The Southeast Alaska State Fair is adding a 44-foot climbing tower to its repertoire of attractions at this year’s 47th annual event.

The climbing wall will stand 30 feet tall, with a 14-foot roof structure, said fair executive director Jessica Edwards. Construction started this week on the structure located on the east side of the fairgrounds, between the carnival games and McPherson Barn.

The tower will be about 10 feet wide at the bottom and get slightly narrower toward the top. It will feature platforms at both the 15-foot and 30-foot marks – to accommodate climbers with different levels of experience – and will allow for two people to climb at once.

Fair president Eric Forster said plans for the climbing tower grew out of the community’s renewed interest in climbing, including local adults volunteering to belay and teach students on the Haines School’s 22-foot wall.

The fair bought four telephone poles from Alaska Power and Telephone to anchor the tower and serve as its corners. Forster said he hopes to keep with the Klondike Gold Rush theme and have the tower resemble a trapper cache.

“We’re trying to make it look good as well as be functional,” Forster said.

The climbing wall will use two auto-belayers, which are essentially fancy retractable dog leashes that remove the need for a human belayer. With the auto-belayers, one person working for the fair will be able to harness climbers and then send them on their way.

“The wall can essentially run itself,” Forster said.

The fair will run the wall as an attraction for this year’s festival, but hopes to see the structure get more use down the line. Forster said plans also include installing a small “bouldering” wall on the inside of the structure.

The second stage of the project includes setting up a zip line from the baseball field on the fairgrounds to a platform on the tower.

The nonprofit last week secured a variance from the Haines Borough Planning Commission for construction of the structure, which violates height restrictions set by code.

The commission voted 6-0 to approve the variance to the 30-foot height limit, with commissioner Rob Miller calling the vote “a no-brainer.”