Rep. Lloyd Larsen (R-Lander) wants private landowners to know they’re not liable when they invite people to go rock climbing on their property for free.
The longtime lawmaker sponsored a bill that would add the sport to a list of activities explicitly protected under Wyoming’s Recreation Safety Act and Landowner Liability Act, which hold recreators – not landowners – responsible if they get hurt on private land.
HB 73 unanimously passed the House earlier this week and is headed to the Senate.
The clarification is an effort to keep pace with the state’s evolving recreational landscape and comes as rock climbing grows in popularity across the state and nationwide. Larsen, who’s lived in Lander since 1980, said he used to go out and play basketball on Saturday mornings, but things in the neighborhood are a bit different now.
“ People are coming out of their houses with their bags, their ropes and their climbing shoes, and it's really interesting and fun to see how this changed,” he said in a Wyoming House Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources Committee meeting on Jan. 16.
The lawmaker was approached by a former constituent who wanted to make sure he was “ not putting himself in a delicate situation by allowing access” to climbing on his land in Wind River Canyon, according to Larsen.
Chelsea Rude is with the Central Wyoming Climbers’ Alliance and has been a climber for 27 years. She said it’s “kind of a bummer” not to have access to private land because of concerns about the sport’s risks and voiced her support for the bill.
“It would be really awesome if we had more accessibility to some of these climbing areas, such as in Wind River Canyon, to help bring in money to the state.”
Rude cited a 2021 study conducted by researchers from Eastern Kentucky University, which found that visitors coming to rock climb in Fremont County bring $4.5 million to the area every year.
Katie Goodwin works with the Access Fund and said the nonprofit has supported similar bills in 10 other states.
“ Providing a clear liability protective layer for the landowner is very valuable in providing uninhibited access,” she testified in the hearing.
Teton Climbers Coalition Board Member Charlie Thomas said the organization is “100%” behind the bill.
“ Pointing out climbing specifically as a case where they would not incur any liability would really help landowners to feel free to share their land, and I think that would really be beneficial to both the climbers and the landowners,” he said.
Mark Aronowitz emphasized to the committee that rock climbing is already technically covered by the current language of the two acts, since it’s understood as a sport or recreation activity. He’s the executive director of Lawyers & Advocates for Wyoming.
“ If you let people onto your land to recreate for free, no matter what they're doing – hiking, biking, mountain biking, climbing, rock climbing, bouldering – it's covered,” he said. “If they [landowners] don't charge, they have no liability.”
Wyoming State Parks and Culture Resources Deputy Director Chris Floyd said the agency will occasionally get inquiries from people interested in opening up their land to outdoor recreation.
“ We refer them to this act, and I understand it says, ‘included but not limited to,’ but a lot of times if it doesn't have their specific activity that they're interested in on there, it can be a little concerning,” he said.
Floyd also voiced support for the bill, pointing to it as an opportunity to alleviate some of the increased pressure on public lands for outdoor recreation and create more opportunities for economic diversification.
The proposed bill comes at the same time that the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has halted progress on its Climbing Management Plan for Tensleep Canyon, just outside the town of Ten Sleep in the northeast corner of the state. Climbers hoped the plan would resolve a route development ban that’s been in place since 2019.
Implementation of the plan was originally slated to start this month and the agency received 131 comments from the general public and federal, state, and local agencies. Acting District Ranger Matthew Enger cited an unstaffed ranger position and a desire to consult more with Native American tribes as two reasons for the delay.
