Take it for what it is but I’ve experimented with a large number of ball pythons and climbing pretty extensively in my outdoor snake area. I keep between 80-150 ball pythons depending on how many babies are on hand and I have employees who help with this during the warm months. I started doing this is 2019.
Most babies will climb to some degree, some juveniles will continue to climb and certain small bodied adults. I’ve never had a reproductive female climb onto branches or limbs. I feed all of ball pythons for a lean body composition, so none of the animals used are overweight.
One thing I’ve noticed is they seem to be very conscious of arial predation, and will generally keep branches or the shade of the larger tree at least, between themselves and the open sky. I doubt they’ll be found in the upper canopy at all, assuming the foliage there would support their weight.
I’m not sure if anyone here does, but a lot of the keepers I see that think of BPs as comfortable climbers, don’t keep any arboreal species. When you spend time observing the mechanics of Arboreal species like Amazon or Emerald Tree Boas, Morelia, etc. you can clearly see the limitations that a stubby little python faces trying to do the same thing.
You can take a look at area I used here. There is an easy way for them climb up the opposite side of that large tree, but they rarely attempt to climb higher 2-3’ at any part of the circle. The only one to ever climb to the first branches (5.5’) was a 3-4 month old snake.
https://community.morphmarket.com/t/the-snake-circle-enrichment/20491