There is no cat in need of rescue, but climbers are still scaling the trees at John Hextall Park in Calgary this weekend.

The best tree climbers on the Prairies are in town to take part in a competition to determine two climbers worthy of making it to the International Tree Climbing Championships in New Zealand next year.

Bowness will host the best professional arborists from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba for the 2024 Prairie Chapter Tree Climbing Championship (PCTCC).

Gerard Fournier, chief judge of the competition and owner of For Trees tree care company in Didsbury, Alabama, told CBC News he has been active with the PCTCC for 33 years.

“I started as a twig collector, a timekeeper, a technician and, of course, a competitor,” said Fournier.

He said that as chief judge, he teaches other arborists how to evaluate participants and judge the events accordingly.

“It’s obviously very meticulous. There’s an international rules committee that investigates all the incidents that have happened in all the chapters over the last year or so,” Fournier said. “There are chapters all over Canada and all over the United States and all over the world.”

The international competition began in California, where the first competitions were held to train arborists to save a life in a single-rope aerial rescue, according to the International Society of Arboriculture. Over time, the competition evolved into the event it is today.

“I don’t know if it will be on the Olympics in the near future, but when we’re in Europe it’s usually broadcast occasionally by ESPN and stuff,” Fournier said.

“It’s pretty unbelievable.

“I think the biggest benefit for participants is the camaraderie and the training opportunities because you can learn so much just by watching other people do their thing,” Fournier said.

Bernadette O’Connor visited the PCTCC on Saturday to cheer on her son Adam, even though she was a little scared to see him so high up.

“He’s been climbing trees since he was a kid… he’s an arborist at heart,” O’Connor said.

“My heart is beating a little faster, but I know he has all his seatbelts fastened.”

She says her son has always been interested in high-performance sports such as skiing and climbing – he has worked in the mountains in some capacity since he was a young adult. In the winter he is a ski guide and also assesses the snow for avalanche danger.

“He was always a rock climber too, and when he wore his safety gear, I wasn’t worried about him. But sometimes I just walked away. I didn’t want to watch,” O’Connor said.

Fournier praised Calgary’s Urban Forestry Division for helping prepare the trees in John Hextall Park for the competition and for allowing the tree climbers to hold the competition there, as the city had not hosted the PCTCC in nearly a decade.

He says professional arborists are usually the main participants in the event, but people from other tree climbing professions that have nothing to do with cutting down trees also participate. He says Calgary has a high number of arborists per capita compared to other communities in the Prairies, and the turnout this year was more than adequate.

“Probably 43 or 44 climbers, six or seven of them are women, the rest are men. I’d say we have about a dozen first-time climbers here, which is great,” said Fournier.

Jordyn Dyck, an arborist with Trilogy Tree Services in Manitoba and a four-time PCTCC women’s winner, told CBC News she started tree climbing when her boss persuaded her to enter the competition years ago.

“And I just never stopped,” she said.

Dyck has competed in international competitions in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Copenhagen, Denmark. She says the community around tree climbing is supportive and caring.

“You really challenge yourself mentally and physically, both at work and when you compete,” Dyck said. “And I feel like since I’ve been doing this job and competing, I’ve just become a better version of myself because of all those challenges and the support that comes with it.”

“It is literally the best community I have ever known.”

She adds that climbing some of the taller trees can be scary, but she loves the thrill of being so high up.

“It almost feels like a secret club that you’re invited to because not many people get to climb in the spaces that we climb in,” Dyck said. “You get to climb 60 to 80 feet up into the treetop and look out over the city from that vantage point, feel the fear and still keep going – it’s just a really special experience.”

There are five preliminary events in the PCTCC that encompass everything an arborist does on a typical day, including testing a competitor’s tree climbing speed and rope handling skills.

“The winners of all the heats in the men’s and women’s classes will compete in the Master Challenge (on Sunday). And that’s a sudden-death competition that combines all the other skills into a single event,” Fournier said.

The winners of the Master’s Challenge, one man and one woman, will receive a place at the International Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand.