Should a world-famous climbing route on Longs Peak, towering over 200,000 acres of designated wilderness in Rocky Mountain National Park, be subject to removal? According to a new National Park Service climbing management guideline, the answer is yes.
The National Park Service guideline now defines permanent climbing gear as illegal “installations,” raising concerns among climbing advocates. They believe this could trigger the removal of historic crags, like the Diamond on Longs Peak, and make it too difficult to create new, safe climbing opportunities in wilderness areas.
The climbing community was taken aback when the draft guideline was released for public comment a year ago. Their surprise stemmed from the park service’s new interpretation of the federal Wilderness Act, labeling permanent climbing gear such as bolts — small pieces of metal drilled into the rock — as illegal “installations.” Any gear categorized under this definition would be prohibited by default, unless exempted through a bureaucratic process called a Minimum Requirement Authorization. This makes even long-established climbing routes illegal and subject to review.
Some in the climbing world, including Patagonia and the Access Fund, a climbing advocacy group, have opposed this interpretation. They believe the spirit of the Wilderness Act regarding the word “installation” applies to things like campgrounds and bathrooms, not small pieces of metal.
The National Park Service and proponents say the new guideline is needed to protect pristine wilderness and prevent unnecessary impacts by climbers.
“The proposed guidance will help provide a consistent process for installing new or replacing existing fixed anchors in wilderness,” said National Park Service Director Chuck Sams in a press release, “and ensure that we are managing these important areas for the benefit of current and future generations.”
In response to the guideline, the Protecting America’s Rock Climbing Act was introduced. The bipartisan bill, sponsored by Boulder’s Congressman Joe Neguse last March, has just passed in the House of Representatives as part of a larger recreation package called the EXPLORE Act. This is the first significant step in an effort by lawmakers to protect the status quo of sparingly using permanent bolts and anchors on wilderness climbing routes, while leaving power in the hands of park superintendents to determine their appropriate use on a case-by-case basis.
Climbers are used to self-policing
For Front Range climbers, Rocky Mountain National Park is their playground, and a ban on bolts could be seen as a dramatic departure from the norm. This isn’t because it’s a bolt-intensive area, but because park management has mostly entrusted the climbing community to self-regulate and accepted the use of limited permanent gear to support safe climbing in wilderness areas.
The Access Fund points to other pressing concerns, like trash and human waste, believing that the focus on fixed gear is a distraction rather than a solution.
“Rocky Mountain National Park holds one of the highest concentrations of hard bouldering in the U.S.,” said Erik Murdoch, vice president of policy at the Access Fund, highlighting the problem of overcrowding. “The National Park Service has invested money into researching human waste, but there has been no research on fixed anchors because it’s not actually driving impacts.”
Murdoch, who lives in Estes Park, has seen the park change over the last eight years, but believes banning bolts doesn’t address what’s happening.
“We need to focus on climber ethics, parking, trails, bouldering, all the elements of the climbing system,” he said. “A proposal to limit or prohibit fixed anchors is not going to address what we all want to see fixed.”
In the Front Range, each climbing area has its own unique flavor, from dangerously high-commitment to casual gym-like atmosphere. Eldorado Canyon is famous for its hard, gritty routes and minimal protection. Boulder Canyon is a sport crag, with bolts every few feet on most routes. In the Flatirons, there’s a mix, with more bolts on the east-facing rock than the rest, and almost none on the iconic face of the First, a classic route for free soloing.
These established flavors mean that oversight varies across the range. In Eldorado Canyon, there’s a strict process to keep fixed gear to a minimum. The Action Committee for Eldorado manages the oversight by appointing local climbers to the review committee each year, stating on its website, “ACE exists as a public forum to assist and regulate the installation of fixed hardware in Eldorado with the goal of facilitating controlled growth of quality routes and anchors in the Canyon.”
Jason Antin, a certified rock and alpine guide since 2006 and co-star of the Beat Monday adventure show, is on a fixed gear committee in Jefferson County. Its process for approving new gear is rigorous, even requiring a study by environmentalists to study things like traffic impact.
