Tag: Rock Climbing
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Draft plan seeks upgrades for popular Colorado state park
A draft management plan outlines enhancements and strategies to meet growing demand at a state park on Colorado’s Front Range. Staunton State Park visitation has grown by more than 130,000 over the past five years, according to the draft plan that was recently posted for public review. Officials have reported average visitation around 240,000 in…
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Rock climbers in Colorado and beyond celebrate shift away from wilderness scrutiny
Rock climbers in Colorado and beyond are marking a victory in what’s been called “a war on wilderness climbing.” That’s how Boulder-based Access Fund described the situation in early 2023, around the time the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service proposed a new policy regarding fixed anchors on crags across federal lands. Fixed anchors —…
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From harsh rituals to hard-earned play, legends grow in this Colorado canyon
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save SAGUACHE COUNTY • Fields of crops and sage sprawl toward the Sangre de Cristo peaks in one direction, the San Juans in another, their wonders seemingly far away on this lonely, dusty stretch of U.S. 285. But here in the San Luis Valley, wonders tend…
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Pikes Peak Highway changes underscore tensions in managing for tourists, locals
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Heading into the summer, Colorado Springs locals are bracing for changes to the way they access adventure off the Pikes Peak Highway. They were alarmed by an initial announcement laying out new day-to-day operations starting in May through September: Those wishing to drive themselves past…
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Rock climbers rescued from Eldorado Canyon State Park in Boulder
Two rock climbers were rescued in Eldorado Canyon State Park south of Boulder on Saturday evening after becoming stuck. Boulder County rescue crews were called just before 8 p.m. by two climbers who were stuck on the top pitch of the T-2 climb located on Tower Two of the Redgarden Wall. The 22-year-old and 20-year-old…
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Eldorado’s treasure: Throwback rock climbing endures at Colorado canyon
Two or three days a week, Adam Brink departs life and work in Boulder and drives south, watching the city fade and a wild, colorful realm of rock emerge. “It’s a place where you can escape the constraints of an over-civilized world,” Brink says. “You’re thrust back into this more primal existence.” The place is…
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Rock climbing in Colorado: 6 famed areas
Rock climbing has become a talent honed inside a gym. But it’s the outdoor walls for which Colorado is known. Near Cañon City, Shelf Road is but one of the state’s premier areas. Here’s a look at others: Black Canyon of the Gunnison “The Black” is an ominous, fitting title for a guidebook to this…
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Pikes Peak’s ‘bolt war’ remains unresolved: ‘Neither side is backing down’
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save More than a month after public revelations of a “bolt war,” a heated climbing dispute on Pikes Peak shows no signs of cooling. Phil Wortmann, a local school teacher and alpinist widely respected for raising…
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New Colorado via ferrata proclaimed ‘new bar for what’s possible’ in rock climbing craze
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Colorado’s via ferrata revolution continues with a route claimed to be among the steepest in the United States. Cloud Ladder is the newest addition to The Alpine Jewel, an Estes Park destination specializing in the booming rock climbing fad. Among The Alpine Jewel’s other routes…
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Ancient petroglyphs permanently damaged by Colorado Springs man
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Last Friday evening, Darrin Reay left his home in southwest Colorado to meet friends at a remote camping spot he loved surrounded by sandstone cliffs in the desert beyond Moab, Utah. When he arrived, he was alarmed to hear the suggestion of climbing a bolted…