Via ferrata is an adrenaline-drenched way to experience mountainsides and canyon walls. Italian for “iron path,” via ferrata offers an adventure similar to rock climbing and mountaineering but with more safety and accessibility for a much larger audience. Colorado is securing its hold on the experience in the U.S. by currently offering more routes than any other state.

Via ferrata routes have steel fixtures such as cables, railings, ladders and steps engineered into the rock face, transforming crags perhaps once attempted only by experienced rock climbers into a space where anyone with a reasonable level of fitness and tolerance of heights can spend an adventurous day on a cliff side in sneakers.

In most cases, climbers will attach their climbing harness to the steel cable using a specific via ferrata lanyard protection system. While some routes require booking through a guiding service, others are open and free to the public. It’s important to be prepared with proper gear and knowledge about access, weather and route conditions. Even though via ferrata is a relatively safe activity, there are still inherent risks. Helmets are important to protect from rock fall, which can happen frequently.

“For a lot of the people we take out, this is a pivotal life experience. It’s their first time interacting with a wild space in this way,” shares Dustin Dyer, co-owner of Kent Mountain Adventure Center (KMAC) Guides in Estes Park. “The benefit stewardship-wise is huge, and we actively emphasize that when we take people out. Pointing out, for example, that this mountain isn’t condos, because people have chosen to protect this place.”

Though now a fun adventure activity, the original intended purpose for via ferratas was to provide an efficient way to move through the jagged peaks of the Dolomites for the Italian and Austro-Hungarian troops during World War I.

The first via ferrata in Colorado appeared in the early 2000s when Chuck Kroger, famed Telluride climber, illegally installed bolts and rungs to continue on a ledge system below Ajax Peak that eventually petered out. Initially, this well-kept secret was known only through wordof-mouth, until the National Forest Service caught wind and wanted it removed. However, after many hours of volunteer work and engineering studies, the route was fully established in 2007.

Since then, places like Estes Park, Ouray and Cañon City established their own via ferratas. “Guests were not asking for it; it was more just a thing we thought would be cool back then,” recalls Dyer. But nowadays, more and more people are saving their hard-earned vacation money to climb high on another route.

One of the newest via ferrata courses, Gold Mountain Via Ferrata in Ouray, opened for its first season on May 1, 2023. This route climbs roughly 1,000 feet of elevation, scaling the infamous “Gold Mountain,” a historic and highly profitable mining claim, and tops-out with a cable bridge and private vista overlooking the San Juan mountain range.

Additional via ferrata courses can be found at Arapahoe Basin, Manitou Springs, Mount Evans and Buena Vista, and it seems likely that more will follow suit in the near future. Companies like Via Ferrata Works are even creating a variety of overnight lodging experiences at new heights.

Part of the reason Colorado may have more via ferratas than any other state is the amount of accessible rock, the volume of private property and its proximity to large populations. “To have one on public land, you have to be far enough away from a population center where no one would really care but close enough that there will be people who will fund this thing, which is a pretty unique set of circumstances,” shares Dyer.

There are big pushes going on behind the scenes that will probably become public in the next year or two where companies are making alliances and via ferrata provider networks. “Things like that are in its infancy right now. We are still doing a lot of education on what is via ferrata, the history of it, why it’s fun, why it’s safe — all those things,” says Dyer. “We always say, the more there are of these, the better it is for all of us.”

Originally published in the Fall 2023 issue of Spoke+Blossom.

Scaling Colorado's Via Ferratas