CLIMBING AN IRON PATH TO THE SKY
photo by Ian Zinner
COVER STORY
BY JOANNE PALMER
O
n a sunny morning in late March, I find myself flattened against a granite rock slab at the Royal Gorge, wondering what to do next. I need to go up, to advance toward the summit but I am frozen in fear. One foot is on a rung, one hand is on steel cable, but to get to the next point requires finding a natural hand and foothold on the relentless rock. Let me be clear: I am not a rock climber. I hike, bike and play pickleball—all sports that are on or close to the ground and afford the opportunity to quit and go home at any time. But now I must move, I must climb, I must live up to the magnet on my refrigerator door that states, “Do one thing every day that scares you.” Done and done. And on I go. Below is my partner, Evan, who has valiantly agreed to accompany me on this adventure. Above, Marquette, our guide. Marquette is the best. He has given us detailed instructions: clip in here, put a foot
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COLOR ADO COUNTRY LIFE MAY 2022
there, grasp a handhold. It looked easy, like a dance step. But now I struggle to follow his lead. I refuse to look behind me as I already know what is there: a steep, unforgiving drop. My Spidey senses are tingling, my heart is thudding and the phrase “Get a grip” takes on new meaning. Birds are singing, but their song is drowned out by my incessant self-talk. “You’re too old,” “You’re gonna fall,” and the loudest of all, “Why aren’t you home in your recliner, watching ‘Jeopardy?’” This is the Via Ferrata. The Via Ferrata literally means Iron Way or Iron Path in Italian. In English, I loosely translate it to mean, “Crazy things I thought I could do while sitting in my living room.” The origins of the Via (refer to it this way if you want to sound cool) are in fact, very cool. It was the ingenious solution to the improbable task of transporting equipment and soldiers through the Alps during World
Writer Joanne Palmer (left photo) makes her way up the path as others (above) celebrate a summit.
War I. These enterprising, hard-working soldiers hammered steel cables, rungs and ladders into the rocks, creating a stairway of sorts through the Alps. Long popular in Europe, the Via Ferrata is relatively new to Colorado and quickly gaining popularity as the state’s newest adrenaline-fueled sport. As Mark Iuppenlatz, owner/director of San Juan Mountain Guides, puts it, “In Ouray, we hit our four-year goal in the first year. It allows people to experience rock climbing safely without having technical ability.” Although there are seven Via Ferratas in Colorado, only one is open year round, which is how we find ourselves in Cañon City at the Royal Gorge. “You’re doing great,” Marquette calls encouragingly. Yeah, right. Rock is momentarily a fourletter word in my vocabulary.