Tree Climbing in Costa Rica
Canopy Climbers
Canopy Climbers - Full Film
If you’re a rock climber but there are no rocks around… you climb the trees.
A group of friends in the Costa Rican jungle are spearheading the new wild and exciting sport of tree climbing by using traditional rock climbing techniques to scale giant strangler fig trees. In order to give back to their community, they're sharing their passion with the community by teaching local kids more about the forest through tree climbing.
Tree climbing in Monteverde, Costa Rica
“Monteverde is a beautiful place but there’s not much to do,” said Rafi Vargas, local tree climber and one of the most experienced climbers in the area. “So, one of the things we would do is get up into the trees. That was really the start of our tree climbing.”
Rafi is one of a handful of athletes spearheading the sport of physically difficult tree climbing in Costa Rica. Born and raised in Monteverde, Rafi is a climber at heart but there weren't many rocks around to climb... so he started climbing trees. I first met Rafi when we were in middle school attending Monteverde Friends School and to watch his passion for his tree climbing blossom has been incredible.
When Rafi and his friends first began climbing trees with ropes, they were unaware that rock climbing systems existed so they began to experiment and find ways to get higher into the canopy by climbing massive stranger fig trees. They use nylon slings to wrap branches of the tree and clip their rope into a carabiner that extends from the sling, similar to what you would see in traditional rock climbing.
Canopy Climbers - Trailer
Climbing Strangler Figs like Rock climbers
These strangler fig trees aren't your typical tree. Because of how they grow, they produce some wild shapes that can closely resemble rock climbing holds such as jugs, pockets, crimps and even cracks. If you stand at the base of these stranger figs, as a climber, it feels so obvious and inviting to climb these things. So, that's exactly what they started doing... and doing it well. Now, they’re beginning to share tree climbing with others in town and even founded a nonprofit, Palo Vivo, to use tree climbing and reforestation as a way to teach local kids more about the forest.
“The community here is what makes it such a great place to live.” Rafi, a fifth generation Costa Rican, says in his perfect English because of the bilingual community that inhabits Monteverde. The town’s culture of sustainability and Quaker beliefs is due, in large part, to a group of Americans that had left the U.S. in the 1940s to avoid supporting the war effort with their tax dollars.
One of the founding members of the Monteverde community, Arthur Rockwell, shares his thoughts on his anti-war relocation to Costa Rica:
“We do not feel that our gesture in coming here was a striking blow against war or that, in itself, will it have any great effect toward bringing universal peace among men. But every wave on the ocean has its beginning in a tiny ripple somewhere, and perhaps our action will be that ripple which starts others to thinking and acting so that eventually the wave of public opinion will attain the desired end.”
Environmental Protection in the Monteverde Cloud Forest
Unlike many stories of American colonialism, these conscientious objectors became a part of the local Costa Rican community. They learned Spanish, they raised families alongside the locals and protected an impressive amount of the jungle. The Monteverde Cloud Forest alone hosts 50% of Costa Rica’s biodiversity and 2.5% of the world's total biodiversity. Because of this, scientists, arborists and environmentalists are frequently spotted around town with binoculars at the ready. It’s a place where science and adventure go hand and hand. For Rafi Vargas, these were his ancestors.
The name Vargas is seen everywhere in Monteverde - Supermercado Vargas is the local grocery store, Calle Los Vargas is the street you take the Ecological Sanctuary and, if you’re drinking some world famous Costa Rican coffee it was likely farmed by Cafe de Monteverde… a Vargas family owned business.
The combination of science and adventure
Because of the rich biodiversity in the area, scientists have been getting into the canopy for research purposes for decades. One of the leading experts on strangler fig trees, Nalini Nadkarni, was one of the first scientists to ascend the trees using fixed lines that she would shoot over the branches. She happened to be giving a research presentation on strangler fig trees while I was in Monteverde so I tagged along with some of the other tree climbers. As we sat in the open air classroom, clouds drifting through the windows, we listened in wonder to her stories of researching the canopy. We learned that it takes over 20 years for the epiphytes (plants that grow on other plants) that are frequently found all over these strangler figs to regrow if they are removed.
After the talk, the new age of tree climbers were recounting their code of ethics to this scientist who was one of the first people to ever experiment with ascending these trees. It felt like a child asking for their parents permission to continue having fun. Nadkarni calmly gave a smile to Rafi and the other tree climbers and said, “What you’re doing is so cool. You can’t stop. You have to keep going and continue to spread this joy to other people”
Exploring the connection between humans and nature
This emotional connection to the trees seems to be a common sentiment among those fortunate enough to experience the immense beauty and mystery of the cloud forest canopy. Grace Kennedy, tree climber and co-founder of Palo Vivo, shared her experience with me as we sat on the ground by a creek, “At first, I wasn’t strong enough to climb up into the canopy but it was good motivation to keep trying to see what it was like up there. It’s a very different world. It’s totally different from being on the ground. I’m so observant of what’s around me when I’m there up, because how could I be anywhere else?”
The magic and mystery of the canopy is an important driving factor for the athletes and tree climbers in the area. It’s an environment unlike any other and getting to experience that landscape through physically challenging and interesting climbing is an important part of the tree climbing culture.
On my final tree climbing day with Rafi, Grace and the other climbers in their group I got to witness the culture of Monteverde at its finest. The wholesome fun didn’t seem to stop once the harnesses were off. We ran to the river to take a dip as the sun set over the cloud forest above us. We then returned to one of the tree climber’s homes where pizza was made in an outdoor clay oven as we all sat by the fire laughing and swapping our favorite climbing and non-climbing stories.
There’s a nearly palpable feeling of community that is so strong here it almost feels like a hug from the forest. When I was in middle school, I spent a year living in Monteverde where I became friends with Rafi and a few others that are now pioneering this wild sport.
As kids, we’d climb these trees but it’s what happened when we got done that makes this special. We’d slowly walk along the main dirt road to play frisbee at Monteverde Friends School on Saturdays. We’d swim in the river, just like we did on my final day climbing with the crew, and make bean and cheese quesadillas while watching the sunset from the cliffs.
The Magic of Monteverde
Similar to how I imagine Arthur Rockwell and Nalini Nadkarni were feeling about protecting this place through environmentalism and scientific discovery, I can’t help but want to protect it too. Monteverde has left a meaningful and lasting impression on my heart but not just because of the biodiverse environment and beautiful landscape. It’s a place that, once I arrive, I never seem to want to leave. I want to remain in the warm embrace of that magical jungle community forever. Now, as the tree climbing culture begins to blossom in the area I hope that spirit of community continues to grow deeper as well.
As climbers it’s easy to chase experiences, push the limits, discover new places and possibilities but I think climbing, whether it be on rocks or trees, is about bringing people together.
That’s why tree climbing matters, it creates community.
My smile after completing my first difficult tree climb
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Roo is a commercial/documentary filmmaker and photographer based in Boulder, Colorado but travels all around the world for his filmmaking career. He has produced films for Outside Magazine in Ireland, camera operated for Netflix in the Rocky Mountain West, photographed among indigenous communities in Peru and Ecuador, directed videos with professional climbers in Mexico and has received notable recognition in his hometown of Orcas Island in Washington State for his work telling uplifting stories in the outdoor space.
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