable to stand up to the task. But, again, if the weather is too hot, I might trade one kind of comfort (avoiding scratches) for another (temperature) and put on shorts. My legs tend to have much more contact with the tree than my arms, though, so I’m more willing to forego my jacket than I am to wear shorts.
It’s important to note that my clothes do get caught in trees from time to time. Climbing involves tight spaces and close contact with twigs and branches, and so there’s always a risk of them tangling a bit with what I am wearing.1 Moving through the tree slowly, and with a lot of awareness, helps avoid the consequences of getting caught off guard when your body tries to move one way, and your clothes pull you in another.
Now we come to the feet, and the only tree-specific item of attire that I have. Instead of my ordinary day-to-day shoes, I wear Vibram FiveFingers. These have thin soles and separate toes, and are meant to more closely approximate being barefoot.2
I started wearing these a couple of seasons ago, and they made a huge difference (much bigger than I would have predicted). I could feel the branches under my feet in much more detail, and determine how secure my footing was without needing to look. In an activity that involves a lot of standing and balancing on small and angled surfaces, they minimize the separation between my feet and the tree, which makes everything safer.
I initially wore the Vibram V-Trek hiking shoe for a season and a half, and then it wore out (turns out that climbing puts very different stresses on a shoe than hiking). Last season, I switched to the KSO Trek, which has given me a little less sensation in my feet (and is a bit harder to put on); however, I’m hoping it might prove more durable.
Vibram doesn’t sponsor me or anything, but I highly encourage them to consider doing so. It would be very cool to be a sponsored tree climber.
Accessories
My last haircut was mid-2020, and over time I’ve had to grow more adept at keeping hair out of my eyes, and out of branches. I generally wear it in a ponytail held with a cheap elastic hair tie. To help manage the stray hairs that will inevitably escape the ponytail, and to keep sweat from my eyes, I wear a headband (specifically, a Buff — another company that could sponsor me if they wanted!).
One thing that I should probably invest in is something to keep my glasses attached to my face. A couple of years ago, a pair of sunglasses fell directly off my face while I was looking down, and I never saw them again.
I also started keeping, in my jeans pocket, an emergency strap. Getting down from trees is harder than climbing them. I’ve yet to climb into a position that I couldn’t extricate myself from, but just in case, I’ve got a little strap that I could potentially loop around a branch and lower myself a few inches (which is about all it would take to make a big difference).3 I have not yet field-tested this idea.
Gadgets
When ascending a tree, I always take two gadgets with me: my phone, and a laser ruler. The latter is a simple device that measures how far away something is by bouncing a laser off of it. I use it to measure how high off the ground I’ve climbed, though it’s not always reliable. I will write more in a future letter about why and how I measure heights.
As to my phone, I’m just one of those people who is accustomed to having it around all the time. I sometimes take pictures during my climbs. Or make phone calls. Or send emails. I also use my phone to time how long it takes me to climb down from the tree — again, we’ll likely discuss, maybe next month, the data I collect from each climb. The phone is also handy for confirming tree identifications, though I usually do that from the ground rather than in the branches.
I also sometimes bring earbuds, so that, while perched on high, I can use my phone to listen to Completely Arbortrary, a podcast about trees. I listen to this show almost exclusively when I am in trees.
A Book
Finally, I usually bring along a book: The Sibley Guide to Trees, which I mentioned a couple of months ago. I don’t bring it into the tree, but I make use of it while on the ground to help better appreciate and understand the tree that I am climbing.
And that’s the entire gear list, for now. While I am a free climber, rather than a technical climber, there is at least a little thought and effort put toward what I bring along with me to the branches. Nothing too elaborate or specialized, but just a few things that make the process easier, safer, and more comfortable. I’m curious as to how this list will evolve over time as I gain more experience. This season I’ll be field testing one additional item, and will keep you posted about that if it works out.
April Climb Report: I ascended two trees, totaling about 25 feet between them. One in Dickinson, North Dakota, and the other at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Both were quick ascents, mostly to say I’d climbed a tree in each of those areas. But they are making me look forward to the real start of the climbing season this month.
The light jacket that I sometimes wear doesn’t help, either, as it’s a bit looser and has large pockets. If I were to replace one piece of clothing with something more specialized, it would probably be the jacket. But, most of the time, it’s warm enough that I’m not wearing it.
I have climbed barefoot once, and I might do so again, but it’s not the most pleasant experience to land on ground strewn with rocks and twigs.
A short bit of rope would obviously work here, too, but I already happened to have these straps for attaching things to my bike.
Thanks so much!
This is tremendous stuff. A perfect example of why I read this newsletter every time it comes out.