Access fee has peak baggers up in arms
Ellen Miller, Special to the News
Published July 19, 2006 at midnight
A Texas man who owns mining claims on 14,107-foot Wilson Peak in southwestern Colorado has launched a $100 per-use fee for anyone to hike across his land - including climbers trying to bag one of Colorado's 54 famed Fourteeners.
At issue is public access to the easiest route to the top of Wilson Peak in the rugged San Juan Range. From time to time over the years, landowner Rusty Nichols has cut off access to the mountain for liability reasons and following incidents of vandalism, which he says includes cabins burned, equipment damaged and material stolen.
Nichols said the fee will cover his liability and road maintenance costs.
Not surprisingly, recreational groups are up in arms and question how Nichols will collect the fee. They also contend that a newly passed state law provides ample protection for landowners from liability suits.
The dispute comes as August, perhaps the most popular climbing month, approaches.
Vera Smith, conservation director for the Golden-based Colorado Mountain Club, said the organization has been engaged in talks with Nichols and the U.S. Forest Service, along with San Miguel County officials, seeking to find a way to ensure public access to the peak.
Under the new law, she said, "If somebody got in trouble, the landowner would be protected.''
The Access Fund, a Boulder- based nonprofit dedicated to keeping terrain open to climbers, agrees.
Executive Director Steve Matous said Nichols' access fee is "his latest tactic in playing hardball for a land trade because no landowner has ever been successfully sued for recreation in Colorado."
"It's a risk for him, though," Matous added. "If you start charging, you're a commercial enterprise and then you're taking on the liability. Maybe he has good insurance."
Nichols, who would respond only via e-mail, said "numerous people" have paid the fee rather than trespass or take the longer or more technical routes to the top.
Furthermore, he said, not only doesn't the new law provide enough liability protection, but should he and his partners ever try to mine the claims, federal regulations don't allow pedestrians on roads with large ore haulers.
"They can't stop while Suzy ties her shoelace," he said. "We have asked for enforcement help from the Forest Service for years."
He said there are several routes to the peak that bypass his lower claims. He has even posted maps at the trailhead parking lot, he said.
As for a land exchange, Nichols said he has talked with various land trusts, the Forest Service and other parties and insists on "value for value," not just acre for acre.
"So far, everyone wants to talk," he said. "(But) no one has submitted a proposal to me, although we have submitted several in the ten-cents-on-the-dollar range.''
Forest Service information specialist Melanie Stenson said the problem with the land exchange is that Nichols "believes that the gold is worth more than what's been offered. Efforts have not been successful because what he wants, we're not able to exchange.''
"We can get around him to the peak," Stenson said. "There are other ways, just not as available and easy.
"The kicker is, what was a one-day up-and-down trip is now two days because it takes a full day to get up there, you have to camp somewhere and then come back down."
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