SLCA Soon to Share Little Cottonwood's Climbing Area Historical Site

The SLCA has worked this past year to preserve Utah’s climbing legacy by nominating the Alpenbock Loop climbing area in lower Little Cottonwood Canyon for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). This would be the first recreational climbing area to be listed in the nation! Once it's listed, it will also be posted in the National Register database and in the Library of Congress, both digitally available.

It’s one thing for the LCC Climbing Historic Site to be listed, but yet another to share this living climbing legacy with the community at large. Thousands of climbers still climb the Alpenbock Club’s climbs today and there is a USFS designated loop trail named the Alpenbock Loop that connects many of these classic climbs. This climbing area is under constant development threats.

The SLCA’s goal is to educate the general public about the significance of this historic climbing landscape and ensure its access remains open for future generations to climb these historic routes. What better way to engage with a landscape than hiking (and climbing) through it. Free of charge, interactive, historical hikes and associated content at kiosks will do just that and will be used as an advocacy touchpoint for the ultimate protection of this iconic climbing area. Thanks to the Petzl Foundation and the Access Fund, we will soon be able to do just that.

More about the historical climbing site designation:

The NRHP is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance of "great artistic value." The NRHP is a program of the National Park Service and is locally administered by the Utah State Historic Preservation Office. The Little Cottonwood Canyon Climbing Area Historic Site holds statewide significance as an excellent representation of a culturally significant district in the areas of Recreation and Social History in Salt Lake County, Utah.

Significance is on a statewide level due to the intensity of climbing development as a recreational sport within the climbing area in a relatively short frame of time, and that that development was responsible primarily by one group – the Alpenbock Climbing Club.

While non-technical climbing was happening on occasion by individuals elsewhere in the state before and during the period of significance, it was not well-informed by national trends for technique, safety, and equipment as it was by the Alpenbock Climbing Club during their time pioneering routes in this climbing area and serving as the county’s first mountain search and rescue unit. The period of significance is 1962-1974, which encompasses the time period when Alpenbock Climbing Club members Ted Wilson and Larry Love established the first recorded climbing route in this climbing area through to the time when route and technical climbing knowledge was passed person-to-person rather than through guidebooks, and capturing the rise of the Leave No Trace movement in climbing, embraced and promoted by the Alpenbock Climbing Club, and winter/ice climbing led by George Lowe. Our advocacy work of providing free of charge, interactive, historical hikes and information at kiosks will help to preserve Utah’s climbing legacy as well as the places where we climb.

We are excited to announce that SLCA was chosen for one of Access Fund’s Climbing Conservation Grants as well as a Petzl Foundation. Thank you to our partners for supporting local work on the ground.