{"id":20564,"date":"2014-03-25T09:55:53","date_gmt":"2014-03-25T16:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/?p=20564"},"modified":"2017-05-04T10:54:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T17:54:00","slug":"climbing-for-a-smiley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/climbing-for-a-smiley\/","title":{"rendered":"Climbing for a Smiley"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tree1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Looking down, there is nothing for 30 feet and then the leafy floor of the Potsdam forest in Germany. My head is red from exhaustion. When I look at my hands, they are shaking. I try to write my geocaching username in the small logbook, but the letters are scrawly. \u201cAt least I did not forget the pen down there,\u201d I think to myself.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Do<\/a>
Do not forget a pen, before going up!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cNow you have to come down\u201d Ralf (Geocaching username: DeepdiverBerlin<\/a>) calls from below. Ralf\u2019s specialty are T5 caches. Geocaches with a terrain 5 rating require specialized equipment. That can be a boat, a vehicle with 4 wheel drive, or in this case, climbing equipment. Ralf brought his experienced friends Karsten (Karsten & Co<\/a>), Gisela (water&sun<\/a>) and Michael (Vista-Freund<\/a>) to show me the ropes (pun intended) when it comes to finding geocaches hidden high up in trees.<\/p>\n

\u201cPull!\u201d, they yell and laugh and I carefully remove my hand ascender from the rope and pull the trigger of my descender to slowly let the rope slip through. And I come down, a lot quicker than it took me to climb up.<\/p>\n

A little shaky I land back on the soft forest floor. I feel thrilled, excited, and very accomplished, but before too long, we pack up our climbing gear and go to the next geocache that is placed high up in a tree.<\/p>\n

\"tree2\"<\/a>We tackle 5 trees that day. Each with a different shape, height and technique. At one geocache location, we have to build a so called \u201cropeway\u201d between two trees to get to a far out branch too thin to support anyone’s weight. Another time we have to pull the climber to the geocache from the ground. Tree climbing seems to be a great combination of physical and cerebral strength, as we often ponder over the best technique before getting the ropes in the trees and making our ways up to the geocaches.<\/p>\n

I am glad to be able to learn from experienced climbers. Gisela is close to her 1000th geocache, she got while climbing a tree. \u201cWe thought, these kind of geocaches are for other people. That we will never get them,\u201d says Michael, \u201cBut then a friend of ours took us and taught us how to do it and now we are hooked!\u201d I can understand why. The physical exertion, making it way high into the crown of a tree is so adventurous, but being guided with experience and secured with good climbing gear, I feel very safe.<\/p>\n

Gisela and Michael also took tree climbing classes to further their knowledge about tree climbing and also about tree types. It can be dangerous for inexperienced geocachers to climb a tree, because they don’t know enough about the sturdiness of different tree types, or cannot distinguish sick or dead trees from sturdy, healthy ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my kind of adventure,\u201d I think in the evening at a local geocaching event in Berlin. My legs are hurting, I can barely keep my eyes open, but I am happy and proud to have added five T5s to my geocaching statistics today. And I am looking forward to the next tree, and to my next geocaching adventure!<\/p>\n

What geocaching experience made you feel proud and accomplished? Let us know in the comments below!<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking down, there is nothing for 30 feet and then the leafy floor of the Potsdam forest in Germany. My head is red from exhaustion. When I look at my hands, they are shaking. I try to write my geocaching username in the small logbook, but the letters are scrawly. \u201cAt least I did not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[134,48],"tags":[159],"series":[],"class_list":["post-20564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-lackeys","tag-geocaching-hq"],"episode_featured_image":false,"episode_player_image":"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/feed\/podcast\/inside-geocaching-hq-podcast","embedCode":"

Climbing for a Smiley<\/a><\/blockquote>