Climbers raise red flags over proposed anchor rules for national parks

The mountain climbing community is concerned that new rules being proposed by the National Park Service and Forest Service could hinder their sport, making some mountains impossible to scale.

The new draft rules released last month could allow national parks to ban fixed climbing anchors entirely, and remove anchors that are already in place, claimed Erik Murdock, interim director of the Access Fund, a mountain and rock climbing advocacy group.

“This is a top-down proposal by a few attorneys in Washington, D.C.,” Murdoch said in a recent interview.