Book description
When Steve Sillett was 19 years old, he free-climbed with no safety
equipment and no training one of the tallest trees on earth, in the
redwood forests of Prairie Creek, California. 30 storeys above the
ground he glimpsed an undiscovered ecosystem, and his passion for that
astonishing world would transform the rest of his life. Over the next
twenty years, Sillett and a close group of friends charted this
system, discovering mosses and lichen never seen before, and
travelling among branches so densely interwoven they form incredible
sky-high walkways.
There are only twenty people on earth who have climbed the world s
tallest trees and who know their location. In writing The Wild
Trees, Richard Preston not only managed to gain access to this
group, but began to climb these hidden giants himself, putting his
life in danger in order to understand the powerful connection between
the massive trees and the world s last great explorers.
In writing and researching The Wild Trees Richard Preston
mastered the complex techniques of climbing wild trees himself,
techniques that are known by only 20 people in the world. In September
2006 he made the first ascent and measurement of the newly-discovered
world s tallest tree, Hyperion, in a rain-forest valley in Northern
California. He has also climbed in the tallest forest canopy in
Australia, the so-called Skeleton Forest on the Hume Plateau,
Victoria, and in Scotland. He also climbs with his children, wife and
parents in the trees near their home. His goal is to reveal people and
realms that nobody has ever imagined.
Richard Preston, as well as climbing trees, is the bestselling
author of The Hot Zone, The Demon in the Freezer and the novel
The Cobra Event. A writer for the New Yorker since
1985, Preston is the only non-doctor to have received the Centers for
Disease Control's Champion of Prevention Award. He also holds an award
from the American Institute of Physics and there is an asteroid the
size of lower Manhattan named in his honour.
