Krista Strating, North American Tree Climbing Champion, on Tree Climbing Competitions and Her Love of Silky Saws

Being an arborist is a cool job. Not only do you get to use Silky saws most days, but you also get to climb trees.

In the 1970s, the ISA Arbor, the governing and certification body for arborists, hosted a jamboree to raise awareness of the craft and to make training and excelling as an arborist fun. That jamboree morphed into a tree climbing competiton. Now, ISA hosts tree climbing competitions all over the world.

Krista Strating, a certified arborist from Ontario, Canada who says she is never without a Silky Zubat at her side, was the 2018 International Tree Climbing Competition World Champ. A 12-year veteran competitive tree climber, she is currently the North American Tree Climbing Champion, a title she has held four times. She’s been Ontario’s tree-climbing champ nine times. She’s one of the winningest female tree climbers in the world!

Besides climbing for work and climbing for sport, Strating also teaches tree climbing, which she has been doing for 14 years. She’s been a climbing instructor for Humber College for 10 years, teaching around 80 students a year how to climb and work a tree safely. She’s a member of the Women’s Tree Climbing Workshop crew, which hosts workshops that teach women how to climb trees in a safe, encouraging, and empowering learning environment.

“You have to be a little bit crazy to do this for a living,” says Strating. “Tree climbing competitors are all really good friends, which makes tree climbing comps, even at the World Championship level, considerably different from the Olympics and other high-level sports competitions where the competitors largely ignore each other. At tree climbing comps, competitors are constantly high-fiving. We all hang out, we share equipment, and give advice.”

Comps are what pulled Strating from horticulture to arboriculture. At a wedding party, the husband of a friend pitched Strating on the idea of doing tree work and climbing competitively, and offered her a job. After observing a comp, she changed career paths. The first comp she entered she won.

“Tree climbing competitively came naturally to me,” said Strating. “I have a competitive nature, I am long, and I’m athletic.”

In climbing comps, arborist competitors don’t cut trees. They use a toothless saw to tap a bell as they move through the canopy mimicking the cuts an arborist might make if they had to remove a branch hanging over a house, for example. But at work and at home, when Strating is making real cuts, she uses a Silky Zubat exclusively, and she has for 12 years.

“Everyone knows that the Zubat is the best," says Strating. "When my students ask me what I use, I tell them to buy a Zubat. Even if it’s more money, the blade stays sharper longer than any other saw, the blade is replaceable, and the extra money is worth it. I like how it clicks into its sheath. When an arborist finds a piece of equipment to match their mastery, that’s special. And for me, that piece of equipment is the Zubat.”

Strating praises the Zubat for its clean cuts. “As a professional arborist, I want my work to be clean," says Strating. "I don’t want to leave a jagged cut. Make a rough cut and the tree won't seal over that properly. The Zubat is always efficient, and the cut is always precise and smooth.”

She also sings the praises of the Zubat’s grippy handle that never seems to wear out and the confident click of the scabbard. She replaces her Zubat blade and her scabbard rollers annually. She’s never had to replace a handle.

“Every item in my kit has a reason for being there, and it’s exactly the right tool for the work I do. The Zubat is the cornerstone of my kit. It’s a symbol of professionalism, efficiency, and performance, and the best you can get.”