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Hit the Heights, but
Take the Stairs
Tom Smart for The New York Times
Mike Santi tries a climbing
route in Utah that has permanent aids like rebar ladders and
fixed cables.
By STEPHEN REGENOLD
Published: September 15, 2006
EAST of the Great Salt Lake and its murky brine,
across desert brush and urban sprawl, the mountains of Ogden,
Utah, stretch jagged and steep into the sky. There, on the
front of the Wasatch Range, pyramid peaks cut a sharp silhouette
on the backdrop of blue. Read
more about Ogden, Utah
 Tom Smart for The New York Times
Chris Peterson owns the
Waterfall
Canyon Climbing
Park
in Ogden, Utah, which
has the newest via
ferrata
routes in North America.
“Long ways down,” said Kym Buttschardt, an Ogden
native standing on the edge of a cliff, peering off toward
her home thousands of feet down in the valley below. Ms. Buttschardt,
a 39-year-old mother of three young boys who operates a restaurant
business with her husband, gripped a rebar ladder rung drilled
into the rock face. Her climbing harness was tethered to a
cable. Read more
about Ogden, Utah
“I’ve got to get my boys up here some day,” Ms.
Buttschardt said. The climb above, a 350-foot route at the
edge of Ogden, was equipped with ladders, bolts and fixed cables.
The style of climbing — a European discipline called
via ferrata — allowed Ms. Buttschardt and a group of
eight other climbers, including three consummate beginners,
to move over the stone with little hesitation. Read
more about Ogden, Utah
Via ferrata — Italian for iron way — is immensely
popular in Europe, where hundreds of cable-protected routes
lace the Alps. Ladders, bridges, stair steps, bolts and strands
of cable affixed to vertical rock, all permanent and built
to weather decades of exposure, are common on prominent peaks.
Ropes, rock shoes, belay devices and removable protection — requisite
gear for the sport of rock climbing — are superfluous
on a via ferrata climb. Indeed, the via ferrata technique,
which was developed during World War I to move troops quickly
through the Dolomites in Northern Italy, allows climbers with
little instruction or climbing skill to safely ascend sheer
cliff faces. Read
more about Ogden, Utah
“Via ferrata is probably the quickest way for a new
climber to get up high and exposed in the mountains,” said
Ron Olevsky, a 52-year-old climbing guide from Toquerville,
Utah, who helped lead Ms. Buttschardt’s trip. But Mr.
Olevsky, who has pioneered climbing routes in the West since
the 1970’s, said via ferrata shares few traits with the
sport of rock climbing. “If you want to learn climbing
technique,” he said, “it’s not the best way
to start out.” Read
more about Ogden, Utah
In North America, via ferrata has never been a part of the
climbing culture. Fewer than 10 via ferrata climbing areas
exist in the United States, and many climbers in this country
are unfamiliar with the sport. Government-imposed bans that
outlaw permanent climbing anchors, notably the Wilderness Act
of 1964, make installing via ferrata climbs a red-tape nightmare
in many places. Read
more about Ogden, Utah
Some climbers have environmental or ethical qualms. “Via
ferratas make remote, craggy regions that were formerly accessible
to very few people accessible to just about anyone,” said
Duane Raleigh, the editor and publisher of Rock and Ice, a
climbing magazine based in Carbondale, Colo. “If the
goal is to make the mountains easy for everyone, then via ferratas
are good. But, in my opinion, they represent the sterilization
of the wild lands.” Read
more about Ogden, Utah
Phil Powers, the executive director of the American Alpine
Club in Golden, Colo., said North Americans could benefit from
more exposure to via ferrata. “I am fond of the idea
that nonclimbers could experience the thrill of the vertical
world so easily on a via ferrata and then maybe pursue our
wonderful sport as a result,” he said. Read
more about Ogden, Utah
The via ferrata climbs above Ogden — three abrupt lines
built last fall under the management of Jeff Lowe, a world-renowned
climber — are part of Waterfall Canyon Climbing Park,
a private preserve owned by Chris Peterson, a businessman in
the area. They are the nation’s newest via ferrata routes.
On a sunny Monday morning in mid-August, Mr. Peterson met
Ms. Buttschardt, Mr. Olevsky and six other climbers at the
parking lot below the canyon. Mr. Peterson gripped a single
trekking pole while giving introductions. He said the trail
ahead would entail an hour of uphill hiking to reach the bottom
of the first climb. Read
more about Ogden, Utah
Juniper berries, chalky blue and small as peas, dotted the
trail as Mr. Peterson led the group into the shade of the canyon.
