Iceaxe
12-01-2005, 02:21 PM
Hey.... it looks like Ogden has a via ferrata. Anyone been over to test it out? These puppies are really popular over in parts of Europe. I hear the ones in Italy are a blast.
:hitit:
The Iron Climb
Via ferrata park near Ogden lets novice climbers take metal steps straight to the top of the mountain
By Tom Wharton
The Salt Lake Tribune
OGDEN - A European-style rock climbing practice known as via ferrata now has a Utah angle in Waterfall Canyon east of this city.
For novice climbers who don helmets, clip lanyards into a fixed metal cable and climb steel ladders straight up the side of a cliff, it is more like a stairway to heaven.
With Chris Peterson providing the property and veteran Utah climber Jeff Lowe doing the designing, this via ferrata park - one of only three in North America - includes a practice wall and two, fixed 350-foot-high vertical routes that use permanent metal ladders and cables.
The climbing park, just off the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, is primarily designed for novice climbers, with future routes planned for those with more experience.
The concept of the via ferrata, which translated to English means "iron roads," originated in the 1860s when people living in the Dolomite Mountains in Austria and Italy began installing fixed ropes and ladders to the top of prominent peaks, according to the Singing Rock climbing gear company. In 1869, climbers used steel wires and poles on the southwest ridge of the GroSlockner, Austria's highest mountain.
The practice took off between 1915 and 1917 in World War I when soldiers utilized the fixed iron cables and ladders to establish positions in high, hard-to-reach mountains.
The trend expanded for recreation climbers from 1949 to 1966 as the fixed routes provided rapid descent routes for extreme rock climbers.
"The policy now is one of maintenance rather than expansion," according to the Singing Rock Web site. "The status quo, which is certain to be maintained, is that no area in the Alps has more via ferrata than the Dolomites. Here, iron ways are a major part of the region's tourism."
While there are beginning climbing routes with some fixed bolts throughout the state and along the Wasatch Front, there is nothing quite like the via ferrata park. It also is unusual in that the park is all on private land. Only the climbing area in southwestern Utah's Veyo Hot Springs offers anything similiar. But it does not have via ferrata routes.
Peterson owns 1,440 acres east of the Mount Ogden golf course in and around Waterfall Canyon. That includes a portion of the popular Bonneville Shoreline Trail.
Peterson, who worked for 17 years at nearby Snowbasin on the east side of Waterfall Canyon, said he hopes his park will draw some of the thousands of tourists traveling north through Weber Canyon on their way to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons.
Lowe, who pioneered the sport of ice climbing on Malan's Waterfall in this pretty canyon setting in 1971, envisions a climbing park that will include not only the via ferrata routes but sport and traditional climbing, and ice farming, a practice in which water is diverted to create falls that ice over in the winter for climbers.
The famous Utah climber has multiple sclerosis, which makes walking the trail up to the via ferrata more difficult than the climbs.
The via ferrata is ideal for novices who want to get a feel for climbing. Climbers must use the training area first and wear a helmet. According to Lowe, routes are equipped with pre-placed anchors, cables and ladder rungs in the steeper places. Climbers wear harnesses and are attached to a cable at all times, with shock-absorbing lanyards as protection against a fall.
Future developments in the Waterfall Climbing Park are expected to include routes ascending more than 600 feet of near-vertical rock along the canyon's waterfall, including a cable bridge across the top of the waterfall.
The climbing park might be the first of several developments in the Malan's Basin property that Peterson purchased. He has talked about building a gondola from Ogden to a potential new resort on the mountain and using the climbing park as a midway station where riders might depart.
The developer said the permanent routes and metal ladders used in the via ferrata would not have been allowed on U.S. Forest Service property without years of study. Will public access to popular Waterfall Canyon and the portion of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail on property owned by Peterson remain open as it is now, at least temporarily?
"I will grant permanent hiking access to my property when I get permanent permission to do what I want with my property," he said.
Environmentalists are warily watching the development.
"The [climbing park] is on his land and he can pound holes and hang wires on it if he wants to," said Jock Glidden, a longtime Ogden Sierra Club member and environmentalist. "We can't stop it. It is a portal to something else. He's already been cutting swaths of trees in Malan's Basin over the next ridge . . . It's all rather suspicious to us. We can only make inferences as to what he is up to."
Peterson declined to talk in detail about his plans for his property in Malan's Basin.
Lowe argues that those worried about the impact of the via ferrata on the land should examine the trail near the waterfall he has built. He maintains that a vertical trail built on rock offers less erosion than a footpath.
Salt Lake climber Tom Adams, who works for Liberty Mountain gear, has used via ferrata in Europe.
"Having done a few myself, I think they are a lot of fun and a fairly safe way to get up in the mountains and climb," said Adams.
