We are proud to announce that our talented tree climber and Arborist from our Colorado Springs location, Kevin Kelly, took 3rd Place overall in the SA-RMC Tree Climbing Championship that was held on Saturday, Sept 27th. The competition events included Aerial Rescue, foot lock, belayed seed climb, throw line/setting an access line and work climb.Congrats to Kevin and all of the rest of Mountain High Tree’s climbing team – great work guys!! We’ll post more photos soon!
Here’s some words from Kevin about the event:
“One thing I would like to mention is the comradery during the competition. Every year without fail no matter the weather all the contestants, judges, techs and volunteers always have a great attitude and put in a wonderful effort towards the whole event. Everyone is chatting about each event and how well/terrible it went giving advice to one another. This is the main reason why I love this competition and look forward to it every year. There are several guys/gals there that I see once a year and each time we meet up its hugs and handshakes asking one another how their year has been. It is as if we had been in contact with each other the whole time.”
“The events that take place during the preliminaries are: Aerial rescue, foot lock (49 feet), belayed seed climb, throw line/setting an access line and work climb. Each one is scored individually and the score/times are recorded, added up then posted on a board. Out of 41 people to compete the top 3 who have scored the total highest points over all in the preliminary events gets to go on and compete in the masters challenge later in the day. The masters challenge consists of doing a pre-climb inspection, setting an appropriate access line, ascending the tree and reach each individual stations, getting to the ground safely and pulling all your gear out of the tree before the time is up. The scoring is based off of time/innovation/techniques/safety and completion of each individual station.”
“Luke Glines won it this year and will be representing the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture in Tampa Bay Florida this year to compete against all other chapter winners. This includes Europe, Australia, Canada and several other countries. Charly Wagner took second and I took third (three years in a row… I will get them one day).”
~ Kevin Kelly, Supervisor (13 years), ISA Certified Arborist
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