ESPN TIMBERSPORTS

COLUMBUS, Ga. — Guy German, 55, sat slumped in a white foldout chair, set up in the shade provided by the two 60-foot speed climb poles and their bases.

In front of him sat Wade Stewart, 37, and Brian Bartow, 30. They were listening to German explain some of the pieces of the brackets that hold the claw on his speed climbing equipment.

German had just climbed 60 feet up and dropped as fast as possible straight down, barely losing to Stewart in the consolation bracket at the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS Championship presented by Carhartt.

Earlier, German also barely lost to Cassidy Scheer while Stewart was beaten by Stirling Hart, putting Hart and Scheer in the semifinals with Bartow and top seed Derek Knutson on Saturday at the Aflac Outdoor Games.

But German wasn't talking about his race or the semifinals. He was talking about slight modifications he'd been making to his equipment that only a speed climber would understand, and Stewart and Bartow were listening intently. It's a respect German has earned with 20 years of innovation in the sport. And it's a respect German is very fond of.

"We all look up to Guy," Bartow said. "To be doing this at his age is amazing. We don't think of him as being that old. It's hard to because he's in such incredible shape."

German said he's still speed climbing because he's found it hard to stop. He retired for a few years in the mid-90s and then tried again in 2005, but he keeps coming back. Speed climbing is a part of German and his history that he doesn't want to let go.

"It's flattering when somebody accepts your style," he said.

German grew up in Alaska as the 15th of 18 children born to the same parents. His love of engineering and architecture led him to the construction business, which is where he's spent most of his working life.

When he was in his late 20s, he attended a lumberjack show that included speed climbing and was immediately intrigued. After watching the show for three years, German came to two conclusions: the field was strong, but he could do it better.

So when he was 29, he decided to buy some gear and give it a shot. He found a suitable tree in what he described as "a hidden place in the woods" and cut all the branches off, leaving just the trunk. Then he started climbing.

The next year the lumberjack show was in town, German entered as a competitor and won. The following year he won again, breaking the local time record. The year after that, he went out to Albany, Ore., and set the world record for the 100-foot climb. But still, through all that, he felt like there was something missing — something that could be better.

"In the back of my mind, I was always thinking, 'It sure would be fun to put these spikes at the front of my feet and spring my way up that tree,'" German said.

And so that's what he did. And it worked beautifully.

"First time out it was an incredible feeling," he said. "It felt so natural and I increased my speed going up by about two seconds. It was accepted immediately and a lot of climbers picked it up right away."

That was his first and most widely accepted innovation, but certainly not his last. German went to work making the climbing load lighter, exchanging boots for wrestling shoes, steel for aluminum, metal for cloth, and the list goes on.

"Every pound you carry up is more energy you expend and less you can spring," he said. "I think I've cut out around five pounds through the years."

After dominating speed climbing through most of the 80s, German decided it was time to retire. So in 1990, he put his equipment in the attic and focused on a career in construction. Seven years later, he went through a divorce and started looking for new purpose in his life.

"I was looking for a way to escape," he said. "And there was speed climbing."

In his first event back, with almost no training, German finished second.

He considered retiring again in the late 90s, but the creation of the Great Outdoor Games kept him competing. The past few years it has been STIHL TIMBERSPORTS and the world championships in Wisconsin that have kept him motivated.

"It's really the big events that are keeping me in it now," he said.

German admits that at 55, he's a prime candidate for retirement, but it's not something he's interested in talking about. He's taking it year by year.

"I've decided then that I'm never telling anybody I'm retiring again because you just never know," he said. "One year I'll know that it's time to quit climbing.

"This year, I'm climbing better than I have in years, and as long as I can do that, I imagine I'll still be climbing."

Plus, German added, if he's healthy, why retire?

"It's an escape from reality," he said. "Day-to-day work isn't always fun. This is like a paid vacation."

A vacation that sometimes has him virtually free-falling from upwards of 100 feet — which is something else German doesn't seem ready to let go of.

"The most exhilarating part is always the race itself," he said, looking up at the towering pole behind him. "It only lasts 15 or 20 seconds, depending on how high we have to go, but there's nothing that can match the feeling of a good race. It's really like a high. I love it."