Access and ethics: who decides where and how people climb.

Leave No Trace

The US National Park Service (NPS) lists seven Leave No Trace principles, which it says were established by the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics (NPS article, last updated 16 June 2022):

1. Plan ahead and prepare.
2. Travel and camp on durable surfaces.
3. Dispose of waste properly.
4. Leave what you find.
5. Minimise campfire impacts.
6. Respect wildlife.
7. Be considerate of other visitors.

A search summary of Yosemite's climbing permits page, which we could not open, says climbers must pack out solid human waste from big walls; that is unconfirmed. Rules on chalk at some crags are covered on the chalk and chalk rules page.

The Access Fund (United States)

The Access Fund's history page gives its origin: the American Alpine Club formed an Access Committee in 1985 to respond to closures of climbing areas, and the Access Fund became a separate organisation in 1991 because access problems had spread so widely. It says that from the start it chose not to take sides in ethical debates such as bolting and to defend climbing in all its forms, which is still its policy. It says it first fought anti-bolting rules at individual parks and forests, then worked with the federal officials who write those rules.

The Access Fund also says that since 1990 it has assisted with 90 land acquisitions through its grant and loan programmes, preserving over 17,454 acres, and that it has run a climbing conservation grant programme since 1991. Those are the Access Fund's own figures, from an undated page read on 21 October 2026.

Fixed anchors on US federal land

Fixed anchors, such as bolts left in the rock, were the subject of draft federal guidance in 2023 and again in 2026. The status below is as of 21 October 2026.

17 November 2023: draft

The NPS and US Forest Service issued draft climbing management guidance. As the Access Fund described it, the draft would have treated existing fixed anchors in designated Wilderness as prohibited installations pending review, and the Access Fund objected in a January 2024 comment letter. We saw the Access Fund's pages on this only in search summaries, so the detail is unconfirmed.

2024: the PARC act

KUNC and the Mountain West News Bureau (Hanna Merzbach, 19 June 2026) report that Congress's 2024 Protecting America's Rock Climbing (PARC) act protected existing anchors after the 2023 draft.

15 June 2026: new draft

The same report says the NPS, Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management released new draft guidance that would officially allow fixed anchors, with routes established before 4 January 2025 usable and maintainable indefinitely. Comment periods ran to 14 August 2026 for the NPS, BLM and Fish and Wildlife Service, and to about mid-July for the Forest Service.

Reactions

Erik Murdock, deputy director of the Access Fund, called the draft a win for climbers, asked the agencies to align their definitions of fixed anchors, and said local policies on new routes will vary because individual parks and forests decide. Some environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, raised concerns about wilderness protections.

Status on 21 October 2026

We found no final adopted version of the 2026 guidance. It is described here as a draft.

Bolting policy in the UK

The BMC (British Mountaineering Council) says its formal position on drilled equipment is set out in its bolting policy. The policy gives a framework for agreeing where bolts are and are not acceptable in terms of climbing ethics, aims to safeguard traditions and protect the crag and mountain environment, and describes consultation for new bolting and for dry-tooling. The BMC's installers' guide was published in 2021.

Two further BMC statements reached us only through search summaries, so their wording is unconfirmed:

• The BMC's 1992 national statement, as quoted on its ethics page, is reported to strongly support leader-placed protection using natural rock features, to limit drilled equipment to agreed quarried crags and agreed sections of some limestone crags listed by local area committees, to oppose retrospective bolting, and to say re-equipping should happen only by common consent at open forums.
• The BMC is reported to say its donated bolts may be used only to re-equip existing sport routes, not to retro-bolt trad routes or for new sport routes, with proposals vetted by the local area, access representatives and its Bolt Panel.

Bird nesting restrictions

United Kingdom

The BMC cites the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which makes it an offence to destroy the nest or eggs of any wild bird and forbids disturbing Schedule 1 species at the nest. The BMC says it agrees restrictions each year with landowners and conservation bodies for Schedule 1 and some locally rare species, most often peregrines, ravens, ring ouzels, choughs and auks such as razorbills and guillemots. Restrictions last a couple of months and are sometimes lifted early when the young fledge. A BMC explainer, seen in a search summary, adds that most run from the beginning of March to the end of June, varying by species, and are agreed only where there is evidence of nesting on a crag climbers use.

The BMC calls its Regional Access Database the most accurate source of crag access and nesting-restriction information for England and Wales, and warns that guidebook details may be out of date. It also warns that disturbing peregrines can bring a substantial fine and that police may seize climbing gear.

Zion National Park

Zion closes listed climbing areas from 1 March to protect nesting peregrine falcons and the federally endangered California condor. For 2026 it said the seasonal closures would lift on 1 August 2026 and resume in spring 2027 (page updated 29 July 2026). Zion says disturbed falcon pairs may abandon a nest and not nest again until the next year, and that climbing near condor nests can cause eggs to be abandoned or get fledglings used to people. It says park staff no longer closely monitor falcon territories, and that climbers' reports of falcon sightings to the Zion Climbing Coalition help staff confirm nests and may let cliffs reopen before 1 August.

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite says its superintendent closes designated nesting cliffs for peregrine falcons and golden eagles to prevent nest failure, until the chicks fledge and disperse. Its 16 July 2026 update said no climbing closures were in effect. The park says peregrines disappeared from Yosemite for decades and were listed as endangered in the early 1970s, and credits their recovery to climbers, researchers and NPS biologists working together.

As the Zion and Yosemite pages show, closures are set and lifted within each season. The land manager's own page is the current source for any crag.