Families looking for a way to bond together—and with nature—need only to look up.
Often thought of as a child's pastime, tree climbing is an exciting recreational activity for people of all ages and abilities. Panola Mountain State Park, about 18 miles southeast of Atlanta, offers year-round tree climbing classes and events.
Not your typical hand-and-foot climbing from your youth, the state park utilizes the Canopy-Adventure-Research-Educational Technical Tree Climbing system of rope-assisted climbing used by professionals and hobbyists worldwide.
"There's a learning curve to using the ropes properly," said Brian Lanier, director of tree climbing at Panola Mountain State Park. "But with coaching and a little practice, anybody can master it."
Participants in the park's tree climbing events range from elementary-age kids to senior citizens. Although the sport provides a good workout, particularly of the abdominal muscles, tree climbing is a moderate physical activity that's easily adaptable to meet the needs of individuals of all shapes, sizes and health conditions.
"The oldest climber I've worked with was 82 years old, and we've adjusted the gear to fit people weighing over 300 pounds," Lanier said. "If you give us advance notice, we can even adapt the equipment to enable the wheelchair-bound to climb our trees. It truly is adaptable for everybody."
Though hanging from ropes several stories above the earth appears risky, participants couldn't be safer. Lanier said the park operates on a "challenge by choice" philosophy, where each individual decides his or her own risk level.
He finds that helping people overcome their fear of risk-taking is one of the more rewarding aspects of managing a tree-climbing program.
"A lot of people tell me that they're afraid of heights. But what they're actually afraid of is falling," Lanier said. "Once they realize that they cannot fall—they literally cannot fall out of the harness—it's very inspiring. And once you're 40 feet up in the tree, you find out that you're just not afraid anymore."
Some people require a bit more coaching, such as the 12-year-old girl Lanier recently talked through her fears.
"She was petrified and flat-out refused to go up into the tree. I told her that was fine; if she changed her mind, to come back and talk to me." Lanier said, laughing. "She eventually did, and the next thing you know, she was sitting on a branch, then standing on it, and 10 minutes later, she was swinging like a monkey, having a ball!"
Lanier said he is concerned about how little time children spend outdoors today, and medical professionals share his unease. According to the Activity IQ Quiz on Children's Healthcare of Atlanta's Strong 4 Life website, only 8 percent of adolescents get the recommended 60 minutes of active play each day.
Children ages 6 -11 fare somewhat better, with 42 percent meeting that level of activity. But that still leaves the majority of kids missing out on the physical and psychological benefits of daily exercise.
According to Woodstock Pediatric Medicine, exercising outdoors leads to decreased depression, anxiety and stress, and an increased ability to focus.
And being outside trumps staying indoors because sunshine allows kids to absorb more vitamin D. This essential nutrient promotes bone growth, increases calcium absorption, and helps decrease the risk of developing cancer and heart disease.
CHOA's Strong4Life program even specifically recommends visiting local parks as a good way to take advantage of myriad benefits of outdoor activity.
It's not only children who stand to benefit from more time spent with nature. According to Science Daily, climbing trees can improve cognitive skills in adults as well, with a 50 percent improvement in working memory shown after just two hours of this type of exercise.
Dr. Ross Alloway, a research associate in the department of psychology at the University of North Florida and co-leader of the study states that, "... doing activities that make us think, we can exercise our brains as well as our bodies. This research has wide-ranging implications for everyone from kids to adults. By taking a break to do activities that are unpredictable and require us to consciously adapt our movements, we can boost our working memory to perform better in the classroom and the boardroom."
People desiring more than an hour or two in the trees will want to check out Panola Mountain's "ZZZ in the Trees" events, where participants actually sleep overnight in the arbor canopy.
"We try to hold these four times a year, but can also schedule them for groups at other times, such as for Scout troops or family reunions," Lanier said. "We like to call them Canopy Camping Adventures. The beds are actually called tree boats and are suspended from branches like hammocks. We have a bonfire with s'mores before climbing up to bed. It's a lot of fun."
Shorter daytime climbs, as well as combination events that add a hike or other activity to the tree climbing, can also be scheduled in advance. Lanier said birthdays are much more memorable when celebrated from a bird's eye view.
"One lady scheduled a climb with us for her 30th birthday. She'd decided that she would climb 30 trees to celebrate turning 30, and wanted the final one to be up a 200-foot sycamore tree beside the South River that runs through Panola Mountain Park," Lanier said.
Panola recommends attending one of the monthly introduction classes before scheduling a special event, to receive training on using the CARE TTC equipment, but it's not a requirement. Detailed information about climbing one of Panola Mountain State Park's 11 arbor-certified large trees can be found on the park's tree climbing webpage.
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