A tree-climbing competition attracts professional arborists from throughout the Northwest to Tacoma. They pride themselves on safety – and fun. They crept on branches 50 feet in the air, dangled from ropes and worked the trees like they were squirrels.

It’s what they do every day at work, but on Saturday, it’s what they did for sport.

A dozen arborists from Oregon, Idaho and Washington gathered at Tacoma’s South Park on South Tacoma Way to compete in the Puget Sound Regional Tree Climbing Competition.

The contest featured jaw-dropping events such as the “speed climb” – scrambling up the trunk and the limbs of a sequoia as fast as possible and ringing a bell more than110 feet above ground. The winner, Eli Kunzmann of Seattle, climbed from ground to bell in one minute, 12 seconds.

In the “foot lock,” competitors shimmied 50 feet up a rope hanging from a Douglas fir limb. Using a safety harness hooked from their waist to the rope, they grabbed upward with their hands and pushed with their feet, which were wrapped snugly around the rope, to reach the bell on top.

In the throw-line event, participants tested their skill at tossing a thin rope, with a weight on one end, over a branch some 50 to 70 feet above ground. Once the throw line was in place, competitors used it to pull up a half-inch-thick climbing line.

The top three finishers from Saturday’s event can enter a Northwest championship in Boise in the fall. And if they qualify there, they can go on to an international championship next summer. Kunzmann took first place in the Masters Challenge, an event pitting the top competitors in preliminary events Saturday.

“All the events mimic the real work arborists would do,” said arborist Bryce Landrud, owner of Auburn-based Thundering Oaks Enterprises and one of the event organizers.

Arborists specialize in pruning, felling and caring for trees and shrubs. While people of various knowledge levels work in the tree-cutting and pruning industry, most of the competitors Saturday are arborists certified by the International Society of Arboriculture, said Zeb Haney, one of the competition organizers and owner of TreeSource Inc. Arborists earn certification by passing a comprehensive test that includes tree biology and treatment, pruning and safe work practices. They have at least three years’ education or experience in the related professions including horticulture and nursery work.

“There’s a lot of people who just whack stuff down,” said John Ogletree, an arborist with City Foresters Inc. in Seattle. “We don’t prune using spikes” on boots to climb trees, a practice that can damage them. “That’s one of the things we pride ourselves on.”

A key reason behind the tree-climbing competition is to promote safe work practices. For instance, competitors are supposed to be safely secured to trees at all times.

Haney cited Occupational Safety and Health Administration statistics that 980 tree workers died on the job in the United States from 1991 to 2005 – one fatality for every 3.4 working days.

“Unsafe acts like running chain saws with one hand instead of two or climbing a tree without being attached to it lead to those fatalities,” Haney said. “That’s unacceptable. The tree-climbing competition, besides being a way to demonstrate skills, and compete and build camaraderie, has been a way to set the bar as to what are safe, proper ways to climb and work in a tree.”

The event drew experienced champions and first-time competitors alike.

Mike Harrell, 29, of Lake Tapps, has been climbing trees on the job for seven months as an arborist in Haney’s company.

“It’s great,” he said of the competition. “It’s a big learning experience. You pick up tricks from people who’ve been doing this for years.”

Ogletree, 24, has been working in the industry for six years.

“It’s definitely what I choose to do forever. It’s fun,” said Ogletree, who finished second overall in the preliminary events. “I get to be outside. I love trees and I love working hard.”

Debby Abe: 253-597-8694

GO SEE THEM

People can watch participants from Saturday’s tree-climbing competition measure, inspect and remove dead branches from the 500-year-old Mountaineer Tree in a parking lot on Five Mile Drive in Point Defiance Park from 7 a.m. to noon today.