I have taught all sizes of people to do it. Most try too hard at first, and it typically takes them about 30 minutes to go up 30 meters. A strangler fig from below. Many people in the U.S. have smaller versions of this tree growing in their homes. I talked a little about epiphytes in my first diary entry.
True epiphytes live on top of other plants without a connection to the ground.
Strangler figs are called hemi-epiphytes because they start out as small trees growing on top of other trees, but eventually send roots down from the canopy and establish a connection with the ground. Strangler figs get started when a bat or a bird eats a fig fruit and deposits the seeds in the crown of another tree. The fig sapling grows into a small tree within the crown of the host tree, and its roots grow down the host's trunk, eventually enveloping the host tree completely. After may years, the host tree dies and begins to rot, leaving the large hollow fig tree behind. It is probably a combination of the two.