High-altitude lumberjack Mark Standley risks his life to keep your penthouse in fine cabinetry.

Ever climbed too high and taken an exposed long position at the top of a market? Mark Standley can relate. The timber-operations manager for Banks, Oregon–based Bighorn Logging, Standley, 30, straps himself in, scampers seven stories up an adenoidal bark pole and promptly chops the damn thing down.

He recently lowered himself to Trader Monthly’s level to discuss the risk/reward calculus of a job in which being a (literal) tree-hugger often means the difference between life and death.

What makes a man climb dozens of feet in the air, then cut down the very thing holding him up? Is it some kind of Freudian thing? It’s what I call a respectable occupation. Plus the views aren’t bad. I started in middle school, working with my uncles in the summer. My whole family is loggers; I’m fifth-generation. Not many guys can do it anymore. Or want to.

What are a logger’s must-have skills? Aside from looking totally buff in flannel and plaid, of course. You have to know how to climb. I can climb most trees in about five to 10 minutes.

Well, bully for you — we once torpedoed an entire year’s gains in that time. What kind of gear do you tote along? I carry about 20 pounds of equipment: a power saw, railroad spikes, an axe and two or three wedges. To climb, I use a leather lineman’s belt with a hemp rope and cable in the middle. I have spikes on my boots that are three to six inches long, plus kneepads.

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