Canopy Climbing Co.

About Canopy Climbing Co.

Named for the treetops, Canopy Climbing Co. spends the Brainerd winter with an eye on what the pines send down. Snow in the lakes area comes heavy and often, loading the red pines and birches until it lets go in soft avalanches over roofs and drives, and the crew clears it all — driveways, walkways, the deep stuff that arrives in one thump. Brainerd's canopy is part of what makes the town: streets shaded by old trees, yards ringed with evergreens that hold the snow like held breath. Working beneath it in January, breath frosting, is its own kind of climbing weather. The drives get opened, the paths get cut, and the pines keep their white shoulders.