COEUR d’ALENE — Remember when you were a kid and loved climbing trees? And you climbed so high, when you finally looked down, it scared you?

You should come to City Park today. No, not to climb a tree, but to watch folks who are really good at it.

The Pacific Northwest International Society of Arboriculture’s annual Tree Climbing Championship starts at about 8 this morning and will feature about 25 people competing in five events.

It's not exactly a household contest and it's likely you never heard of it.

“There’s not a lot of people outside of arboriculture that know about it,” said Logan Collier, the head judge from Portland, where he works with Bartlett Tree Experts.

The event is being held in Coeur d’Alene for the first time in 11 years. City Urban forester Nick Goodwin said picturesque City Park is an ideal place for it, with its towering trees — pines, firs, maples, spruces and chestnuts — that reach well over 100 feet.

“It’s a good way to showcase our park,” Goodwin said Friday.

The competition is held in conjunction with PNW-ISA's annual training conference at The Coeur d’Alene Resort.

Climbers from Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Canada will use ropes, harnesses, carabiners and more to scale and descend trees quickly, smoothly and safely.

They’ll be scored in different events, including aerial rescue, belayed speed climb, ascent, work climb and throwline.

“They have to be able to execute them quickly and smoothly and show proficiency moving through the trees,” Collier said.

The final round will see the top three going head-to-head, including climbing City Park's American chestnut trees, which are among the largest in the world, Goodwin said.

There are cash prizes at stake, and the winner will compete in next year’s international tree-climbing championship.

While Collier said the “consequences for failure are pretty high,” he added that “It is not an inherently dangerous event.

“This is what we do every day,” he said.