360° Climbing Giants | National Geographic

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·Nov 11, 2024

[Music] [Music] My name is Wendy Baxter, and I have probably one of the coolest jobs on the planet. [Music] I get to climb in and study giant sequoia trees. My name is Anthony Ambrose, and I am a canopy biologist. I've loved trees and climbing trees my entire life. The first time I actually climbed a giant sequoia was just life-changing. [Music] There's no branches down low, and you're just climbing up this massive orange trunk. Anthony is actually the person who taught me to climb; his enthusiasm and love for these trees is just contagious.

[Music] The trees themselves are just enormous. I mean, it's almost hard to understand how big they are. [Music] It's really quite a long climb to get to the top. Sometimes, it's hard to believe. It's like, "What? I'm still going? Where is the top of this thing?" It just seems like they're never-ending. You get into the branches and limbs, and you get to see how really big and gnarly and complex it is. It almost feels like I'm in multiple trees because it has all of these trunks coming up—almost kind of like a hand.

[Music] Look at that! It's gorgeous! As you reach the top of the tree, you break out into the light. It's just almost kind of like experiencing, you know, a sunrise. It is definitely a magical, mystical place. You also start really getting a sense of the scale and perspective that you can only get from being up in the crown of one of these massive trees. I am climbing on this living organism—something that is much bigger and older than I am—that I need to respect. [Music] They're just so big, and you're so small. [Music] You

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360° Climbing Giants | National Geographic

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