This is what I see when I look at Mike Oxman’s photo. This commentary has nothing to do with the person Paul Sisson.

1. I see a man branch walking a tree with an established moss mat on the tree surfaces. Moss mats are fragile and can take decades, if not centuries, to mature on a tree. They are easily kicked off with a light boot swipe. In the case of branch walking where friction is needed to walk backwards, one can expect extensive moss damage. Moss is very slippery and much more fragile when wet as well. That is why it grows so well in the northwest trees; is wet all of the time. This is certainly not “leave no trace” climbing. Imagine how this tree will look with a couple of dozen climbers ascending this tree. This is in a park too. Not a very good model for the public to see.
2. The man below has no head protection. I am not sure what he is doing with the rope but he is certainly engaged with the climb. Trees are more fragile than rock. A gentle touch of a rope can send a high dead branch crashing down, sometimes without notice until it makes impact. It could be a small dead branch the diameter of a quarter but it can cause injury when it falls from height.

These two observations deal with climbing standards; leave no trace and proper protection for the ground team. There are many parts to the puzzle of assembling a working standard for responsible recreational tree climbing that is not only safe for the climbers, but friendly to the hosts of our climbs- the trees themselves.

Tree climbing is not yet a mainstream activity as is rock climbing. I share many of the concerns of canopy researchers that the human masses will hurt or kill that which they love, in this case trees. For that reason I am grateful that tree climbing has not rocketed into the spotlight with all of the media attention TCI has received the past 21 years.

This brings us back to the conversation of what it is to be responsible in our climbing technique and our relationship to the trees we climb. A new folder will appear shortly on this message board and it will be _title_d “Tree Climbing Standards Conversation”. We will break the parts down as Redpanda suggested but with more detail. This community will have an opportunity to contribute to a gathering of ideas to be later assembled and presented to you as a community for further input.

I personally want to thank all of you that participate on this message board. I encourage those that just read the postings here to participate as well, no matter what level of tree climbing experience you have. Your postings confirm my opinion that tree climbers are a special kind of people- kind, sharing, very intelligent, rebellious, inventive, risk taking, controversial, not average kind of people. Thank you for making this message board a great place to hang out and get different opinions and ideas.

Mike Oxman said-
“This climb did not affect these trees negatively. I do not believe it is realistic to leave no trace of recreational tree climbing activities. There will be some evidence of impact, including moss mat disturbance. It is unnecessary damage that must be avoided. The test will be reasonableness, not detectability.

These trees were crown-cleaned by the rec climbers to remove hazardous dead branches. This is not Leave No Trace, but it is necessary, as we climb here frequently. It is also a safety service we provide to other users of the park.

The ground guy should have been wearing his hardhat. He had not yet put it on, but climbs barefoot. Should we institute a boot requirement?”



Climbing trees with moss mats requires special attention to every contact you make with the tree. This includes rope contact as well. In the tropics you will have added sensitive plants to dodge such as epiphytes and other growing things. The climber’s impact can be greatly reduced if a higher level of climbing technique and respect is applied.

Assuming damage will occur during your climb reminds me of some of the people I used to climb rock with as a young man that were there to “conquer the rock.” It was a cavalier attitude that destroyed a lot of good climbing routes because of careless climbing technique. Your single climb in the public park tree will be duplicated by climbers that follow you. Your little boot swipe will be followed by many other boot swipes as people see what you are doing and get excited to want to join in with what you are experiencing. This is what climbers do- often at the expense of what is being climbed. Trees can not only get disfigured, but they can also be killed. This is a problem with sensitive climbing trees.

“It’s only a moss mat”, you say. Do you know for certain that a tree does not have a relationship with the moss and that both moss and tree do not derive a mutual gain by their existence together? We do not know these answers yet as scientists are in the early stages of research on this subject.

Back to the photo. Why is the man walking out on a moss matted branch? He has no cutting tools, like to trim dead wood. Is this a climbing demonstration? What is the purpose of this technique demonstration that can only scruff the moss mat? It appears he could have used a redirect rope technique to avoid the pulling back physics of his rope angle that requires him to have hard friction on a branch with his boots to prevent him from swinging back to the tree.

The man on the ground appears to be holding something with the use of a lowering device because of the 90 degree rope angle and the rope body wrap being employed with his butt. Is he lowering something about to be cut? It is equally the cutters responsibility to check everything with their team before something is cut, (which includes the use of a hard hat). This includes his ground support, in this case the rope man. What’s up here? Am I missing something? Volunteers must be carefully watched in all tree work operations. Let’s bring up the subject of shoes in another posting.

Your reply did not address any of my questions about your photo. The questions relate to specific tree climbing standards for trees with moss mats.