Checking Out Tree Climbing Gear for Sale
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 | Innovative
This February, our university will hold the annual school fair, showcasing different local bands and fun booths. Every year, I always go to the wall climbing booth with my friends, and have a mini-competition to see who can climb the wall fastest. One of my former classmates came up with a crazy idea. He was strolling in the mall and passed by a sports specialty store with tree climbing gear for sale displayed on the glass showcase. He challenged us to a tree climbing expedition this summer.
We had no plans of buying any tree climbing gear since most of us grew up in the province where tree climbing is the “national sport” of little kids. Most of us had the experience of climbing mango trees barefoot without any gear. However, two of my friends were “city girls” and insisted that we go check out the tree climbing gear at the mall.
Those of us who had tree climbing experience were pretty surprised that most of the tree climbing gear resembled those used for wall climbing and mountain climbing – gloves, harness, helmet, New England ropes, even a foot ascender and a tree climber’s pants. We weren’t keen on buying anything but we now see the danger in climbing trees without gear.
The summer tree climbing challenge was still on, but we figured that we’ll stick to the short, heavily branched trees that we were used to climbing as kids. And yes, we will still climb barefoot.