Professional tree climbers reach for the top in annual competition

NINA MOINI: There's a kid in your life who loves to climb trees, they may be interested to know it can be a career and a sport. There are competitions all over the world where arborists race to scale trees and complete tasks up in the branches. One such competition is happening this weekend at Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis. It's the Minnesota Society of Arboriculture Tree Climbing Championship and Festival of Trees.

Returning Women's Champion Sydney Hudzinski will be defending her title and trying to make it to the international championships being held this fall. She joins me now on the line. Thank you so much for your time, Sydney.

SYDNEY HUDZINSKI: Hello. Thank you so much for [AUDIO OUT]

NINA MOINI: Oh, do we have Sydney? All right. Well, we're going to try to get Sydney back on the line. We had her for just a second there.

Well, we talked about earlier this hour that we are having some threats of severe weather this afternoon. Meteorologist Mandy Thalhuber was on earlier, telling us everyone should be staying really weather aware today, tuning in to 91.1 or at mprnews.org and just kind of seeing what's the very latest. Of course, they've got the Updraft blog there that I really like to visit whenever I'm trying to see, what's the day going to be like? They break it down for everybody. So just a reminder there to keep on the severe weather.

But we're really happy Sydney is back on the line. She's defending her title, trying to make it to the international championships. And Sydney, did I say arboriculture correctly? Because I honestly don't think I've said the word before.

SYDNEY HUDZINSKI: Yes, you did. Yeah, the Minnesota Society of Arboriculture.

NINA MOINI: Wonderful. So how did you get into competitive tree climbing?

SYDNEY HUDZINSKI: It started back in 2019 when I was out of college, looking for a job. I started as a seasonal employee for a municipality. Really loved being outside and working around trees. And feeling the sun on your skin every day is just amazing.

And so I just typed in Indeed. And I just typed my degree, which was biology, and up came a climbing arborist trainee position. And I was like, that sounds so stinking cool. So I applied, and yeah, they hired me. And I worked through it. Learned how to climb. Learned how to climb proficiently. And then my coworkers introduced me to competitive tree climbing. And here we are now, three years later.

NINA MOINI: Oh, I just have so many questions. This is so cool. Because people might think, well, I could climb a tree. What do you mean you trained? Tell me a little bit about, what does that entail to do that safely? Not recommending people do this at home, right?

SYDNEY HUDZINSKI: Right? Yeah. It is a skill set. And training is required and highly recommended with it. And it takes a long time. It's something that once you become proficient at it, looks so simplistic and very straightforward. But it can be very challenging. And so getting the proper training, which a lot of companies are willing to do, is highly recommended.

NINA MOINI: Sure. So what types of trees are you usually climbing?

SYDNEY HUDZINSKI: Any tree that is safe to do so. For the climbing competitions, there's a little bit more of a subset or qualification for each of those trees. So finding the right site is very challenging because you have to find the right trees, the right amount of parking, the right facilities for having hundreds of people infiltrate a park for a weekend. But for a work position, from a work standpoint, any tree that needs to be pruned, removed, inspected, cabled, or braced, they all can be climbed.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, so this is as a part of your job. Tell me a little bit about what you do.

SYDNEY HUDZINSKI: Yeah, so I work for a municipality on the west side of the Twin Cities. And I work in our parks, our trails, and on our boulevard trees, helping maintain a happy coexistence between the reality of the public's use and how to mitigate safety as well as trying to compromise with the tree and have the tree be in a healthy aspect.

So I prune them. I run inspections. We also cable and brace them if they need a little bit more support as well as pruning removal. And then there are some plant health care that we do to help out as well for them.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, because I know in the Twin Cities, and I'm sure other areas, there's been a lot of insects and emerald ash borer, things that are just killing, invasive things that are killing a lot of the trees. We've also had some drought. What are you seeing up there in the tree tops? How are the trees doing?

SYDNEY HUDZINSKI: Yeah, I've been saying this a lot so much the last year. It is so stinking hard to be an urban tree right now with all the different types of invasive diseases and pests that are perpetually growing. And then as well as like you said, the drought. There's always soil compaction as well as even salt on the road. When that builds up in the soil, that also can be harmful.

And if you have a healthy tree, just one of these issues they can handle just fine. But when you start compounding them, then it starts getting-- and you're seeing a lot of decline right now, especially with ash trees. I would say on the west side, we're at peak for ash death. If you haven't treated your ash yet, it most likely is too far gone. And same with oaks with oak wilt and twolined chestnut borer. I'm seeing a lot of tip decline on oaks with twolined chestnut borer and drought stress. So it's very challenging to be an urban tree right now.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, so trees, obviously a big part of your life. I want to get back to the competition though because after you won last year's championship here in Minnesota, you actually went to the International Tree Climbing Championship in Georgia. What was that experience like?

SYDNEY HUDZINSKI: It was crazy and so cool and so intimidating and humbling, but also such a wonderful learning experience and so much stinking fun. Meeting people from all over the world and having them all come together and compete in this one event, it's hard to describe how cool it is.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, are there countries that are really known for this?

SYDNEY HUDZINSKI: It's all over. So you have competitions in Australia. Internationals this year is going to be in Christchurch, New Zealand, which is super cool. There's an Asia-Pacific. There's multiple all over Europe. And then we have countless chapters in the US as well.

NINA MOINI: And then do you bring any equipment with you? Do you have-- or is it just you and your limbs?

SYDNEY HUDZINSKI: Yeah, right? No, we have spec-- there's specialized gear for tree climbing. And then tree climbing is very-- it's not very delicate. It's not a lot of pillows and fluff. It's--

NINA MOINI: Bark?

SYDNEY HUDZINSKI: It's dirt and bark and rough.

NINA MOINI: Sure.

SYDNEY HUDZINSKI: So after my first year of competitive climbing, I kind of had to take a step back and just figure out if this was something I really wanted to pursue. And I really enjoyed it and fully believe in the tree climbing comps and the competitions that I go to. And so I've invested in a separate set of climbing gear that I utilize for the climbing comps so that it stays nice and doesn't get too beat up.

NINA MOINI: Sure.

SYDNEY HUDZINSKI: So there is some specialized equipment for it.

NINA MOINI: OK. Well, do you have any advice, Sydney, before I let you go, for anyone who is hearing this and really thinking, I mean, this is cool. This could be cool maybe for one of their kids or just something to look into that maybe people didn't know existed.

SYDNEY HUDZINSKI: Yeah, like I said, there's many companies that if it's something you are willing-- you want to try and go and do and switch careers and join this career, it's a very welcoming career. If it's something you just want to watch, there is the climbing comp at Theodore Wirth this weekend. It is a completely free event. We have a Festival of Trees going on as well with different vendors and activities, as well as we do have a kids climb. So there'll be a couple of local arborists running a spot where any kid can come and go climb for fun.

NINA MOINI: And they'll be safe, right?

SYDNEY HUDZINSKI: Oh, yes.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. So that might-- for parents listening, this might be your chance to go have your kids climb some trees in the right environment. Sydney, thank you very much. Wishing you all the best, and good luck.

SYDNEY HUDZINSKI: Thank you so much. You have a wonderful rest of your day, and hopefully we'll see some people out there.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, awesome. That's Sydney Hudzinski, a forestry technician for the City of Plymouth and the Minnesota Society of Arboriculture's 2024 Women's Tree Climbing champion.