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"We do scary things every day," says arborist Raul Lambert. "The scariest are damaged trees – when you are really high up in them, and they could break or fall. I have dropped the top of a tree onto my rope and it sent me flying into the tree trunk.

"That can happen any day so you have to be very aware all the time – where the tree is falling, the wind, the different types of cuts, and different types of wood as well.

"It’s all about knowing your equipment, and what you're doing. For instance, you are meant to use two hands on your chainsaw, but you can get overconfident, and start using one hand.

"But if you hit the top of your chainsaw it can kick back and bounce. In England, not far from where I was working, a boy cut his jugular with a chainsaw when it bounced back, and he died. If I see any of the young ones using a chainsaw with one hand, I tell them, 'Stop that – two hands!'

"It's a pretty interesting job, you just have to really work hard and you always have to listen to everyone. You might have done it for 15 years. Someone on the floor [the ground] might have only done it for one, but if he tells you something, you always listen. He can see a different angle of the tree and you might be about to cut your rope and fall out of the tree."

Though Raul is only 31, he is aware that he has a limited time for climbing. “Maybe I’ll have five more years’ climbing and then I’ll probably seize up. It’s a young people’s game.”

His next plan is to move into tree management. "I'd rather concentrate on tree management, instead of taking them down, maybe just assessing them and getting someone else to take them down."

Read more about Raul's journey from rock climbing in Spain to arboriculture in New Zealand