The 2023 Wisconsin Arborist Association Tree Climbing Championship is in the books. The event took place at Cedar Creek Park in Cedarburg, WI on September 22-24. We had 40 total competitors consisting of 8 women and 32 men. Of those 40, 5 were guests from Minnesota, Texas, and Missouri.
Day one of the 3 day event began with 3 speakers. Our first speaker was Michael Castle from Texas. He is an owner-operator of a tree care company in Texas. He has participated in our TCC in the past and wanted to present on Tips and Tricks for Climbing Competitions for both competitors and judges. He went through several of the preliminary events and showed our group where to achieve the bonus points and how to have a successful run at a TCC.
Our second speaker was husband and wife Andrew and Kristen Gollnick. They presented on Climbing Ergonomics and Injury Prevention. Andrew is our reigning TCC champion and Kristen is a doctor of physical therapy specializing in orthopedics and sports medicine. They gave all our climbers and the volunteers some best practices for warming up their bodies properly for injury prevention. This presentation can be seen on our Wisconsin Tree Climbing Championship Facebook page. Our third speaker was by Safety Policeman Eric Freesmeyer. Eric is from Save A Tree Madison and he lead our climbers through proper gear checks for competition and for a daily routine.
At the end of day one we began our first of the 5 preliminary events, The Ascent Event. In this event each climber must display proper gear configurations, good rope ascent techniques, and proper rope descent techniques. Sam Finco took first place for the men in this event with an ascent time of 9.94 seconds on the 47.1ft ascent. Johanna O’Boyle took first place with a 21.42 second ascent. After the Ascent event we had a BBQ social dinner sponsored by Davey Milwaukee.
Day two was the remainder of the preliminary events. Our Work Climb was a challenging upright silver maple. In this event the climbers had 5 mins to complete 5 stations in the tree and descend to a target. The real trick to this tree was to master the swings from station to station. Sam Finco took first place with an overall score of 71 out of 80 total points. First time competitor Meta Ehlen took first for the women with a score of 23.5.
The Throwline event took place in a wide multi stemmed silver maple. There was not a shortage of amazing targets for the climbers to hit. Meta Ehlen took first place for the women with a score of 31 out of 35 and Andrew Gollnick took first for the men with 28. Here the climbers earn bonus points for setting and isolating a line all from the ground! A special thank you to Hoppe Tree Service and Jaycee for providing and operating the aerial lift for line rescue!
The Aerial Rescue event took place in an old twisted Norway maple. In this event the scenario is the climber in the tree, played by our rescue dummy named Randy, and he has cut himself in a way that prevents him from coming down safely on his own. The competitors then need to rescue the dummy in less than 5 minutes. Bonus points are awarded by performing the rescue in the safest manner possible. This includes pre-climb inspection, a safe ascent, assessment and handling of the victim and a safe descent and landing. Andrew Gollnick took first place is 48.33 points out of 50 and Sam Finco took second with 45 points. Johanna O’Boyle took first place for the women with a score of 31.67 and Meta Ehlen took second with 17.67.
The Belayed Speed climb was a scramble to the bell in a one sided white pine. The height was set 47ft from the first branch. Our fastest men’s time was Taylor Hamm with a time of 19.27 seconds and the second place was Michael Maederer with 20.92 seconds. Drea Mertins was our fastest in state woman with a speed of 41.2 seconds followed by first time competitor Isabel Krueger with 51.04 seconds.
At the end of day 2 we had a nacho/taco buffett from the local Lime Cantina sponsored by Heartwood Tree, Madison and an ice cream sundae bar sponsored by Bassett Tree Inc., Madison. We also had our preliminary winners announcements and prize giveaway! Thank you to WesSpur, Hamm’s Tree Care, Arbsession, Milwaukee Tool and all of our sponsors for making the prizes amazing this year. Every competitor and every volunteer walked away with a tree care related prize!
We also announced our finalists who would run the work climb. For in-state men we had Andrew Gollnick, Sam Finco, and Mack Jones. Our out of state finalist was Michael Castle. Our in-state women’s finalists were Meta Ehlen and Johanna O’Boyle. Our out of state woman was Miriah Sirbasku.
Day 3 was our finalists running in the Master’s Challenge. We also had lunch sponsored by Save A Tree Madison. We repurposed the Work Climb silver maple and added in a neighboring Norway maple. This tree had some challenging verticals, big swings and needed good rope management for the best possible climb. Our out of state guest Michael Castle gave our Master’s tree the first run. He completed 3 of the 4 stations and timed out with a score of 124.33. It was a great run!
Our in-state competitors had 30 minutes to complete the Master’s climb. Meta was the first to run the event for the women. She got her throwline stuck so she had a slow start to get going in the tree. She skillfully completed 1 station and her descent in the allotted time. Her final Master’s score was 56. Johanna went second. She completed 2 stations and her descent for a total score of 66.67.
Andrew went first for the in-state men in the Master’s. He skillfully set 2 lines from the ground and then prepared a 3rd with a throwline. He completed 2 stations and the descent. His overall Master’s score was 137.00. Sam was second to climb the tree. He reached the first handsaw station with 20 minutes left in the tree! Unfortunately while at the limb toss station he broke a limb larger than 1 inch in diameter and was disqualified. Mack Jones was our third male participant. He completed 2 stations and timed out. He was the only climber to get one of the sticks in the target at the limb toss station! Well done Mack! Mack’s final score for the Master’s was 62.33.
Our representatives at the 2024 International Tree Climbing Championship are Andrew Gollnick and Johanna O’Boyle. Meta Ehlen and Blake Russ (4th place men’s overall) will be competing at the North American Tree Climbing Competition to also represent WI at the ITCC. Good luck to all of you!
Andrew and Johanna each received the ArborMaster Prize Package. Meta, Mack and Sam all received a Milwaukee Tool top handled chainsaw. Congratulations to all of you!
The TCC committee, Theresa Williams, Gary Kohler, Mike Stanonik, Trevor Novachek, and Shelly Wollerman, would like to thank all of the competitors and volunteers. We cannot have a successful event without all of your time and effort.
We would also like to thank all of the sponsors: Arbsession, Save A Tree: Madison and Milwaukee, Crawford Tree and Landscape, Arborisk, Gollnick & Sons, Hoppe Tree Service, M&M Tree Care, Wachtel Tree Science, American Tree Experts, Steven R. Bassett Inc., Davey Tree Experts, Heartwood Tree Company, Stephenson Tree Care Inc., Milwaukee Tool, Hamm’s Arborcare, WesSpur, TreeStuff, Stephenson Tree Care, ArborMaster, Silky, Buckingham, Vermeer, Oregon Company, GreenWorks Commercial, Portable Winch and G.J. Kohler Trees & More. One last thank you to the ISA and the WAA for the opportunity to run this event and have such a great time!
