Tree climbing at Camp

Hello all,

I have never climbed before but I am interested in starting a tree climbing program at the camp that I am the director of in the summer. We are in Northwestern Iowa on 360 acres of beautiful forested hills.

Is this feasible? Are there other camps doing this in the US?

I am also looking for places to learn how to climb in the Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, general Midwest area.

Thanks!

Hello ab, and welcome aboard. You've come to the right place. My wife & I operate TREE-ba dachi Climbing Academy in PA. We do climbs for the Girl Scouts Western PA at Camp SkyMeadow. This has gone over so well, the GSWPA Board of Directors want to have us in some of their other camps. What you want to do is very feasable. You want to have an experienced Facilitator to run the event. Also need an ISA Certified arborist to inspect the tree you want to use. Preferably the Arborist will work with the Facilitator. Anyways...

Go to the links page here and look for Adventure Tree out of St. Louis, MO. Gut Mott is his name. I trained with him a few years ago. He's the closest one to you that I know of.

If you want to talk to me further about this, contact us on the TREE-ba dachi facebook page, or call me after 5pm PA time. 570-932-0546. Em us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Good luck.

Ron Wright

Ron, Thanks so much! I will see if I can get in touch with Adventure Tree soon. We are just in the initial stages of planning, so we'll see where it goes.

Ab

Hi Ab:

Welcome to tree climbing! It's a great sport and it fits really well for young people in a camp setting.

I run Adventure Tree in St. Louis and I provide tree climbing programs and training for tree climbing. Traveling to provide these programs is just part of the what's required so I'm sure we can arrange something if you'd like.

Come to think of it - I am driving to Madison, WI for the Association for Experiential Education International Conference from Oct. 30 to Nov. 4 - perhaps I could meet with you while going or coming. I could provide you an introductory demo climb and we could talk about possibilities.

As Ron described, there are quite a few camps and other places that are establishing tree climbing programs. I've worked with places in Illinois and in the north east. I hope there's some way that I can help out your program.

Best of luck with getting started. Looking forward to hearing from you -

Guy Mott

Adventure Tree
Have Fun - Learn - Grow
adventuretree.org
508-243-5957 cell phone
St. Louis, MO