A career in canopy access...

[tomrose.arb]

Hello all!

 

I am feeling inspired! I have recently read an interview with Waldo Etherington in issue 4 of Arb Climber magazine in which he talks about travelling all over the world rigging camera work for the likes of David Attenborough, and I cannot stop thinking about what a wonderful job it must be. I have just received issue 5 of Arb Climber in which James Aldred visits Tom Greenwood and Brett Mifsud who climb and measure some of Australia's biggest trees, and on top of this I am also a massive fan of Drew Bristow and David Wiles's project 'Explore the Ancient Trees of Africa (if any of you guys are reading this then hi!)

 

All these projects unite my two biggest passions in life; trees and travelling. In my mind these guys have undeniably the best jobs in the world and I am dying to find out how to enter this area of the industry. However, I am struggling to find information and if anyone has any experience or advice I would be extremely grateful to hear from you.

 

I have visited Canopy Access Ltd's website, and have seen that they offer two courses, BCAP and ACAP (Basic Canopy Access and Advanced Canopy Access respectively) Has anyone on here had any experience with them?

 

Thanks in advance

[Dan White]

Dude, you're about 3 months ahead of me!

If you do find anything (and its not too much of a guarded secret), please let us know! I'm hopefully spending a bit of time traveling from Norway to Morocco this June-August and my climbing gear is definitely coming too!

 

As a side note (apologies for any derail) I've just read this: [ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Wild-Trees-Passion-Daring/dp/0812975596]The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring: Amazon.co.uk: Richard Preston: Books[/ame]. Some of the writing is a bit daft and/or cheesy but its a good book overall. Could be relevant to your interests... if you've got enough rope!!

[tomrose.arb]

Dude, you're about 3 months ahead of me!

 

If you do find anything (and its not too much of a guarded secret), please let us know! I'm hopefully spending a bit of time traveling from Norway to Morocco this June-August and my climbing gear is definitely coming too!

 

 

 

As a side note (apologies for any derail) I've just read this: [ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Wild-Trees-Passion-Daring/dp/0812975596]The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring: Amazon.co.uk: Richard Preston: Books[/ame]. Some of the writing is a bit daft and/or cheesy but its a good book overall. Could be relevant to your interests... if you've got enough rope!!

 

 

That sounds awesome man, yeah I'll let you know! Don't need a travel buddy do you haha?

[DrewB]

Cheers bro

[tomrose.arb]

Cheers bro

 

 

You're welcome man Keep up the good work! Hope you don't mind me asking but how did your project come about?

[gibbon]

If your interested in getting experience climbing in the tropics we are organising another trip to west Africa next year. Pm me if you want to find out more

[martwizz]

I also investigated this a few years ago, and talked with Simon Amos who runs canopy access ltd.

 

However from what I gather, most of their guys are locals, and there isn't a big demand for ex-arbs to get into it. The David Attenborough stuff doesn't come around often! One potential route could be trying to climb the ranks with recreational climbing facilitation, which is getting quite big in the US. There are certainly opportunities to teach young biologists and such how to climb in the tropics through that though - like:

 

Forest Canopy Access Techniques - Institute for Tropical Ecology and Conservation

 

This is also a course I would highly recommend - Probably the best month of my life!

[DrewB]

You're welcome man Keep up the good work! Hope you don't mind me asking but how did your project come about?

 

We just wanted to do it and just made sure it happened bro. It's good fun organising a trip yourself and seeing what it takes logistically. We have quite a bit being planned for later this year and 2015 so drop me an email sometime. good luck with everything buddy.