Climbing trees is not an easy thing to do for everyone, it takes special skills, good and safe technique to avoid accidents that may occur. A few times ago OuTrop field team members (Adul, Sadi and Aman) attended a tree climbing training with friends from BOS Foundation which trained by Tree Monkey Project, read the full story from Adul.
For approximately one week we trained to climb trees with a team from BOS Foundation and trained by Tree Monkey Project at Arboretum- Nyaru Menteng, which is about 40km from the city of Palangkaraya. Every morning we started this long journey vigorously, although the weather was not always friendly, sometimes we are caught in the rain and cold during the trip.
This training provides experience and new knowledge for us, which might not climb trees using techniques or special equipment. In this training we are taught to always check the trees, branches and its surroundings before climbing, then prepare for safety equipment such as helmets, ropes, harnesses, etc. and then set it up properly.
After installing the safety equipment of the next step is to throw the ball toward the limb or branch of a tree to attach a rope and tied carbiner. Before climbing there cue to note that: Bag check!, carabiner check !, Knot check! and Anchor check! After climbing 2 or 3m we must make the safety knots and so on. When we are down too, must slowly. The purpose of the cue is when we’ve started up and is on the trees we do not lack the tools to climb and not have to go down again waste time and drain the energy to take on such a device.
We felt the tree climbing training taught to us very valuable course to support our work, for example such as installing cameras in trees safely, to see the canopy of the higher tree and for our other research projects.
Not just any experience or knowledge that we get but also new friends, we also shared togetherness and jokes with each other. For example, as Sadi that during training get a helmet that is quite smelly and how lucky he is when the training is completed in addition to getting the certificate he also get the helmet from the coach. This is what makes us always excited even though we were accompanied and supervised by our coach during training.
We are very grateful to Tree Monkey Project and BOS Foundation for the training opportunity and the equipment given to us, in the future we will always practice and work by applying lessons that already we get and share that knowledge to other friends in Sabangau.
