Little Cottonwood Canyon climbing loop makes history, but it probably won’t stop the gondola from coming

The collection of boulders and granite walls first climbed by members of the Alpenbock Club in Little Cottonwood Canyon 60 years ago has made history as a piece of history.

The Alpenbock Loop, a 1.7-mile trail near the base of the canyon that accesses some of the most popular boulders and routes in the Wasatch Mountains, has officially been added to the National Register of Historic Places. The decision handed down earlier this month by the National Parks Service, which oversees the registry, makes the loop the country’s first set of climbing routes to receive the honor.

Christopher Merritt, Utah’s state historic preservation officer, expects they won’t be the last.

“It is a really fun achievement,” he said, “that of all the states with really amazing climbing history, we are the first to get it formally recognized on the National Register. We’re pretty stoked about that.”

Officially dubbed the Little Cottonwood Canyon Climbing Area, the historic district consists of two official trails, nine boulders and six crags. The crags contain 17 historic climbing routes established between 1962-74, though many more routes have since been established.

The impetus to apply for historic recognition stemmed from the Utah Department of Transportation’s plan to build a gondola in the canyon to allay winter traffic congestion on State Route 210 — a two-lane road that provides the only access to the Alta and Snowbird ski resorts and various trails and communities within Little Cottonwood Canyon. The loop’s designation as a historic place is unlikely to stop the gondola from going in, Merritt said, noting that even historic buildings on the list can still be razed. However, changes to the area around the Alpenbock Loop — including obscuring the view with gondola cables — may warrant more consideration because of its inclusion.

“Advocating for the landscape and listing it as a historic place will hopefully elevate it a little bit more in Utahns’ minds and hearts as a place that’s worth attention and protecting and preserving and knowing about,” said Julia Geisler, the executive director of the Salt Lake Climbers Alliance. “There’s a cool story there.”

The short version of that story is that until the early 1960s no one climbed in Little Cottonwood Canyon. A few tried, but they found the granite so hard it bent their pitons and the rock faces so slick they couldn’t get a foothold. Then in 1961, Bob Stout and future Salt Lake City Mayor Ted Wilson successfully summited a route they called Chickenhead Holiday using small rock protrusions — aka chickenheads — naturally occurring along its face. That set off a climbing frenzy in the mostly unexplored area, which is now believed to have more than 1,600 routes.

Stout and Wilson were members of the Alpenbock Club, a group of Olympus High students and University of Utah underclassmen who meticulously documented their climbing and bouldering expeditions in a scrapbook. That book of photos, route descriptions and tales of all-night parties, Merritt said, became the key to unlocking the National Register of Historic Places.

“Because this is the first of its kind, we had to navigate some complexity, because the National Register nominates physical expressions of history,” he said. “In a climbing route, there’s not a lot on the physical, human created path, right? … So it was really the historical documentation and the photos showing the different routes that was what led to the nomination.”

Merritt also credits the climbing community’s creative thinking for bringing the project to fruition. The State Historic Preservation Board initiated its query into whether the area could qualify as a historic site in 2018, shortly after UDOT began compiling its Environmental Impact Statement for the gondola, at the suggestion of a climber. The SLCA and other climbing groups then provided supplemental information.

Merritt suggested other areas of recreational importance, such as Joe’s Valley in central Utah, could follow suit — especially since Yosemite’s Camp 4 and a trail in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park are already on the registry. But to make that happen, he said, people need to start gathering history and documentation now.

Led by preservationist Kurt Huffaker, the Alpenbock Loop project already had plenty going for it. But it also got a boost from an unexpected source. Last year UDOT recognized the area as being a candidate for the registry, which technically granted the area the same limited protections it has now that it’s in the registry.

Still, Geisler believes its official designation as an area in the nation worth preserving and recognizing is worth celebrating. So, SLCA is organizing a party at the loop to do just that on Sept. 25 at 5:30 p.m. The event will include guided tours of the loop and feature speeches from Huffaker and Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson. Wilson is a daughter of Ted Wilson who died in April from complications from Parkinson’s.

Geisler said recognizing the loop on the National Register of Historic Places is “a way of sharing this legacy that we have, that people are still enjoying today and still climbing the same routes that Ted and [Ralph] Tingey and the Alpenbock Club members established.”

More docent-led tours are planned for the fall and Geisler said the SLCA is raising funds to create a short film about the Alpenbock Club.