Mountain West senators urge feds to protect wilderness rock climbing

More than a dozen U.S. senators are urging the National Park and Forest services to reconsider plans to restrict the use of fixed anchors for rock climbing.

“We are concerned the policy changes would unnecessarily burden our National Parks’ and Forests’ already strained budgets, limit access to these special places, and endanger climbers,” the senators recently wrote in a letter.

The group represents Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Idaho and four other states, and says they’re concerned that climbing access could be limited in places such as Utah’s Zion National Park or Wyoming’s Wind River Range.

Climbers have historically used fixed anchors — or metal bolts drilled into rock walls — to rappel down hundreds of feet.

But last fall, the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service proposed restricting them in wilderness areas and potentially removing many existing anchors.

While some conservationists support this, arguing anchors can damage rock faces, there was mass pushback from climbers, recreationists, and now, senators.

“The recreation economy is so significant in most Western states, especially, but also across the country,” said Erik Murdock, deputy director of the Access Fund, the climbing advocacy group that has been at the forefront of this fight.

He said removing anchors from some 50,000 wilderness climbing routes is untenable and just plain expensive. Plus, he said if fixed anchors go, so could other types of recreation, like backcountry skiing.

“It’s an example of how natural resource policy can go awry if bureaucrats are not considering the general public, stakeholder groups, local economies, long-standing traditions and uses of wilderness,” Murdock said.

The senators are calling for a new policy that continues to allow fixed anchors, which they called “fundamental safety tools” for climbers. They also called for a “timely briefing” on the status of the proposed policy to manage climbing.

The federal agencies have not released any major updates on their plans since receiving thousands of comments in opposition earlier this year.

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.