There is no existential right or wrong answer to this question. At least I don’t think there is. The array of answers is no doubt fascinating, and perhaps as diverse as those individuals that make up the arborist-aloft community. In a very broad sense, some may climb to simply escape the world below, to maybe to become closer to heaven, or at least farther away from hell.

The economical reasons can be just as expansive, if not more relatable from a business perspective: for the money, a career, for the team you are a part of; maybe for upward mobility or the idea of it; to satisfy old customers and new clients; to eventually buy a bucket truck so you won’t have to climb anymore; and of course the all-too-popular endeavor of capturing a breathtaking view, or the ultimate selfie.

If you are an arborist, and especially a climber specialist, then at some point you have asked yourself the question, “Why do I climb?”

I find it is like reading a classic book at different stages of life, that the impression or the answer always seems to change from year to year or age to age. At one time climbing was a great athletic adventure, at another time a scientific excursion, maybe you were a student and now a teacher; I’ve climbed for me, I’ve climbed for my family, I’ve climbed for friends, and I’ve even climbed for the competition. In this sense, then it is a lifelong evolution, a classic tale that never quite gets old with age. We are then climbing because we must.

We’ve all climbed as kids in the backyard of our childhood. Not just big trees, but larger than life trees in which our imagination became the wind in that rhetorical sail of bygone days. So when my son asks me nowadays “Dad, can we go climb a tree?” I find it always impossible to object. There is an entire world waiting out there in a small Chinese Chestnut at the top of the hill. Like getting into a time machine, we ascend together.

I can’t tell you how many people I’ve heard say “you can’t climb forever”. Sometimes I believe them, sometimes. But if there is one thing that a career in climbing trees has taught me over the years, it’s that you should believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see. So the realist in me admits that maybe you can’t climb forever, but with a full sail I think we all drift off towards that same bright horizon, guided by the brave rudder in our heart.

So then why do I climb? I think it has a lot to do with the overwhelming feeling of accomplishing something real and tangible. From one aspect it’s a really complex process containing lot’s of psychological, mechanical and biological points to consider; and it is also a very simple process of going up, going out, and coming back down. There are moments of great fear and vulnerability; and there are also great moments of courage, resilience and epiphony; and we must trust in that process to guide us safely forward. So I feel that climbing trees teaches me things about the world and about myself every single day.

And at least for today, that is why I climb.