You’ve probably seen the recent hype on social media about climbing areas “loved to death”. And we consistently hear from some climbers that they just don’t see what the big deal is—when they head out to their local crag, it looks normal to them. The signs that a climbing area is deteriorating can be difficult to see if you don’t know what to look for. And if you haven’t been climbing in the same place for the last decade, it may look perfectly normal to you, since you haven’t seen the deterioration over time. But it’s critical that we learn to spot these common signs of trouble so we can adjust our climbing practices and help protect the climbing environment for the future.

Restoring Deteriorating Climbing Areas

Good LNT practices are essential, but they won't solve all of the pressing issues that crags and boulders are currently facing. Many of the most heavily used climbing areas need intensive mitigation work and recreation infrastructure to help protect these areas and allow the surrounding environment to bounce back. As a community, we need to invest in car-to-climb infrastructure at popular crags and boulders—this means parking, bathrooms, well built trails, and reinforced staging areas.

Our Access Fund-Jeep Conservation Teams are already doing this work at climbing areas across the country—building reinforced staging areas and belay platforms that keep climbers from trampling slopes, designing bomber approach trails that will resist erosion under large volumes of traffic, installing way-finding signage to keep climbers on trail, revegetating trampled areas, and installing port-a-potties and wag bag dispensers. And our policy team is working hard to make sure our public lands get the funding and attention they need and deserve.