Climbers seeking to overturn ban on scaling towers

CITY OF ROCKS NATIONAL RESERVE, Idaho — As one of the few climbers to scale the 600-foot-tall pair of granite spires known as the Twin Sisters, park ranger Brad Shilling describes the three-state panorama from the top as "by far the best view of the California Trail landscape you could ask for."

From the ground, however, some visitors to the City of Rocks National Reserve in southern Idaho see things differently.

One visitor wrote in a letter to the National Park Service that climbers roping their way up the sides of the two stone towers that served as beacons to 19th century wagon trains look like "Lycra-clad filth."

Six years after a federal judge ruled the Park Service could legally ban sport climbing on the Twin Sisters because of their historical significance, the debate has been renewed. With the support of Idaho's congressional delegation, a national climbing organization is asking the federal agency to reconsider its 1998 ban on scaling the Sisters.

"This is not dead by a long shot," said Jason Keith, policy director for the Access Fund, a Colorado-based group that claims to represent 500,000 rock and mountain climbers in the United States. "We're not saying you shouldn't preserve the significance there, but there are ways you could allow limited climbing opportunities without impairing the historic values."

The fund sued the Park Service in an attempt to overturn the climbing ban, but in 2000, U.S. Magistrate Judge Mikel Williams dismissed the case after deciding the agency properly gave greater weight to preserving the cultural value of the Twin Sisters.

"Admittedly, the closure was based on the somewhat intangible values of feelings and association, but there is almost no other way to judge or weigh the merit of historical or cultural resources," Williams wrote.

In 2004, the four members of Idaho's all-Republican congressional delegation asked Park Service director Fran Mainella to ease the ban as part of a review of the 1998 climbing management plan. In a written response, the Pacific Northwest regional director, Jonathan Jarvis, defended the climbing ban but told the Idaho lawmakers "the need to address other pressing planning issues at the City of Rocks has caused us to reconsider this position."

Idaho's state historic preservation officer wrote to Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Mainella in December last year, arguing the City of Rocks Reserve was created by Congress to protect nationally recognized overland trail landmarks, not to promote climbing them.