Yea, mangosteen trees are great to climb. I use three limbs plus my butt to spread my weight too as one hand reaches out to get the fruit.
I guess tree climbing provides the kind of physical, mental, and emotional stimulation we have been evolved for. The physical movements are so varied and I enjoy the stretches (eg legs spread wide between two trunks). Mentally it is like navigating a puzzle, finding routes through the trees, testing the strength of branches with all four limbs, etc. Emotionally, there is always some fear because one could get hurt badly. The stimulation we didnt evolve for are city noises, car rides, urban fumes, etc. Meditation asks for no stimulation but maybe we just need the stimulation that makes us more human!
A few years ago I went for an arborist tree climbing course with all those ropes. It is very much against my instinct to trust all my weight to a rope, even though i know it is very strong. I kept trying to grab the tree with my limbs! But if you get past that, you can scale trees and reach the ends that without the ropes would be impossible. I saw a tree climbing competition here too and they have to ring the bells at different parts of the tree and get down as fast as possible. But like you said, I think it makes people take more risk and the pure joy of climbing is reduced by extrinsic motivation.
The orang aslis here drive 6 inch nails into the petai trees to climb them. Sometimes they hammer bamboo pieces in to make a ladder. Or tie a bamboo to the petai as a ladder. So many methods! It is a big part of their income because no one else does it.
The tualang trees that they harvest honey from are crazy big and tall. Feels like climbing a wall really.
Gorgeous piece. It reminded me of how I spontaneously wove baskets as a kid without ever seeing it done, a strange urge that has followed me all my life.
Yea, mangosteen trees are great to climb. I use three limbs plus my butt to spread my weight too as one hand reaches out to get the fruit.
I guess tree climbing provides the kind of physical, mental, and emotional stimulation we have been evolved for. The physical movements are so varied and I enjoy the stretches (eg legs spread wide between two trunks). Mentally it is like navigating a puzzle, finding routes through the trees, testing the strength of branches with all four limbs, etc. Emotionally, there is always some fear because one could get hurt badly. The stimulation we didnt evolve for are city noises, car rides, urban fumes, etc. Meditation asks for no stimulation but maybe we just need the stimulation that makes us more human!
A few years ago I went for an arborist tree climbing course with all those ropes. It is very much against my instinct to trust all my weight to a rope, even though i know it is very strong. I kept trying to grab the tree with my limbs! But if you get past that, you can scale trees and reach the ends that without the ropes would be impossible. I saw a tree climbing competition here too and they have to ring the bells at different parts of the tree and get down as fast as possible. But like you said, I think it makes people take more risk and the pure joy of climbing is reduced by extrinsic motivation.
The orang aslis here drive 6 inch nails into the petai trees to climb them. Sometimes they hammer bamboo pieces in to make a ladder. Or tie a bamboo to the petai as a ladder. So many methods! It is a big part of their income because no one else does it.
The tualang trees that they harvest honey from are crazy big and tall. Feels like climbing a wall really.
As a fellow tree climber, I loved this essay.
Gorgeous piece. It reminded me of how I spontaneously wove baskets as a kid without ever seeing it done, a strange urge that has followed me all my life.