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UK & Ireland Tree Climbing Competition 2025

War Memorial Park, Coventry

12th–14th September 2025

This year the climbing community celebrates a special anniversary, marking 30 years since the first climbing competition in the UK.

The UK & Ireland Tree Climbing Competition (UKITCC) has been the longest running and arguably the pinnacle of these, with winners going on to represent the UK & Ireland at the European and International Championships.

Understandably, the thought of entering a competition can be an intimidating prospect. But rather than a fiercely competitive environment, newcomers always find a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere, with a strong sense of camaraderie among the climbing community. It’s a group whose ethos is centred around building a progressive and supportive setting for all those involved, because more than anything, everyone is there to learn how to be a better climber. Whatever place you finish, there’s always something to take away and apply in your daily work. The UKITCC in particular provides the perfect format to demonstrate the importance of efficiency and not just speed, judging climbers on five different key disciplines.

Paul McBride has been on both sides of the competition setup in recent years, having been a competitor, volunteer, judge and helped organise ARB Show and UKITCC events.

’I have had the good fortune to meet the volunteer crews at different tree climbing events and witnessed their expertise and passion as they plan and put these events together to help share this learning. They are some of the best people you could ever meet, with incredible knowledge and skills. Without them these events can’t happen. I’m grateful to spend time with them.‘

1995: Peter Holloway presenting the A&F Warehouse Golden Axe to top British climber Jan Grzeda

2024 Women’s Masters: Sarah Ann Quinlan, Jo Hedger and Nanako Seki

The first ‘UK/Ireland Skills Championship’, as it was originally branded, was held as part of the 1995 Arboricultural Association Conference at Lancaster University. Jan Grzeda from Colchester was the inaugural winner, beating 23 other climbers.

Twenty years ago, Jo Hedger took part in her first ISA competition at the 2005 ARB Show. Just three years later she won her first World Tree Climbing Championship in St Louis. She has since gone on to win 13 UK & Ireland championships, while also becoming the first woman to win 6 world championships and 3 consecutive world titles (2019, 2022, 2023).

Jo herself credits the knowledge she has gained from consistently staying involved in the climbing community as being crucial to her professional career progression.

’I’ve learnt a huge amount by attending these events. Much of the equipment and many of the techniques that most people use today have come from the innovation of tree climbers at these competitions. The events are an amazing way to learn from others and share techniques – you learn a lot from your mistakes, so winning isn’t the main outcome; attending and sharing knowledge is winning.‘

Without doubt the growth of competitions has made key contributions to the evolution of climbing practices. As much as a place to test skills, the events are about providing opportunities to develop and share new techniques, innovations or ways of helping climbers become more efficient and safer in their work. That’s not just in terms of equipment but increasingly means looking at body knowledge and positioning as well as harnessing technology to understand and compare climbing techniques and their impact on a climber’s body.

It’s this sort of thinking that has started to reveal what some of the greatest risks to the climbers are as a result of certain movements or techniques, as evidenced in the biomechanics research carried out by ISA international tree climbing competition judge and head of UKITCC scoring Alex Laver. It might perhaps even lead to greater longevity amongst competitors taking part.

Noddy Knott, a key member of the UKITCC volunteer committee and himself a competitor in the first UKITCC back in 1995, said in his evaluation of a recent workshop on body positioning:

‘The more time and practice we give to being attentive to ALL of what is happening during any given task, the greater our ability to directly influence or change the outcome. This can result in increased personal safety, improved physical ability and greater awareness of the body we inhabit, alongside a myriad of possibilities that we can choose to invite into our lives.’

Noddy Knott at a body positioning workshop (www.blackwatermedia.co.uk)

Our volunteers.

Competitions don’t happen without a huge amount of organisation and the support of volunteers like Noddy and Alex each year. Over the years, hundreds of judges, timers, technicians and other volunteers have given up countless hours of their time and it’s testament to their efforts that the events are still going strong. We’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank everyone who has been involved in this work for their efforts over the past three decades.

It is only in the past few years that the Association has been able to commit the time and resources required to support these incredible efforts and the development of competitions. It’s quite unique for any industry to have events like this, where the skills of each professional can be put to the test, let alone such an opportunity to showcase them at a public venue. The ISA devotes a lot of resources to doing this, and a key part of the continuing evolution of the UK&I events is hosting them in a way that can both educate and inspire new people to join the industry.

So please join us this September at War Memorial Park in Coventry, a much loved and popular park open to the public, with a host of fine competition trees – the perfect place to celebrate 30 years of the climbing community and put it in the public spotlight.

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UK & Ireland Tree Climbing Competition

Hall of Champions 1995–2024

This article was taken from Issue 209 Summer 2025 of the ARB Magazine, which is available to view free to members by simply logging in to the website and viewing your profile area.