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"Someone call an ambulance to Roosevelt Park," Taylor Gonzales shouted up to a treetop as he checked his climbing ropes.

"Lucky, are you all right? I'll be up in a minute," he hollered.

He ascended the tree, swinging from branch to branch, in less than five minutes.

He tied himself to "Lucky," a 100-pound dummy used to practice tree rescues, and lowered himself and the dummy to the ground, to the cheers of a crowd around the tree.

The arborial rescue was one of several events at the New Mexico Tree Climbing Championship in Roosevelt Park on Saturday. There, 14 New Mexico arborists, people who take care of trees, showed off their climbing prowess and shared tips of their trade.

A work challenge had climbers using a polesaw, throwing branches to ground, and climbing across limbs to ring bells. And there was a competition for getting ropes into a tree as fast as possible.

"It's a good chance for everyone to see how other people do it, and maybe pick up some new ideas," said Kyle Taylor, one of the climbers who helped organize the event.

Taylor has been tree climbing eight years. With a degree in horticulture, he was working at a greenhouse before he started working with a tree care company "on a whim."

Shortly after that, he started learning how to use the various ropes, carabiners and harnesses that are the tools of the trade.

"I wanted to work on trees, but I ended up falling in love with the climbing aspect of it," Taylor said. "It's good to get out and get some exercise while you're working."

Tree climbers use different techniques and equipment than rock climbers. Where rock climbers usually go in a fairly straight line up a face, tree climbers go up, down and around the tree, said Avery Lueras, one of the competition's organizers.

"Rocks don't usually bend or break," he said. "That's not the case with trees, and you have to understand that to climb them."

Climbers wear harnesses strapped around their waists and thighs. They attach the harness to climbing ropes in the trees.

The harness also serves as a tool belt, with saws, pulleys and a lanyard that climbers use to secure themselves to branches while they adjust the climbing rope.

"It takes new climbers a while to trust hardware," Taylor said. "But after you get some experience, you put faith in being able to put your weight on the rope."

Gonzales, who has been climbing for about seven months, said he likes the job for the exercise and adrenaline.

"I grew up in trees," he said. "You always climb trees when you're little. Now, I still get to do it."