Learning to climb

My research requires both inserting temperature loggers
into cavities and measuring the internal dimensions of cavities. Many of these cavities are out of a ladder's reach, which means we have to climb trees to measure them.

Yes, climb - not the free-climbing of your childhood, when you had not yet realized your own mortailty. This is the safety equipment riddled, muscle aching, uncomfortable climbing of adulthood - complete with spurs, harness, lanyards, helmet and rope.

I was taught to climb by two male students in my lab. Now I am dedicated to equality of the sexes, especially being a female graduate researcher and all, but they just make it look easy. The upper body strength of a rugby player versus my upper body strength (where my workout is carrying groceries home from the store) does not even compare. It's hard work, and I'm glad I did it in the winter (when you can never get too warm and there are no biting flies!).

That aside, it's pretty fun! And getting that high in a tree
offers a great view of the surrounding countryside! Once
you get comfortable and lean back, it's actually quite relaxing
(until you have to start climbing back down).

The scariest part is if you lose your footing. The lanyard and harness are there to slow your fall out of the tree, and turn it into more of a slide, but a very uncomfortable one at that. I know a person with scars going up his stomach from sliding down a large portion of a tree with the lanyard and harness attached.

You try your hardest to get a good footing, and stick the spurs in deep. There's no kicking involved, just stepping straight down on them and letting your body weight do the work. But every now and then a piece of tree flakes off (the piece with your spur in it) or the tree is just too frozen/hard to get your spurs in very deep. That's often when you slip. It's not that I'm afraid of heights, but I certainly am afraid of falling. There were a couple of times last winter that my spur slipped and my heart skipped a couple of beats (and it kinda felt like it left my chest and made a new home in my throat).

All in all, climbing is an interesting and challenging skill to have, and I am glad I learned it. Will I climb just for fun? Probably not... I still get the rugby player to climb "tough" trees for me :)