Sixty-two-year-old Laurie Carlson let go of the ban­yan tree and dangled by a rope about 40 feet above ground.

Minutes later, graduate student Laura Mo walked on a branch dozens of feet in the air — feeling, in her words, like a "monkey."

The women were part of a new workshop to teach wahine how to climb trees.

"Our trees are important," said Jami­lee Kempton, staff arborist at Lyon Arboretum, who started the Wahine Tree Climbing Workshop to give women a chance to experience a tree workout. "(Trees) beautify our cities and our parks. It’s just better for your soul to be surrounded by trees."

Kempton, the top female tree climber in the United States, said she’s in better shape climbing trees than when she played volleyball, basketball and soccer. She described climbing as an upper-body and core workout, using ropes because ladders are unsafe around trees.

Kempton started the workshop at Lyon Arboretum in April and held a second session Saturday.

"I wanted to give women the opportunity to climb," said Kempton, who has been climbing for about three years and will compete in the International Tree Climbing Championships in Milwaukee in August. "It just takes a while to figure out if you can climb."

Last year in Toronto she was the top U.S. female finisher.

For now the $75 workshop has only 10 slots, but Kempton hopes to expand it and eventually open it up to men. On Saturday she showed the women how to climb a rope using their feet as an anchor and how to use a belay device and RADS gear, for a rapid ascent and descent system.

The women practiced climbing a 165-foot ban­yan tree below the Hawaiian garden at Lyon Arboretum.

Some participants were repeat students, such as Cecily Wong, 43, of Manoa, who spends her day working on a computer and much of her free time indoors, often reading a book.

"Being up in the tree, especially something this tall, is kind of fun," she said after using the RADS gear to reach the tree’s branches some 50 feet above ground.

"It takes a lot of energy," said Wong, whose hands were tired from gripping the tree, and muscles she normally doesn’t use were sore.

Mo, the graduate student, wanted to take the class after an injury years ago led her to an interest in body mechanics.

"I just really enjoy movement," said Mo, who aspires to climb trees without equipment. "When all you do is sit and walk, you kind of forget that you can do other things."

She said it helped that the workshop was for women only because "we’re built differently."

Mo, who is studying natural resources and environmental management at the University of Hawaii, was nervous that the group might be competitive, but found it supportive of personal goals and just "getting to where you can get to."

Carlson, who scaled the tree using the roots covering the trunk, said being in the tree helped her overcome her fear of heights.

"You’re really just enjoying the tree," she said. "How often do you get up in a ban­yan tree?"

She wants to eventually climb her lychee tree in Mau­na­wili and trim it.

She said it helps to have a women-only group when learning a physical activity like tree climbing.

"So often men have a head start and are used to taking charge, so we kind of get pushed aside and it’s harder for us to assert ourselves in that situation," she said.

Kempton hopes to have a class every three months. For more information visit hawaii.edu/lyon­arboretum.