Standing 365 feet over Telluride’s Box Canyon, Bridal Veil Falls is Colorado’s tallest free falling waterfall, and some would argue, one of the most classic and difficult ice climbs in the country. And it has been closed to climbing for the better part of a few decades, with the exception of a few brief openings.

Following extensive negotiations, ice climbers will once again be able to legally climb the classic Bridal Veil Falls, beginning December 5th, 2009. This agreement was reached through negotiations between The Trust for Public Land and the Idarado Mining Company, with support and advocacy from Colorado’s San Miguel County, the Telluride Mountain Club and the Access Fund. It awards a revocable public access license that grants climbers access to this world-class ice climb.

The opening of the key access point to Bridal Veil Falls was managed by The Trust for Public Land, a non-profit land conservation organization dedicated to helping communities all around the country save special places for everyone to enjoy. Their work has made a real difference around Telluride, Ouray and Silverton, where they have protected over 10,000 acres for the public, including other outstanding climbing resources such as Wilson Peak and the Ouray Ice Park.

The re-opening of Bridal Veil Falls is a big win for the climbing community, but we need your help to ensure its continued access. This area contains a set of innate hazards, which climbers must be aware of to ensure their own safety and mitigate potential access issues.

This new public access license is revocable and is contingent on climber’s awareness and compliance with a number of rules. Climbers must sign in at a kiosk and avoid the Powerhouse area at the top of the falls; all descents must be via rappel. A complete list of rules and topo can be found at www.sanjuaniceclimbs.com.

Compliance with these rules is essential to maintain climbing privileges. Please treat this area and its adjacent private land with respect, and help educate others on its proper use. Our combined efforts can help keep this landmark climb open for years to come.

Many thanks to folks at The Trust for Public Land, Idarado Mining Company, San Miguel County, Telluride Mountain Club and many local climbers for coming together to reclaim this Colorado classic. For more information, contact Access Fund Regional Coordinator Steve Johnson at steve@8750law.com.

See also:
Trust for Public Land
Scott Dissel
(303) 837-1414
scott.dissel@tpl.org

Telluride Mountain Club
Tor Anderson
970-708-0860
telluridemountainclub@gmail.com

San Miguel County 
Linda Luther-Broderick
(970) 369-5469
lindal@sanmiguelcounty.org

Colorado Avalanche Information Center
(970) 387-5712
www.avalanche.state.co.us

–by the Access Fund

Currently, the standard route on the southwest ridge of Wilson Peak is open to climbers approaching either from Navajo Basin to the southwest or Bilk Basin from the east. Access via Silver Pick road is still considered closed by the landowner.

In October 2007, the Trust for Public Land (TPL) finalized the purchase of 230 acres in the Silver Pick Basin allowing the Forest Service to begin planning for a re-route to the summit. Heavy snow in the region this year delayed access to the proposed trail until late July. The Forest Service will be formally scoping the area by the end of this summer.

The new trailhead will be located about 3 miles up the Elk Creek road, which starts near the Wilson Mesa trailhead on Silver Pick Road. The route will then climb above Elk Creek before switchbacking out of the Elk Creek cirque and entering the west side of Silver Pick Basin above the remaining private property. The trail will continue above the basin and reconnect with the traditional route before reaching the Rock of Ages Saddle. (See photo of proposed route at left). The proposed alignment offers incredible views of the Mount Sneffels Wilderness to the north, El Diente to the south, and the La Sals to the west. If the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation can be finalized in time, trail construction is expected to occur in the summer of 2009 and completed by fall.

While almost all of the proposed new route is on existing trails, the Colorado Mountain Club and TMC will be organizing a series of work days in 2009 to help link trail segments, and will solicit help from their members.

We would like to acknowledge the leadership provided over the past several years on the Wilson Peak issue by a few supporters including Steve Bonowski and Jeff Parsons (CMC), Steve Johnson (Access Fund), Tor Anderson (TMC), Judy Schutza (USFS Norwood District Ranger), Kathy Peckham (USFS Norwood District Recreation Planner), and representatives from San Miguel County: Board of County Commissioners, Steve Zwick (County Attorney), Kevin Geiger (Former Asst. Attorney), Mike Rozycki (Planning Director), Linda Luther and Kari Distefano (Open Space & Recreation).

HELP SUPPORT THE CMC WILSON PEAK ACCESS FUND
Please support these efforts to restore legal public access to Wilson Peak by donating to the Wilson Peak Access Fund. You may elect to make a one-time or monthly recurring donation through the CMC. The CMC Foundation has offered to match every contribution to Wilson Peak up to $5,000 through the Gehres Fourteeners Fund. Call Doug at 303-996-2752 if you need assistance or have any questions about how to contribute to Wilson Peak.

But consider this – responsible companies don’t wait until workers suffer fatal or near-fatal accidents, and then analyze only those accidents to develop their safety plans.   They spend a lot of time studying the behavior and decisions of all workers – in particular those who aren’t busy having accidents.  It turns out that most good industrial safety is based on establishing a range of safe behavior (around dangerous machines, for example), and taking corrective action long before workers move outside those parameters - i.e. BEFORE accidents happens.   To do this, safety professionals need to watch not only the actions of workers – via time and motion studies, for example – but they need to understand their thought and decision processes.

