wander outside
92 denverlifemagazine.com | APRIL 2019
TREECLIMBING^COLORADOUp a tree
A GROWING SPORT, WITH A
SCHOOL IN COLORADO, HAS
FOLKS SCALING ASPENS AND
PINES—ALL IN PURSUIT OF
ADVENTURE (AND GREAT
VIEWS AT THE TOP).
BY ANDREW WEAVERW
hen you think about
it, it’s really no sur-
prise that organized
tree-climbing schools
(“groves,” as enthusiasts will call them)
exist across the world, and that people
of all ages—not just kids—are passion-
ate about scrambling up trees for the
sheer fun of it. The urge to get to the
top of a tree is one everybody recogniz-
es, left over from our ancient, arboreal
beginnings. We used to live up there,
after all.
It is perhaps also unsurprising, in
a state where people love to scale big
things, that one of these schools, Tree
Climbing Colorado, is here in our own
backyard. Based in Evergreen, the or-
ganization operates under the direction
of a 68-year-old retired professor of en-
vironmental science and part-time em-
ployee of the Colorado Sierra Club. His
name is Harv Teitelbaum, but you won’t
hear anyone call him that in tree-
climbing circles.
“We all have tree names,” he explains.
“Mine’s Ponderosa.”
Teitelbaum discovered the sport of
tree climbing 18 years ago. It attracted
him because, as he says, “it seemed to
combine everything I really enjoyed
doing...the exercise of climbing, the
discovery of getting up into trees, the
joy of being out in the forest.” In 2001,
when Teitelbaum caught wind of or-
ganized tree climbing, the sport was
still in its infancy, with its most serious
practitioners living in Georgia. IntentBIRD’S-EYE VIEW
“ALL TREES ARE
DIFFERENT,” SAYS HARV
TEITELBAUM, DIRECTOR OF
TREE CLIMBING
COLORADO.