U.S. Forest Service wants your input on a Via Ferrata close to Colorado's Front Range
You might or might not be familiar with the current Via Ferrata at Arapahoe Basin for hikers and climbers to take on in the summer months. Now there's a proposed second trail that could be coming as soon as this year.
The U.S. Forest Service is looking for input on what the public thinks of letting A-Basin set up another course along the eastern wall inside their resort boundaries. Since it's public land, it has to pass a public comments round, which some people have already submitted their opinions online but you can still do so here.
The proposed second route would be a much shorter, more beginner-centric version of the first one, only taking around an hour to complete the climb compared to the three to five-and-a-half hours it can take on the current route.
By the way, a Via Ferrata, if you didn't know by now, is a climbing route where a climber is strapped into a harness and has anchor points and holds built in along the way.
"Although it is Forest Service land, we manage it on behalf of the American people, so they get a say in the comment period to present clearly what the proposal is, this will extend until Feb 15," Sarah Strehle, Mountain Sports Program Administrator with U.S. Forest Service said.
