BCC Advocacy: Protecting Access to Local Climbing By Supporting Land Owners (SB-23-103)

The BCC team leaned in hard the past couple of weeks on State Bill 103 (SB 23-103). This Bill was in response to a Colorado Springs lawsuit (James Nelson and Elizabeth Varney v. United States of America) that instilled fear into local land owners by threatening their legal protections under the Colorado Recreational Use Statute (CRUS). SB-103 would have removed the world “willful” from the Colorado Recreation Statue if passed and made it harder to litigate against landowners for accidents occuring on public or private land accessed without a fee.  

The BCC’s chair, Anneliese Steel, wrote an excellent summary of the Bill and its importance to the outdoor community and the climbing community. 

The BCC’s staff and board supported the legislation as a protection for climbing on private access. The BCC drafted a letter to the Colorado State Senate Judiciary Committte in support–it was co-signed by 14-recreation organizations, including the Access Fund and American Alpine Club. 

In total, 30 organizations representing outdoor recreation, local municipalities, landowners, farmers, and water districts came together to support the bill. BCC Execuitve Director, Kate Beezley, and former Access Fund Executive Director, Brady Robinson, testified in favor of the Bill on Wednesday March 1st, 2023. The only opposition came from the Colorado Trial Attorneys. Unfortunately, the bill was rejected by the Judiciary Committee on a partisan 3-2 vote due to sentiment that the CRUS was strong enough as it is. As a result access to popular 14ers, Lincoln and Democrat, on private land was lost within hours of the decision. Lincoln and Democrat saw 30,000 visitors in 2020 and mountain tourism generates an average of $5 million dollars annually to Alma’s local economy. 

The BCC will continue to monitor the situation and advocate for climbers. Questions can be directed to advocacy@boulderclimbers.org

Kate Beezley, BCC Executive Director (Center Left), and former Access Fund Executive Director, Brad Robinson (Center Right) , testifying before the Colorado State Senate Judiciary Committee on March 1, 2023.

RMNP Visitor Use Management Strategy

In late 2022, Rocky Mountain National Park requested feedback on elements of its re-examination of its visitor use management strategy, and especially its timed-entry reservation system. In January of 2023 the BCC (Boulder Climbing Community), in partnership with the Access Fund, solicited feedback from the community. We used the results of this survey to inform a feedback letter that we sent to Rocky Mountain National Park on behalf of Front Range climbers. 

The BCC/AF joint letter addressed the following topics utilizing survey data: 

• General Climber Access to Rocky Mountain NP 

• Climber Access to Longs Peak

You can read the letter in its entirety, here.

Let's Celebrate: 671 Bolts and Finished Trail at Upper Dream

671 Bolts

• 77 at Avalon

• 268 in Boulder Canyon

• 110 at Ironsides (Allenspark)

• 78 in Clear Creek

• 2 in Eldorado Canyon State Park

• 181 in Estes Park

• 18 North Table Mountain

Anchor Replacement Volunteers rebolting Strange Science and other favorites at Avalon.

Photo by Zach Joing

At the BCC we like hitting our goals. But, this time we have outdone ourselves; our success means we need a reinfusion of supplies and stoke to keep the momentum going. 

We like to deliver. After we replaced 500+ bolts in 2021, we thought, “We can do 600 in 2022.” Well that was an underestimate. We have replaced over 600 bolts and we still have  2 months left in the rebolting season! We are blown away and now we have a bit of a problem: We are going to need to buy some more bolts to keep the good work happening. 

So far this year we have replaced bolts in Boulder Canyon: Avalon, Bowling Alley, Upper Animal World, Sport Park; Clear Creek Canyon: Primo Wall, Upper Capitalist Crag; Eldorado Canyon State Park: Redgarden; Ironsides; and Estes Park: Needle, Thumb and Jurassic Park. Some of your favorite climbs received special care from our rebolting volunteers: Strange Science at Avalon, Animation and Animal Magnetism at Animal World (both in Boulder Canyon), Quartz Sports (Clear Creek), and Edge of Time at Jurassic Park (Estes Park Valley).

Not to be outshined, BCC's trail crew spent 11 weeks working in Boulder Canyon at Avalon and Upper Dream Canyon this season. BCC continued constructing new trail and belay areas at the Middle Tier in Avalon and finished off the work in Boulder Canyon by constructing their most impressive stone structure to date at Upper Dream Canyon. The new approach to the Oceanic Wall at Upper Dream Canyon trail is the culmination of 4 years of work performed by BCC. In total, 2,384 trail crew staff hours and 603 volunteer hours went into building this trail. If you have not been down there yet to check it out, we hope you get out there soon! While you are at it check out the finished trail up at Castle Rock Overlook (the trail you would take to Mountain Rose and Frisky Cliff).

😍 Quite the staircase at Upper Dream Canyon! After 4-Years of work by the trail crew and volunteers the trail is done.

BCC's trail crew is now working in the South Platte until the end of September, finishing the Cynical Pinnacle reroute at Cathedral Spires before heading to Staunton State Park to do some much-needed trail and belay pad construction at the Dungeon. Our crew will then finish off the 2022 trail season with some work above Dinosaur Rock on the Mallory Cave Trail in the Flatirons.

On the wag bag front, we have been distributing wag bags like crazy, and put in an additional wag bag dispenser at Upper Dream Canyon. If your friends still don’t know what a wag bag is, we made a super fun educational video. 

Our Advocacy and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) Committees are also thriving. Our DEI Committee supports affinity groups by partnering on stewardship projects. Most recently we partnered with Cruxing in Color on a stewardship day at the Classroom in Staunton. The DEI committee is also implementing best practices in recruitment, and fostering staff and board education. Our Advocacy Committee has dedicated hundreds of hours to weighing in on topics that will affect local climbers and being the voice in the room when decisions are being made. 

Alright, so here is where we need your help: We need to buy more bolts and keep the trail crew rolling. LOCAL CRAGS AIN’T FREE and this campaign is critical for raising the funds to get us through the rest of the stewardship season. 

We already have several excited folks come forward to support the rebolting and Upper Dream projects. Will you join them? 

Be stewardly and get ready to send by supporting the BCC.