Kentucky moves to expand a state law to make it easier to rock climb on private land

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The mountains of eastern Kentucky include rugged rock faces that make people want to climb. I remember my college days, going to Kentucky's Red River Gorge and scrambling up a rock feature called Half Moon - and that's when my fear of heights kicked in. Anyway, the same gorge has real rock climbers, and those climbers face a tricky situation, because some of the best rock faces are on private land. Kentucky Public Radio's Justin Hicks reports on a move to expand a law to make it easier to get on the rock.

JUSTIN HICKS, BYLINE: Deep in Kentucky's Red River Gorge, famous for its sandstone arches, I set out on an adventure with Curtis Rogers and Jereme Ransick. There are no trails, so we rely on GPS and a decent bit of memory.

JEREME RANSICK: I think I walked through it, but it hadn't rained. Let's see how bad the...

CURTIS ROGERS: Yeah.

RANSICK: ...The creek is.

HICKS: We follow a shallow creek, and scramble uphill on our hands and knees. Finally, there it is - a wall of rock, with metal bolts going up in vertical lines.

ROGERS: It's just - this is where we started, 'cause it was tall and begged to be climbed, I guess.

HICKS: Ransick and Rogers are with the Red River Gorge Climbers' Coalition. They put in those bolts for climbing, and they have big plans for this massive cliff.

ROGERS: Yeah, so ultimately, the vision is that there's a parking lot and trails that we would have hiked to get here.

HICKS: They set off to climb, while I watch from below. Ian Teal owns this cliff, and he says before he bought the land for a cabin resort, climbers weren't allowed here.

IAN TEAL: The previous owner, he and I were really good friends, but it was - the only reason he wouldn't do it is for legal reasons. He really thought he could be sued.

HICKS: He made a legal deal with the climbers' coalition in case someone gets hurt on his land, and Teal hopes climbing will draw people to his cabins. At a nearby pizza joint popular with climbers, Rogers tells me the sandstone formations here make this a mecca for climbers.

ROGERS: There's a subset of the population around the world that thinks of rock climbing when they think of Kentucky, just as much as they think of bourbon or horse racing or anything else.

HICKS: Rogers wants Kentucky lawmakers to make private landowners more comfortable about letting climbers onto their cliffs. They want the words rock climbing inserted into a state law that already protects landowners from being sued if someone gets hurt during a recreational activity on their land. Right now, that law lists some examples - things ranging from hunting and horseback riding to picnicking - but it does not include rock climbing. Having it spelled out would make landowners like Teal a little more comfortable.

TEAL: This is very important legislation to all of us because it does give that extra bit of guarantee.

HICKS: A guarantee that landowners can't get sued. And Kentucky isn't the only state where rock climbers have pushed for that protection. Daniel Dunn is with a rock climbing advocacy group called the Access Fund. He says in the past few years, they helped get similar laws passed in Colorado, Texas and West Virginia.

DANIEL DUNN: Where there are states that have lots of rock climbing potential, plus a lot of private land, it's sort of, like, a no-brainer that it's an easy thing for us to work on.

HICKS: Dunn lives in east Tennessee. He says rock climbing is especially good for central Appalachian states searching to decouple from a dying coal industry.

DUNN: We need something new, and we have a sort of unofficial thing. We've talked about, from coal to crags, as sort of, like, a little pitch line, slogan (laughter). Yeah, but I think rock climbing can play that role.

HICKS: Dunn says state leaders are generally pretty happy to add rock climbing to their land-use laws. The climbers in Kentucky got a positive response when they pitched the extra words to lawmakers a few weeks ago. They hope they'll add rock climbing as a recreational activity when they meet for their next legislative session in January.

For NPR News, I'm Justin Hicks, at the Red River Gorge in Kentucky.

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