Brian Maffly’s article about climbing in wilderness misleads readers in two ways.
First, the prohibition in the Wilderness Act on installations is not a matter of interpretation. It is the law. Second, the idea that climbing can’t occur in wilderness without fixed anchors (installations) is demonstrably false. Clean climbing has been a code among the best climbers for decades.
The author of the Wilderness Act, Howard Zahniser stated, “The purpose of the Wilderness Act is to preserve the wilderness character of the areas to be included in the wilderness system, not to establish any particular use.” Thus, recreation uses are allowed to the degree that is compatible with preserving wilderness character. Hikers are free to hike, but they can’t build new trails or put up permanent shelters to make their stay more safe or convenient. Similarly, climbers are free to climb, but they don’t get to build their own vertical trails, leave behind their permanent anchors, biners, webbing, or chalk-covered walls, things that might be okay at the gym, but not in wilderness.
Having grown up on the Wasatch Front in the ’60s and ‘70s, very near American Fork Canyon, I have seen many changes. There was little technical climbing back then. Use has exploded and so have the impacts. Wilderness, both as a wild place and as a concept in America as we’ve known it, is in danger of disappearing from our culture. Selfish user groups that are willing to compromise away the meaning and qualities of wilderness to establish exceptions for themselves are every bit as much a threat to an authentic wilderness as the anti-wilderness forces of yore.
Gary Macfarlane, Troy, Idaho
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