SICC Forest Fest Brings Timber Sports, Chainsaw Art Back to Sandy

By Justin Andress, The Mountain Times

It’s early May, and Austin Ernesti and Wayne Stone are standing in an expansive field behind Dick Hannah Ford, a Sandy landmark that runs the length of two city blocks. The two men are talking choker races, single- and double-buck, and log burling.

As the fourth annual Sandy International Chainsaw Competition and Forest Fest approaches, Stone and Ernesti are two of the myriad people charged with making sure that the event’s timber sports come together. That means planning the layout, raising funds, and ensuring that everyone — even non-athletes — gets their shot at some timber-sport fun.

For the uninitiated, the SICC Forest Fest is a three-day event scheduled for June 5, 6, and 7. The yearly festival draws prominent wood carvers and timber athletes from across the region to compete in an array of events both creative and physical. It’s an extension of Ernesti’s nonprofit, Trajectory, an organization that works to improve awareness of woodland conservation, logging, and the need for collaboration between the two. As the logging industry dwindles and climate concerns rise, it’s a mission of critical importance. It’s also good, family fun.

The June 5 start date may be fast approaching, but the experts have the situation well in hand. While most people know the SICC Forest Fest for the extraordinary chainsaw sculptures it produces each year, event founder and organizer Ernesti is devoted to expanding the offerings each and every year.

This year, SICC Forest Fest is putting extra emphasis on timber sports. These acts of skill, precision, and derring-do sprang from the daily work of the loggers who helped settle the Pacific Northwest. “We’re trying to grow every year and make [SICC] a full forestry-incorporated event. So last year was the first year we had spur poles in the ground and were running them. And this is the first year where we’re actually advertising as a big timber sports event.”

SICC Forest Fest certainly has enough timber sports planned to be worth the drive, whether you’re competing or watching. The best all-around logger will take home $500, while individual category winners will be awarded $200.

Popular sports like axe throwing will be represented at the event alongside other timber sports staples. Spur pole climbing sees competitors race to the top of a limbless pole using minimal equipment. Single- and double-buck saw races find loggers working solo or in a two-person team to cut through a tree trunk using one of logging’s most iconic manual tools. For the log burling event, the SICC team will carve a small pond out of the ground, flood it with water, and watch as competitors put their balance to the test.

Ernesti and Stone are also working on setting up an obstacle pole. “It's a pole on a bit of an angle,” explains Stone. “And you walk up with a power saw, but the pole's shaking, and you gotta have good balance. Then you cut the end off, and then you race back off. When you're falling and bucking timber, you do that. You walk out a log, and it might be 15 feet off the ground. Usually, it's a bigger log where you're not gonna fall off.”

“In the city, it’s nice to think, oh, you cut down a tree. Okay, it’s done,” adds Ernesti. “But up there, they gotta worry about … where everything's going to lay at the end. So, if a tree comes down in the wrong spot, you have to walk up and lop off the end because you don't want the next piece to come down and launch something into kingdom come.”

There’s sure to be plenty of spectacle when the timber sports competition kicks off at the SICC Forest Fest. As with every expansion of the SICC Forest Fest, though, Ernesti is keenly interested in using these events as a learning opportunity for every attendee. Four years in, he remains pleasantly surprised at the reaction timber sports get from the community, especially children. “When I take some of this stuff to kids' schools, they love it,” he says. “It's like it comes from a different realm for them. This is their heritage, and it's a good way to get them reinvested in it again.”

Stone nods, adding, “Logging actually built this town. Logging and saw milling. I mean, hardly anybody knows that anymore, but the roots go deep.”

June 5–7, the community will get its chance to taste the timber when the SICC Forest Fest returns to Sandy.