What I know: Back on top

Brian Krawcyk.
Photos: Colleen KrawczykBrian Krawczyk, a certified arborist and foreman for Rochester, N.Y.-based Birchcrest won this year’s New York State Tree Climbing Championship after a fall nearly killed him.

Before coming to Birchcrest, the 36-year-old had earned a degree in hotel and restaurant management, and worked in food service, but it didn’t stick. He wanted to be outside, in the trees. So he got a job as an arborist.

Last year he was in Naples, in Central New York State, with his climbing partner – a fellow Birchcrest employee. They hiked to the top of a frozen waterfall and secured their ropes, then belayed down. Krawczyk started to climb back to the top.
 
Ice climbing is different than tree climbing. Belaying keeps the anchor point for your weight above you and your partner keeps you counterbalanced. If you fall, you swing away from the face. Climbers wear helmets, of course, but also big, spiky crampons over their boots and carry two menacing ice hammers to grip the cold face.

One hundred feet later, Krawczyk was at the top of the waterfall again. His ropes were twisted, so he unclipped his harness, straightened them out and clipped back in. He inched himself back to the edge of the falls, ready to belay down. He felt some friction in the rope in his hand. Something was wrong.

He had a thought: The rope will catch me in a second here.

Then, quickly, another: Oh, my God. I can’t believe this is happening.

“He didn’t have me,” Krawczyk says. “There was nothing there.”

Krawczyk never lost consciousness as he fell, hitting feet first twice before sliding out at the base of the waterfall. He broke his ankles, two vertebrae, his pelvis and five ribs.

Brian Krawczyk competes in the New York State Tree Climbing ChampionshipKrawczyk spent the next three months bedridden, or in a wheelchair as he worked to regain the use of his legs. As he started walking again, he worked half days. Six months after the fall, he was climbing trees again, though this time a bit slower and more aware.

“I was actually excited. I couldn’t wait to get back up a tree,” he says. “It felt good, I felt back at home. I knew that was where I needed to be, back in the trees.”

And in June, Krawczyk took first place at the New York State Tree Climbing Championship, an event he won in 2006 and 2007.

“This (fall) was definitely a first. I had never fallen out of a tree or anything before,” he says. “I’m definitely more aware of my surroundings, as far as what’s happening. I’ve kind of slowed down, making sure my Is are dotted and my Ts are crossed. It’s made me more aware and conscious of things around me.”

He says, for his wife, Colleen’s, sake, he won’t go ice climbing again. He credits his recovey to her, his boss Dave Dailey and the many other people who supported him with his recovery.

“Without her support I wouldn’t be where I am today,” he says. “(And) I never had to worry about my job, which allowed me to focus completely on my recovery. I owe a lot to Dave.”

The author is associate editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine. Reach him at cbowen@gie.net.