Went scouting around to see if climbing the biggest bald cypress in Alabama was going to be possible. It's a big tree and it is definately SRT material only. Since I'm not doing SRT yet, this tree is going to have to wait...

Wee...llll...! That is one fine specimen of a baldcypress.

It looks like a road trip by the CSAC (that's Cypress Size Accreditation Committee for the uninitiated) to the Mobile/Gulf Coast area needs to be made ASAP, with the Sidewinder along for access to the gigantic monster that Bama's discovered.

Unfortunately, the spring climbing season has started here at Galactic headquarters -- with four to six group climbs a week between now and early August -- so it's highly unlikely that the road crew can be in that area much before Labor Day.

Maybe we can have a competion between the Alabama and north Florida climbers for biggest baldcypress; the loser buys the barbecue sauce...!

Tilt! Tilt! It's a rigged competition. We already have a winner.

"The Florida Champion Bald Cypress in Seminole County is the largest native tree in Florida measuring 425 inches in circumference, 118 feet in height with a 57 foot crown spread."

Regretfully, Alabama Champion Bald Cypress in Baldwin County only measures 326 inch circumference, 112 feet high, 56 foot spread.

Most experts agree that the Senator down here in My parts is the largest Cypress in the nation. The measuring system in place gives overrated credit to circumference at breast height. This allows that fat bottomed tree in Louisiana to claim to be the national champ while the Senator has about twice the volume of wood.

When I stated getting into big trees I quickly shifted from fascination with a single big tree. I became much more interested in groves.

CSAC is starting to lose accreditation's. They have only inspected three of the fifteen giant cypress I have found in a local grove.

Beautiful tree Bama! Did you have to find the tree or is it's location well known? Thanks for sharing it!

And since ethics discussion has been so popular lately...

Should the tree be climbed for fun?

Thanks for sharing this awesome tree with us!

It looks great!

I'd love to find a nearby grove. Between Hurricanes Camile, Fredrick, Ivan, Katrina, and a dozen others, a third of this area's trees are gone. Where nature doesn't get them, man does. Check out the below photo of how they harvest areas of swamp hardwoods. I'm not sure of where any old growth forests exist around here. Just give me a nice climbing tree with a view and I'll be happy. They aren't easy to find here.

The Bama Bald Cypress location (coordinates) is not published publically that I know of. If there are TCC members ever in this area, I can guide them to it but, you can only get to it by kayak or boat, then with some hiking depending on water levels. I didn't find it my first try while the area was flooded and pooled resources with Daniel (seen in the canoe in the first photo) and together we found it. Kayaking groups occasionally have paddles to go see the tree. Once you are in the right area, you can't miss it because all the other trees are dwarfed by it. Climb the cypress for fun? My nerves would be on edge with this tree. Would need binoculars to see the first sturdy limb. Indian spirits may be lingering around the tree. Wild boar or bear might be waiting below when ready to descend. I've even heard rumors of a mythical WetToes sidewinder stalking the swamps for big trees.

It is a beauty. The canoe in the picture gives you a great prospective of the size of this tree. Keep the pictures comiing.

I hate photobucket. Seems my photos have disappeared. The photo bucket has holes in it - don't waste your time using that service.

http://blog.al.com/live/2011/07/giant_cypress_delta_lost_forest.html

Try flickr.com, it allows photo embedding, what I've been using for a long time.
-AJ

Awesome tree Bama, thanks for sharing!
sitting here, I can say that I would find nothing unethical about carefully climbing this great tree, thoughts might change if I were standing/floating beneath it.

I don't know anyone who has climbed it but having been there, you definitely would need a big-shot to reach a climbing limb.

The minute the reporter posted the story, people started to ask for the tree's GPS location and the feedback started. Is it an Alabama tree or an Auburn tree they wanted to know. Thanks to stupid a$$ college football rivalries, fans are now going around killing precious trees. This is all the more reason why NOT to share coordinates of special tree locations. There are idiots out there who want to piss others off by killing innocent trees...

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/Police-Auburn-Toomers-Corner-tree-poisoning-suspect-Harvey-Updyke-Jr-attacked-042011