California’s Lover’s Leap On The Brink
Lover’s Leap outside Tahoe, California has been deteriorating under a dramatic increase in climber traffic. This popular granite climbing area saw its first ascent in 1950 and is now home to over 180 climbing routes, including Travelers Buttress—one of the 50 classic climbs in America. The area draws droves of climbers from the San Francisco, Sacramento, and South Lake Tahoe climbing communities who appreciate the many traditional, multi-pitch routes in a beautiful forested setting. However, climber impacts have reached a tipping point.
“The lack of infrastructure and heavy use at Lover’s Leap have led to impacts that are nearly beyond repair,” says Samantha Heacock, former Executive Director of CRAGS. “The only way to get ahead of this situation is by bringing in professional trail crews.”
No formal trail system was ever developed for Lover’s Leap, and visiting climbers have created an unstable web of access trails across the mountainside, trampling sensitive vegetation and causing severe erosion in the loose granitic soils. Haphazard belay areas are also crumbling and becoming highly unstable. These issues not only threaten the ecosystem within the Eldorado National Forest, but they frustrate visiting climbers and have potential to hinder emergency response teams who need quick, direct, and stable access to the area.
“The current conditions at Lover’s Leap are critically unsustainable,” says Ty Tyler, Access Fund’s Stewardship Director. “We’ve reached the tipping point and we need to act now before these impacts are beyond repair.”
The restoration needs at Lover’s Leap are extensive. The most pressing need is to establish a formalized and sustainable trail system, with hardened surfaces, retaining walls, stone steps, and erosion control measures. Multiple sections of trail need to be rerouted and redundant “social” trails need to be closed and revegetated. Wayfinding signage needs to be installed to keep climbers on trail and minimize impacts to the environment. Belay areas also need to be reinforced, hardened, and stabilized to provide safe and sustainable access to the climbs.
Access Fund and CRAGS created a detailed stewardship plan to address the critical issues at Lover’s Leap and have been working with the US Forest Service (USFS) to secure necessary environmental clearances through the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) process, a requirement on all Federally managed lands. This restoration plan was approved by the USFS last fall.
Access Fund will be investing significant resources starting this year to address critical stability concerns at Lover’s Leap. The Access Fund-Jeep Conservation Team will lead the initiative to restore trails and staging areas, working closely with the US Forest Service and CRAGS. But we need climbers’ help.