James Aldred

As a teenager, author James Aldred had a mountain climbing buddy who taught him how to climb trees using mountaineering equipment. The first tree they climbed together was a California Sequoia that had been planted in a UK tree reserve

Although he didn’t make it to the top of the tree his first day, he was hooked. He practiced, practiced, practiced and spent ten years refining his techniques often as a unpaid helper in various tree climbing capacities.

Eventually he made it to the top (grin) and became a professional tree climber and photographer for such organizations as BBC and National Geographic.

He’s climbed trees in Borneo, The Congo, Costa Rico, Peru, Australia, Gabon, Papua, Venezuela and Morocco while setting up zip lines and building tree houses far above the forest floor.

Of course trees don’t exist by themselves, so he has encountered unhappy neighbors such as elephants, apes, wasps and unhappy harpy eagles (the latter while setting up a nest camera in their kapok tree in Venezuela).

He’s also had amazing encounters with people, such as the Papua Korawai tribe that helped him build a tree house and had only one steel ax and a multitude of stone axes. On the other end of the spectrum he was doing a bit of tree trimming at the palace when Queen Elizabeth was disturbed by his presence as she hadn’t been told he would be there.

Interesting and well written nature, adventure and travel wrapped into one. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would after it became a selection of our book club.… (más)

Only the second book I've found that describes the life found up in the branches of trees, and thus worth reading to me. The writing is pretty pedestrian, and at times it seems more like a book about what kind of bugs are biting him or what kind of ghastly things are burrowing under his skin or attacking him. He has a tendency to skip around the parts of each story that don't directly involve his climbing, resulting in adventures that build up and then disappear, leaving the reader, uh, hanging. (Sorry.) Not much in the way of science here. That said, he seems like a very nice guy who's led an amazing life in the trees, doing the thing that he loves, and the story was definitely worth sharing with us more earth-bound specimens. The chapter about trying to put a camera in a bird's nest was worth the price of the book. Recommended if you're interested in trees or forests--or horrible bugs or parasites.… (más)

It has been a long while since I climbed a tree, but in my childhood, I spent a fair amount of time climbing and occasionally falling out of trees. There were one or two that were particularly good to climb or hide in and several that we tried and failed at. To reach the top of a small tree felt like an achievement, even though the heights weren't that high, it felt like you were on the top of the world. James Aldred began the same way, climbing trees in the New Forest until at the age of 17 he went with two friends to ascend using rigging and climbing gear to climb a tree where the lower branches were totally out of reach from the ground. At this point, he was hooked and knew what he wanted to do.

Now he climbs trees that are over 150fit high using high tech equipment, taking up cameras and assisting the wildlife cameramen for the BBC and others that are looking to film what goes on up in the canopies of the global forests. With some other expert climbers, he has ascended one of the highest trees in the world, peeking above the treeline around 300 feet up. The risks are enormous, one mistake and it is all over, but it is a job that he loves with a passion. It has taken him to forest all around the world, he has seen animals that have enthralled and amazed him, slept out under the stars many times, been bitten alive by all manner of insects and in on very scary moment was attacked by a harpy eagle. He wouldn't change it for the world though.

Aldred has been very fortunate to work with some of the very best in the wildlife film industry and the stories that he tells in this book will enthral and entertain you. I am not too bad with heights, but some of the trees Aldred climbs are quite staggering, though the thought of sleeping in the canopy, very securely strapped in, of course, does appeal quite a lot. It is a book that can be categorised in a few ways, but definitely, a book that is worth reading.… (más)