This video needs to be seen and supported ... a great work.

Treeverse

That is absolutely amazing !! Great job to everyone who was involved! I can't imagine the man hours put into the production of something on that scale...

Dan

Ya another forum pointed this out to me when we were talking about sleeping in the canopy and it was love at first sight. However, I have been unable to locate a place to see the movie whether it be downloading, buying a DVD, or visiting a store. I WANT TO SEE THIS MOVIE!!! I have watched the trailer so many times that I am embarressed to say the amount. However, I was a bit surprised to find that these guys only traveled less than a mile in 5 days. After seeing a map of their route it makes more sense but to nontree climbers i feel that the numbers wont attract them to the movie.

I've always maintained that watching people climb trees is like (fill in your favorite simile) watching paint dry, grass grow etc. Only technical tree climbers can really appreciate what kind of work went into the Ascending the Giants "treeverse" route.

By the way Ascending the Giants has been getting some good press lately, they teamed up with tall tree hunter Michael Taylor (discoverer of the Coast Redwood Hyperion, world's tallest measured living tree) and Mario Vaden to do a verification climb on the current tallest measured Ponderosa Pine.

Great back story, Taylor and Vaden who discovered the tree gave ATG the GPS coordinates then arrived later with the TV film crew. When ATG got to the tree they climbed the wrong one, only realized when Taylor arrived at the site. To make up for lost time they set a traverse across to the actual tallest one. Traverse was set by climber in the tree putting a throwline/bag over a limb in the destination tree, 2nd climber on the ground attached traverse rope and anchored the other end at the base of the destination tree, climber in the start tree pulled the end of the rope up, anchored it in the start tree and went over. I wouldn't have thought of that.
-AJ

I had the opportunity to watch treeverse a couple of weekends ago, and was enthralled throughout.

A little back story. I always take a vacation in september to celebrate my birthday doing things that bring me joy. This year I visited Tree Climbing Planet's Oak Savannah for a 3 day workshop called "Beyond The Branches". I contacted Tim Kovar about this workshop after participating in the "teaser" that he holds during the annual rendezvous called "TreeTime". I told Tim that I was not interested in taking skills based courses at this time, as I am happy with my growth rate as a climber, learning from climbers through forums, and frequent climbing. I wanted more of this "TreeTime" experience. BtB is not a skills course, but a workshop in connecting with nature, introspection, sensory expansion, wilderness ethics, and awareness through tree climbing.

3 of my close friends that had been climbing for roughly 3 months, agreed to join me in this workshop. The days and nights spent on this property were intense. The only normalcy was the climbing of trees. It was a time that I will never forget and always cherish. I could go on, and on with details of the experience, but I will not, because we are talking about treeverse right?

Well, Treeverse was filmed in this very grove of Oaks where myself, and some dear friends were over 1000 miles from home, opening up to the world around and within us, vulnerable, and growing together.

Watching the film, instantly brought me back to that time, and I knew the trees that they were climbing, I knew their names, and their funky twists, and turns. Seeing these guys in their own struggles, and triumphs, vulnerable to the elements, and turns of fate -in this setting, was very emotional for me. It is funny, I had heard of this film a year or more ago (as most of us had), and thought only of the technical challenges of the traverses, the camera challenges, packing all of that gear for the journey, and battling the elements. I was very surprised to have such a different interest when watching the film. It was the trees, the land, the vulnerability.
The cinematography was excellent, and guys kicked a**, but the story for me is still about the passion for trees. We all as tree climbers face challenges, and place ourselves vulnerable in the face of gravity, and the unknown - But is still comes back to the trees, and our desire to be with them. Treeverse reaffirmed that for me.

Treeverse is now available for purchase with a special DVD bundle:

"5 really awesome and highly entertaining short documentaries on one DVD. All proceeds go to Ascending the Giants (primary 501c3 application fees). So pick up a copy of Treeverse, Flight of the Dunni, Into Darkness, Finding Oregon, and Ascending The Giants at the link below."

http://ascendingthegiants.com/conservat ... e-dvd.html

Nice-ity nice! Thanks for posting that.

I'm still plotting a canopy traverse to see how far I can go horizontally through the woods in one day. Goal is to travel tree-to-tree without touching the ground and to set all lines without help from the ground. Different categories here, solo or team, two climbers would be awesome. Every time I climb I'm eyeing the woods for a good location to attempt this.
-AJ

Thanks for the link!

Before I was a tree climber I always pondered the idea of hiking without touching the ground just to spice up a few trails I know of. Now that I am a tree climber I know how fast you CAN'T go and how far you WON'T get in a day.

However I think that, in the right forest, traveling a mile through the canopy in one day is easily doable. I know that I am a beginner and that 98% of the things I say are probably wrong but having such a different climbing background than a lot of you guys allows me to come up with some really unique ideas (maybe you guys would consider them stupid? Haha). If I wanted to travel long distances (alone) through the trees all I would want is a short rope of 100ft for my main line, a shorter rope of 40ft for traverses, a SRT setup, and a very small daypack with two throwlines/weights, a grapnel hook, and lunch inside. Lighter is faster and there is no need to set up complicated lines for hauling heavy gear and there is less muscle fatigue from working with light ropes. By using a simple (but relatively slower) climbing technique you gain speed from not having to deal with the extra gear. But this is of course easier said than done .