Russian olive trees arched over the path. Water trickled unseen
in a gully below.
“Keep your eyes peeled for thimbleberries,” Mr.
Peterson said. “They can be quite good this time of year.”
At the base of the first climb, the canyon’s namesake
waterfall misting just upstream, Mr. Olevsky double-checked
harnesses and lanyard setups. A rebar ladder rung stuck off
the wall at shoulder height. A silver cable, galvanized steel
and a quarter-inch in diameter, traced a path on the cliff
above.
Mike Santi, a first-time climber from Minneapolis, reached
to touch the initial rung on the route. Two carabiner-equipped
lanyards, both with shock-absorbing properties to protect from
the brute force of a fall, dangled from his harness. Mr. Santi
clipped them into the cable before stepping off the ground.
 Tom Smart for The New York Times
While climbers at Waterfall
Canyon are
warned about the
risks of the via ferrata, its fixed
features
allow beginners like
Kym Buttschardt to tackle sheer
rock walls
and traverse knife-edge
ridges.
“Wish me luck,” he said to the group, his shirt
already damp with perspiration from the hike.
The rock above, a houndstooth pattern of lichen and seams
and pockmarked decay, formed a giant open book against a blueberry
sky. A zigzag of sunlight and shadow painted the face.
In 10 minutes, all nine climbers were perched on the stone
wall, fingertips curled around rebars, stepping and pulling
fast and fluid. The route began easy and a bit less than vertical,
a slab of north-facing quartzite. Carabiners slid on the cable
quietly beside each climber as they made their way toward a
ledge halfway up.
Mr. Santi, Ms. Buttschardt and her husband, Peter — the
beginners in the group — had little trouble on the 350-foot
climb. Steep vertical sections ended in rests on small ledges.
A sharp ridgeline put the climbers on an exposed rib of rock.
Talus slopes lay strewn hundreds of airy feet below. But the
stout ladder rungs, spaced close on the wall, made the ascent
straightforward and easy. Read
more about Ogden, Utah
“Look at this view!” Ms. Buttschardt exclaimed,
her hand in a salute on her forehead to ward off the sun. Steep
foothills dropped off into Ogden. The pan-flat basin below — a
crisscross of streets, a mush of leafy green and desert tan
to all points west — yielded only to the Great Salt Lake,
which flittered 25 miles beyond.
The climbers continued on in a line, stepping on iron, grabbing
stone. Clouds, wispy and white, studded with stalactites of
virga, drifted in over the ridge. Nine tiny dots made their
way up, climbing a steep stairway to heaven in the mountains
above Ogden. Read
more about Ogden, Utah
VISITOR INFORMATION
VIA ferrata is a popular European pastime, with hundreds of
cable-protected, rung-equipped routes ensconced in the Alps.
In North America, the sport is little known, and fewer than
10 via ferrata climbing areas have been established in the
United States and Canada. Read
more about Ogden, Utah
Waterfall Canyon Climbing Park in Ogden, Utah, is the newest
area in the United States, with three precipitous climbs found
in a deep quartzite canyon just east of the town. The canyon,
a private preserve that is scheduled to open officially this
fall, has a training wall where newcomers to via ferrata can
practice before heading uphill to the big climbs. Rates will
start at $40 a day, which includes equipment rental and
a lesson on the training wall (801-550-1761).
The Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort in British Columbia has
a via ferrata that begins on Whistler Glacier before ascending
sheer stone to the mountain’s 7,160-foot summit. The
Whistler Alpine Guides Bureau (604-938-9242, www.whistlerguides.com)
leads four-hour trips on the via ferrata for 129 Canadian dollars
(about $113 at 1.14 Canadian dollars to the American dollar),
including equipment.
Towering fins of Tuscarora quartzite provide a dramatic setting
for the via ferrata at the Nelson Rocks Preserve near Seneca
Rocks, W. Va. (304-567-3169, www.nelsonrocks.org). A 200-foot-long
swinging bridge, which connects two fins and sways airy and
free 150 feet off the ground, is part of the half-mile route.
Rates are $35 to $40 for a day pass and equipment rental.
The Torrent Falls Resort in the Daniel Boone National Forest
of eastern Kentucky has a via ferrata that traverses an immense
horseshoe gorge. Highlights include a 120-foot perch, a 70-foot-long
bridge and a section of the climb that skirts behind a seasonal
waterfall. An adult day pass, including training and gear rental,
is $32 (606-668-6613, www.torrentfalls.com). |
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