Reprinted from October, 2008 Arborist News

The 2008 International Tree Climbing Championship's Men's Masters' Challenge was the closest competition in recent memory. Held at ISA's 84th Annual Conference and Trade Show (St. Louis, MO), it was through the hard work and peaked interest of the event judges, technicians, and onlookers alike, that this year's outcome resulted in a highly lauded and extraordinary conclusion.

Overall, the competition itself set out to challenge the participating climbers in new ways; with a change in the aerial rescue event, and the continuation of a new trend in the belayed speed climb event. The new aerial rescue event scenario involved saving and established victim from a static ascent system, while the speed climb event challenged the climbers to complete tasks during their ascent into the tree rather than simply climbing as fast as they could to the top. These slight alterations were meant to test the versatility of the competitors and to move these competitions closer to a more comprehensive array of the challenges facing everyday arborists.

At the end of the first day and the preliminary events, Jared Abrojena (ISA Western Chapter) impressively earned first place in the Secured Footlock, Belayed Speed Climb, and the Aerial Rescue events; Scott Forrest (ISA UK/Ireland Chapter) won the Throwline; while Bernd "Beddes" Strasser (ISA German Chapter) took first place in the Work Climb event. Other notables include Mark Chisholm (ISA New Jersey Chapter), who exhibited experience and consistency by placing in the top three for the Speed Climb, Aerial Rescue, and Work Climb.

The final day of events included the Masters' Challenge, which brought audiences the two familiar faces of Mark Chisholm and Bernd Strasser, as well as two new but very skilled event competitors Jared Abrojena and Scott Forrest. It was a show of experience versus young blood; and with a difference of only seven points between first and fourth places in the Masters' Challenge, the show was certainly worthy of an ITCC Men's Masters' Challenge.

Observers to the Masters' Challenge may recall that although there are always a number of variables that contribute to a successful or unsuccessful climb, rope angle is often one of the most important. The winner of the 2008 ITCC Men's Masters' Challenge was none other than now 8-time champion Bernd Strasser, who was the only competitor that used a different, and perhaps more appropriate tie-in point for the pole saw and upper hand saw stations. To clarify, changing tie-ins between his first two stations, and his third and fourth stations, rewarded Strasser with a better rope angle for all four stations. Other competitors used a different technique, for example, by using a single tie-in at the top of the tree for all their work stations.

All the Masters' competitors performed their climbs with great skill in planning and execution, the versatility of general strategy was a pleasure to watch. Jared Abrojena, for example, undoubtedly intrigued the audience as he hauled numerous bags and climbing lines up into a tree from a secured position. Abrojena later showed the same dexterity and cleverness when he eventually removed each line, seemingly according to plan.

The same can be said of the audience's awe of Mark Chisholm's powerful ascent on twin lines and Scott Forrest's straight forward but still beautiful climb. While each station was rather easily completed with the use of a single, high tie-in point, safe work practices are always key to a good score in the Masters' Challenge, and as such, Strasser's climb had the best combination of safety, climb efficiency, and overall skill.

Strasser has now, if not already, established himself as an immovable force in the competitive climbing world. Having recently completed a pruning project on Lake Constance between Germany and Switzerland, he and a few of his German colleagues are eager to continue testing their skills and enhancing safe tree health tree practices wherever possible. An advocate for safety in arboriculture as well as for environmental sustainability, Bernd Strasser just finished constructing a new home using straw bale as a building material, furthering his humble involvement in the changing and otherwise busy world where arborists interact.

A festive and dramatic event, the Masters' Challenge continues to provide tree climbers and the many other tree care industry contributors with an exciting way to see some of arboriculture's best in action.

Reprinted excerpts from October, 2008 Arborist News

Music, design, trees, and training. Think these words are not connected? That's because you still haven't met Josephine Hedger. Jo, as she likes to be called, is a resident of Sway, a small village in the historic county of Hampshire on the southern coast of England-and the 2008 ITCC women's champion representing the United Kingdom and Ireland Chapter.

Although she's only 24, Jo has been climbing for 5 years and runs her own independent training company that provides courses and NPTC (National Proficiency Tests Council) certification for the forestry and arboricultural industry in southern England. Arbor Venture provides training curricula that offers courses ranging from chain-saw maintenance, tree felling, climbing, and tree removal. In addition to being a trainer, Jo also runs a tree care company.

Her accomplishments at such a young age do not end there. In this year's ITCC in St. Louis, Jo, European champion Phillipa Allen, and last year's winner Chrissy Spence from New Zealand did amazingly well on the preliminaries. Jo said that everything happened really fast, given that the final competition for the UK/Ireland Chapter that qualified her for the internationals was only three weeks prior to the ITCC.

She continued, saying that she "only came for the experience" and how she couldn't believe-"I'm in the Masters' with Chrissy Spence!" In the Masters' challenge, facing the imposing oak (Quercus spp.), Jo was able to set her line with precision, footlock approximately 70 feet (21 meters) up to the top-yes, approximately 70 feet, WOW. Once in the tree, Jo completed two of the stations with the confidence and safety of someone who not only does that as her job, but also who shares her knowledge and skill as a trainer.

Amazed? That's not all. In the preliminaries, Jo broke Eléna O'Neil's footlock record with a time of 17.48 seconds, and on the head-to-head footlock she broke her own record and achieved a time of 15.88 seconds, a whopping difference of 1.6 seconds! Yet, in talking about her experience, Jo shows unspoiled modesty when she says "I didn't come here to win anything…all I wanted to do is to win a medal in the preliminaries."

Coming back to the introductory sentence of this article, what does music has to do with all this? Well, if you were lucky enough to be at the ITCC party after the awards ceremony in St. Louis, you would know that another one of Jo's talents is playing the drums, which she has been doing for the past 12 years. Combining this information, with Jo's excitement right after winning the international championship title, you wouldn't be surprised to know that when the party's drummer took a break, Jo jumped to the drums and mesmerized the crowd!