An area of the Haines State Forest in Taiya Inlet could be open to amateur rock climbers and hikers if a newly-pitched tour gets permitted and developed.
A Haines-based company, Halutu Sky Walk LLC, has applied for a land use permit with the state’s Department of Natural Resources proposing a via ferrata route and use of state-owned tidelands for a buoy or floating dock, a temporary seasonal weather shelter and a small gear shed.
Kevin Forster, an environmental scientist and current Haines assembly member, is the company’s contact person. He said the easiest way to understand what a via ferrata is, and how people use them, is to look it up and watch a few videos.
“It allows people to access areas that would be rock climbing – for people who don’t know how to rock climb and don’t have that equipment or expertise,” he said.
The site the company wants to develop is along the base of the Halutu Ridge South of Burro Creek. It’s just about halfway between Skagway and Haines in an area of the Haines State Forest where commercial recreation is specifically allowed. The company is asking for a five year permit running through Dec. 31, 2029.
Forster said they chose that spot to explore because it is high quality granite.
“Not all of the rock in the upper Lynn Canal is conducive for rock climbing [but] it’s quite nice out there,” he said.
Still, Forster said he doesn’t think a lot of people know about the area or have climbed it.
“I’ve talked to different people who have come to town rock climbing, and, you know, occasionally people will do some climbing out of their skiff or something, but … I think part of what attracted me to this area is, as far as I understand, it doesn’t really have any historical use, so I don’t think it should be too impactful in that regard,” he said.
The company’s application describes a route equipped with steel cables, rungs embedded in rock and a secure path for climbers to reach otherwise inaccessible areas. It proposes a tour on 300-500 foot tall rock buttresses near a small cove.
“Guests will ascend via ferrata routes from the cove and descend via a gentle foot path,” according to the application. The routes would have a fall-protection cable running their length, stainless steel bolts attached to the rock and a series of rebar “rungs” to aid people in moving along the paths. The company is pitching a 12-30 inch wide footpath created with hand tools.
Forster said he does not think all of that gear will be noticeable from the inlet.
“I would imagine that, aside from when there’s actually people on the rock occasionally, that I’d be very surprised if anybody could point out the infrastructure, because essentially, steel cable, you know, bolted to the cliff hundreds of feet up,” he said. “I don’t think anyone’s gonna see it at all.”
Alaska’s first via ferrata route was debuted by the Tordrillo Mountain Lodge, north of Anchorage. Lodge visitors are flown to 4,000 feet above sea level and then climb a route overlooking Triumvirate Glacier. When it debuted in 2019, it was billed as beginner-friendly and that’s something lodge owner Mike Overcast has played out in the five years since they’ve been operating it.
The mountain lodge’s via ferrata route is on state Department of Natural Resources land, so they had to get a special-use permit and staging area permit. But, it’s private.
“We paid for the entire installation of the ferrata and also have to have a bond with the state should we be required to remove it at any time or should we stop using it,” he said.
Overcast said when the team decided to build the ferrata, he talked to a number of companies that specialize in installation because it requires special engineering. He said generally the process is to start with a bid proposal from companies that want to come install the route, then they do the engineering based on the route they recommend. Once the route is approved, the engineering takes place, hardware is manufactured “then they come in and do the installation,” he said.
Once the route is built and insured and safe, then Overcast said it’s time to go out and find someone to help develop safety protocols and an operation program to get people out to the site, climbing, and back out again safely.
“Ours took about a month and a half to build. It’s about a 1,000-foot ferrata and it has two suspension bridges that we cross that are probably the highlight,” he said. “Then we fly guests off the top by way of helicopter back down to the glacier and back to the lodge.”
Since the ferrata opened, Overcast said it has become the most popular activity the lodge offers.
“Even more popular than fishing and that says a lot in Alaska,” he said. “Most people come to Alaska to do some fishing, [then] have the opportunity to do the ferrata and have chosen to vacation and do ferratas at other places in the world.”
He said it has been a boon for his business.
“We can’t speak highly enough about how it has been received as a tourist activity and is kind of a differentiator for our business in what I would consider to be a saturated market,” he said.
Via ferrata routes have been built and used in Europe since WWI but interest and use of them in the U.S. has spiked in recent years.
Overcast attributes that popularity to the thrill of the adventure.
“It’s moving on the rock without having the encumberment of a rope and a belayer and being able to take teams up of five and six people at a time, moving across the rock and enjoying the views of Alaska while having a pseudo rock climbing experience,” he said. “It takes people that would require a lot of training to do rock climbing and puts them in that vertical environment where they can appreciate everything that rock climbing has to offer.”
Overcast estimates they’ve taken hundreds of people up the lodge’s via ferrata. They have a logbook at the top of the climb. The lodge only takes 12 people a week, but he said almost all of them make the trek.
“We have guests that are 82 years old, we’ve had guests as young as 9 or 10 years old,” he said. “You can have grandpa, father, and daughter on a climb. Sharing that has honestly been the best part of it. To see it through their eyes and take them across the stone and up the mountain and they’re taking it all in. It’s some of the best Alaska has to offer.”
The southcentral via ferrata may be beginner friendly, but it’s not necessarily budget friendly. The lodge costs, somewhere between $9,400 for a three day stay to nearly $20,000 per person, for a weeklong visit.
Were it to come to fruition, Forster’s via ferrata would likely target a different audience. For one, there are no plans to build out a lodge or other kind of high-impact use of the area.
“I imagine it’ll be a cruise ship tour, so they’ll probably sell it on the boat,” he said.
When that first via ferrata route went in, some in the climbing community criticized it for being outside of the norm of Alaska climbing and for the lack of widespread notice before it was opened to the public.
In the case of this project, it has still only been published on a state online public notice database and the comment period was originally opened for just over two weeks. But someone requested an extension and now it is open until Oct. 25 at 5 p.m.
Even if the permit gets granted, Forster said the project is not a done deal. There are still a lot of logistical questions that would need to be answered in order for the project to be developed.
“I was just seeing the amount of pressure … I know potentially we could be seeing more cruise ship traffic and just trying to come up with something,” he said. Forster noted that Haines’ tourism director Rebecca Hylton talks a lot about feedback from cruise ship passengers who come to the Chilkat Valley and say there is not much to do.
“Well, if we can give them something to do that doesn’t involve either: A – the Chilkoot corridor, or B – the downtown area, maybe that would be a win-win for everybody,” he said.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct a misspelling of the name of Tordrillo Mountain Lodge and the pricing for a stay at the lodge.