On the 13/14/15th September over 50 of the world’s top pole climbers will arrive at APF 2012 being held at Ragley Estate, Alcester, Warwickshire to compete in the Husqvarna World 25m Pole Climbing Championships. This biannual competition involves the climbers racing against the clock to climb two giant 80ft poles. The two Douglas Fir poles have been carefully selected for the event from Longleat Estate in Wiltshire. They are dug 14ft into the ground for stability. Both the world record holder, Grant Gallier (9.07s), and the current world champion Matt Thomas, who won the 2010 championships in 10.13s will compete in the 2012 event. The oldest climber is an incredible 79 years old, George Tipping, who is climbing to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care. Despite his age George can still do the climb in around 25s! and will be looking to take the veterans title. All the top climbers will be hoping to scale the 25m (80ft) poles in less than 11 seconds. The heats take place on the first two days with the finals being staged on Saturday afternoon
The World Poleclimbing Championships is just one of a huge series of events taking place over the three days of APF 2012, other events include The European Horse Logging championships, the European Chainsaw Carving Championships, the World log to leg polelathe turning championships, as seen on BBC Mastercrafts , the UK forwarder driving championships, an extensive woodland crafts area and 2.5 miles and over £30 million of working forestry machinery.
Source: HortiTrends News Room