He said that once you pass through Tunnel Five into Clear Creek Canyon, the rules disappear and it’s open season.
“You could put up 100 bolts up and no one cares,” he said.
Still, in areas that don’t have heavy official oversight but do have a special traditional climbing character to retain, Antin said there can be strong unofficial oversight by the community.
“If someone bolted the Diamond, there’d be an uproar,” Antin said.
The Diamond is a remote wilderness crag on Longs Peak with a difficult five-mile approach. Were someone to put up a heavily bolted route, it would go against the obvious flavor of the crag, but theoretically, it could happen. Currently, there is no formal process for approving new routes in Rocky Mountain National Park. There is only a guideline to follow the established climbing ethic. However, the park superintendent has the authority to remove permanent gear.
For an area lacking official oversight, Pikes Peak is an example of the kind of community backlash that can happen when historical norms are broken. In 2021, some local climbers were alarmed when another local climber bolted a few difficult routes and wrote a guidebook. They chopped off the bolts he installed and unleashed a contentious public dialogue on development.
In another example, the famous Snake Dike climb up Half Dome in Yosemite National Park has a very long section with no protection. The climbing community debated whether there should be a few bolts installed to protect that dangerous stretch of the route after a 21-year-old woman took an 80-foot fall in 2022 and had to get her leg amputated.
Keeping it clean
Even those in the climbing community who oppose bolted routes and promote the “clean climbing” ethic of avoiding permanent gear whenever possible, believe that the National Park Service guideline has it wrong by banning the ethical use of such gear. However, this group generally agrees that permanent gear has become too prevalent.
Leading this contingent is Patagonia and its founder, Yvon Chouinard. In its response to the new wilderness climbing guideline this January, the company seized the moment to push for a recommitment to “clean climbing.”
“We see the Wilderness Act as a powerful tool for land protection. Fixed anchors should be used only out of necessity in Wilderness, not comfort, to preserve both the experience of the adventure and the wilderness character of the landscape,” the company said. “We hope this moment can be a reminder to climbers to return to the clean climbing principles that brought forward the highest ideals and possibilities of modern climbing.”
Estes Park climber Tommy Caldwell believes the current standard of keeping permanent gear to a minimum is appropriate, but that climbers can do a better job of adhering to it.
“I know Yvon [of Patagonia] mostly thinks the clean climbing movement failed,” said Caldwell in an Instagram comment on the issue.
Caldwell recently became famous for establishing the Dawn Wall route in Yosemite, one of the most difficult big wall climbs in the world. That route, which is within established wilderness, has fixed gear on the sheer face, but Caldwell said it still abides by the clean climbing ethic.
“Anyone that has tried that route agrees that I used pretty severe restraint when placing the 20 or so bolts that were added to the wall for the Dawn wall,” he commented on Instagram. “And really the bare minimum to keep us safe..ish.”
While Neguse’s PARC Act won’t be the end of the new National Park Service climbing management guideline, it is a pressure campaign against the agency to withdraw it in its current form and go back to the drawing board.
“We don’t know when the guidance will drop, but they have a lot of thinking to do,” said Murdoch.
Clarification: This story was updated to clarify the Access Fund’s concerns about overcrowding in Rocky Mountain National Park, as opposed to its views on what it sees as the lesser impact of bolts in rock walls in wilderness areas.
I’m a hiker and I prefer hiking on trails, which are a huge impact on Wilderness. All these bolt routes are just “trails” for climbers. I say let the Superintendents manage bolt trails the same they manage dirt trails.
As stated in the article, there are a thousand grave threats to wilderness, the Parks, and the environment, and this just isn’t one of them. If the NPS hadn’t proposed a severe change that tries to solve a non-existent problem nobody would have noticed. My concern is when recreation community starts squabbling over something very minor our attention is diverted from the big issues that do matter, and that we should be united on. Congratulations to Democrat Rep Neguse for sponsoring legislation that will put this to bed so we can address the real problems.