BillMiddlebrook wrote:Nooooo!
I think that will unnecessarily drive volume up on other peaks. Let's just sacrifice the busy, close-to-Denver 14ers to the crowds and build better roads, huge parking areas, and bathrooms. Let those peaks be the sandbox for the spike in seasonal hikers and tourists. I think it's great that more people get off the couch these days and the high-use peaks can handle the summer volume if the local authorities would install sufficient facilities. The massive increase in traffic on Bierstadt is partly due to the recent road improvements and installation of many, many road pull-offs which are now used for dispersed camping. Now that they have drawn so many people to Guanella Pass, the USFS should provide the necessary facilities. It can be done.
Additionally, I'm not confident the USFS can manage fees and permits. Just look at what they have done with Mt. Evans - all of that revenue and much of it doesn't get beyond the staffing just to run Mt. Evans. It's in the same district and very little funds get over to support the Grays/Torreys road and TH issues. A modest amount of road work and parking expansion could improve the Grays TH greatly.
+1 Bill. Permitting Bierstadt, Gray's, Torrey's, etc, will just drive more people to Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Antero, Missouri, etc. AND A LOT OF THOSE PEOPLE AREN'T READY TO CLIMB SOME OF THESE "HARDER" PEAKS. So not only would you have a lot more people on "harder" peaks, you could potentially have a lot more people GET IN TROUBLE on "harder" peaks.
Let's face it, if you have to have newbies who have no idea what they are doing in the mountains, you want them on mountains like Bierstadt, where it is almost impossible to get yourself in a life threatening situation on a summer day (exempting allergic reactions and lightning). This is because there are so many people on the mountain at any given time that you could probably be evacuated by a group of bystanders if necessary. Not so on harder mountains, especially if you manage to get yourself a good ways up before running into trouble.
Personally I would much rather pay a 0.1 cent sales tax and have that money used to fund SAR, CFI trail improvements, road improvements, restroom improvements, etc. But climbing probably isn't popular enough, even in Colorado, to get such a thing passed.
