A TREE officer from Wotton-under-Edge will be taking on an unusual charity challenge next month.

Phil Dye, from Wotton, and Simon Penfold from Malmesbury, will be climbing the tallest trees in England, Wales and Scotland over a weekend in aid of Cancer Research UK.

The former tree surgeons, who now run a recreational tree climbing company, will tackle the three trees – each over 60m tall – over the last weekend of August, travelling between the countries by motorbike.

What is believed to be Scotland’s tallest – a Douglas fir which has been measured from the ground to be 68m high – has never been climbed so if they are successful, Phil and Simon, who are both tree officers at South Gloucestershire Council, will be able to drop a tape from the top, making the first-ever accurate recording of its height, down to the centimetre.

The adventure has been mooted by the pair for several years with finding out which trees were the tallest in each country proving a tricky challenge.

Funds raised will all be donated to Cancer Research UK to fight the disease which has affected family members of both Phil and Simon.

“Cancer is one of those things that affects everyone,” Phil said.

“Whether you have or had it or if someone you know has had it, it will have impacted everyone in some way.

“We always wanted to do this for charity and in the end Cancer Research is the one we chose.”

In order to get onto the trees’ lowest branches, which will be several metres off the ground, they will be using a six ft tall catapult to swing a rope over the branches to gain a foothold.

All three of the trees are Douglas firs with England’s tallest found in Dunster, Somerset, Wales’ at Lake Vyrnwy, Powys and Scotland’s in the coastal village of Ardentinny in Argyll and Bute.

Each climb is expected to take up to four hours to complete.
They are aiming to raise £2,000 for the charity and donations can be made at justgiving.com/fundraising/phil-and-simon.

You can follow their progress at twitter.com/TreeClimberLtd and via Instagram at instagram.com/treeclimberltd when they set off on August 25.