In this spirit, then, it might be useful to all who venture into the back-country (and out of bounds), to talk about why we decide  turn back - be it at the trail-head, on the approach, at the top of the line, or at the boundary rope.    A number of snow safety organizations are thinking seriously about this aspect of recreational avalanche safety - it was discussed quite a bit at the ISSW last year.     Surveys are being developed, and as they become available, we’ll share them here along with stories and statistics from other states and countries.

In the mean time, however, we ’ve decided to start this thread so that we can share what we see, feel, hear, smell or otherwise sense that makes us turn around.   We realize this can be a delicate subject for lines that are illegal, out of bounds, secret stashes, or just good old trade routes where we don’t want to see anyone but our buddies.      Whenever that’s a concern, please feel free to just sign the comments anonymously.    

The survival stories attributed to the Avalung, and newer Avalanche Balloons, have almost always been in big, open terrain and above treeline. The sad fact is that a huge majority of avalanche deaths are caused by bodily injury. And here in the San Juans we don’t typically tour in terrain far above treeline and without cliffs. There are, of course, exceptions, but the statistics don’t look good.

Sure, if you’re a ski patroller, guide or snow scientist, the Avalung is probably a good idea. You are somewhat obligated to be out in risky conditions, and therefore should do everything in your power to stay alive. But it still boils down to personal choice and one’s individual acceptance of risk. Recreational users aren’t required to accept these risks at all. But we all still do to some extent, whether the avi danger is low, high, or the usual “moderate with pockets of considerable.”

There is also the factor of Risk Homeostasis. This theory/idea is that the more you “puts the odds in your favor,” the easier it is to justify taking bigger risks. If all of your buddies are at the ready with their new, super-accurate beacons, probes and shovels, and you’ve got the Avalung in your mouth, is one’s risk level actually reduced? Or are you just taking one bullet out of the chamber for your turn at Russian Roulette, and hoping for the best?

One can also climb the peak via Wilson’s West Ridge route, though this requires some sections of technical climbing with much exposure and loose rock. Access to Mt. Wilson, El Diente and Gladstone peaks is also available from the Bilk Creek and Navajo trail heads.

Trail re-routing to restore the traditional access in Silver Pick Basin is underway, and will hopefully be completed by fall 2008. Please respect this temporary closure through Silver Pick and plan accordingly. Additional information can be found at the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative site at www.14ers.org.

Presently, the Telluride Ski Area has two backcountry gates: one at the top of Gold Hill proper above Lift 14, leading into upper Bear Creek, and one in the saddle near Bald Mountain off of Lift 12, going down into the Alta Lakes area. Additional gates in the Contention and Regular Route areas have been recently suggested, but adding these access points has not yet been formally discussed.

Many years ago the ski area had a “mellow yellow” policy of open boundaries, where you could access the backcountry anywhere by crossing under a ski area boundary rope, recognizing that you were off of the ski area and own your own. This policy was changed after a knee-jerk reaction to several avalanche deaths, and, for several years, there were no backcountry access points at all. When the ski area expanded a few years ago, part of the expansion agreement was to again provide access points into our public Forest Service-managed lands.

Despite several deaths in off-limits areas such as Temptation, skiers and boarders continue to ignore the ski area’s rules and venture daily into terrain such as Contention, Regular and other routes leading down into lower Bear Creek. In years past, this was a federal offense with a federal Forest Service closure, even though the FS rarely enforced it due to personnel and funding issues. This year, the FS decided they had more liability by not enforcing it, and dropped the federal closure altogether. The ski area’s Level 1 closure is still in effect, and one can lose their pass for 2 years and possibly face county trespassing charges if you get caught. But few get caught, and many enjoy fresh powder and sick lines without any extra effort of hiking or skinning. A few unlucky ones do get caught, and some even get injured or killed in these avalanche-risky areas.

What do people think about this continued boundary closure policy, the existing ski area backcountry gates, and possible new access points? How do the relative dangers of ducking ropes into lower Bear Creek compare with the legal access points into upper Bear Creek? And do gates indeed attract the unprepared, or would open boundaries just invite more skiers & boarders into potentially dangerous situations?

ATVs on public land is, of course, an issue that’s been raging around here for  a while.   The first few lines of the NYT article really bring it close to home for those of us who love the San Juans:  “In the San Juan National Forest here, an iron rod gate is the last barrier to the Weminuche Wilderness, a mountain redoubt above 10,000 feet where wheels are not allowed.  But the gate has been knocked down repeatedly, shot at and generally disregarded. Miles beyond it, a two-track trail has been punched into the wilderness by errant all-terrain-vehicle riders who have insisted on going their own way, on-trail or off”.

 Even though we’re all thinking (serious) snow now, the ATV issue will be back before we know it.   In the spirit of keeping ourselves informed, feel free to post links to other articles on ATVs and public land, as well as any other considered comments or observations.