For now, the increasingly popular sport of climbing along the Wasatch Front has a new addition designed to draw converts to climbing.
:hitit:
The Iron Climb
Via ferrata park near Ogden lets novice climbers take metal steps straight to the top of the mountain
By Tom Wharton
The Salt Lake Tribune
OGDEN - A European-style rock climbing practice known as via ferrata now has a Utah angle in Waterfall Canyon east of this city.
For novice climbers who don helmets, clip lanyards into a fixed metal cable and climb steel ladders straight up the side of a cliff, it is more like a stairway to heaven.
With Chris Peterson providing the property and veteran Utah climber Jeff Lowe doing the designing, this via ferrata park - one of only three in North America - includes a practice wall and two, fixed 350-foot-high vertical routes that use permanent metal ladders and cables.
The climbing park, just off the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, is primarily designed for novice climbers, with future routes planned for those with more experience.
The concept of the via ferrata, which translated to English means "iron roads," originated in the 1860s when people living in the Dolomite Mountains in Austria and Italy began installing fixed ropes and ladders to the top of prominent peaks, according to the Singing Rock climbing gear company. In 1869, climbers used steel wires and poles on the southwest ridge of the GroSlockner, Austria's highest mountain.
The practice took off between 1915 and 1917 in World War I when soldiers utilized the fixed iron cables and ladders to establish positions in high, hard-to-reach mountains.
The trend expanded for recreation climbers from 1949 to 1966 as the fixed routes provided rapid descent routes for extreme rock climbers.
"The policy now is one of maintenance rather than expansion," according to the Singing Rock Web site. "The status quo, which is certain to be maintained, is that no area in the Alps has more via ferrata than the Dolomites. Here, iron ways are a major part of the region's tourism."
While there are beginning climbing routes with some fixed bolts throughout the state and along the Wasatch Front, there is nothing quite like the via ferrata park. It also is unusual in that the park is all on private land. Only the climbing area in southwestern Utah's Veyo Hot Springs offers anything similiar. But it does not have via ferrata routes.
Peterson owns 1,440 acres east of the Mount Ogden golf course in and around Waterfall Canyon. That includes a portion of the popular Bonneville Shoreline Trail.
Peterson, who worked for 17 years at nearby Snowbasin on the east side of Waterfall Canyon, said he hopes his park will draw some of the thousands of tourists traveling north through Weber Canyon on their way to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons.
Lowe, who pioneered the sport of ice climbing on Malan's Waterfall in this pretty canyon setting in 1971, envisions a climbing park that will include not only the via ferrata routes but sport and traditional climbing, and ice farming, a practice in which water is diverted to create falls that ice over in the winter for climbers.
The famous Utah climber has multiple sclerosis, which makes walking the trail up to the via ferrata more difficult than the climbs.
The via ferrata is ideal for novices who want to get a feel for climbing. Climbers must use the training area first and wear a helmet. According to Lowe, routes are equipped with pre-placed anchors, cables and ladder rungs in the steeper places. Climbers wear harnesses and are attached to a cable at all times, with shock-absorbing lanyards as protection against a fall.
Future developments in the Waterfall Climbing Park are expected to include routes ascending more than 600 feet of near-vertical rock along the canyon's waterfall, including a cable bridge across the top of the waterfall.
The climbing park might be the first of several developments in the Malan's Basin property that Peterson purchased. He has talked about building a gondola from Ogden to a potential new resort on the mountain and using the climbing park as a midway station where riders might depart.
The developer said the permanent routes and metal ladders used in the via ferrata would not have been allowed on U.S. Forest Service property without years of study. Will public access to popular Waterfall Canyon and the portion of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail on property owned by Peterson remain open as it is now, at least temporarily?
"I will grant permanent hiking access to my property when I get permanent permission to do what I want with my property," he said.
Environmentalists are warily watching the development.
"The [climbing park] is on his land and he can pound holes and hang wires on it if he wants to," said Jock Glidden, a longtime Ogden Sierra Club member and environmentalist. "We can't stop it. It is a portal to something else. He's already been cutting swaths of trees in Malan's Basin over the next ridge . . . It's all rather suspicious to us. We can only make inferences as to what he is up to."
Peterson declined to talk in detail about his plans for his property in Malan's Basin.
Lowe argues that those worried about the impact of the via ferrata on the land should examine the trail near the waterfall he has built. He maintains that a vertical trail built on rock offers less erosion than a footpath.
Salt Lake climber Tom Adams, who works for Liberty Mountain gear, has used via ferrata in Europe.
"Having done a few myself, I think they are a lot of fun and a fairly safe way to get up in the mountains and climb," said Adams.
For now, the increasingly popular sport of climbing along the Wasatch Front has a new addition designed to draw converts to climbing.