Yes, There Is an International Tree Climbing Championship

It may not be a sport for everyone. In fact, it may not be a sport, but tree climbing has had an international championship for 25 years, and the level of competition just keeps, well, climbing. The Wall Street Journal, (which Geezer is unable to link to at the moment) gives us a colorful account of the latest contest, in Nashville, where the man to beat was Bernd “Beddes” Strasser, an intense, 36-year-old German with blond dreadlocks, piercing eyes, and a disconcerting habit of referring to trees as “poems” from the earth. The contest was decided by the Masters’ Challenge, which required climbers to use an intricate combination of safety
ropes to shinny up a 90-foot tulip poplar and
ring bells attached to four red flags planted in the
tree’s outstretched limbs. Not easy. Especially not easy when the final flag is 40 feet out at the end of a
fragile branch, and attached to a point-losing buzzer that goes off if  the climber puts too much weight on the limb.  Read the Tennessean to find out who won..