Bennito L. Kelty
Audio By Carbonatix
On the last weekend of July, Bennito L. Kelty, a lifelong hiker, headed for the DeCaLiBron Loop. His original plans called for climbing the peaks that had just been reopened – and his Westword editors encouraged him to write about the experience – but once at the trailhead, he decided to summit the still-off-limits Mount Bross, too.
When his editors learned that, they encouraged Kelty to be transparent about his entire climb, both legal and illegal – first in an online piece on westword.com (which inspired this rebuttal), and then in this week’s cover story, “Sermon on the Mount,” which went into the background of the area, the reasons it had been closed off, and the possibility that it could be closed again because of his actions.
For many readers, this piece was a steep climb, too. Says Brett:
That’s a lot of words explaining your entitlement, and how you think you can go wherever you want.
Comments Justine:
The original article was so selfish and blind to the issues and privileged. There’s no excuse for breaking the law. It puts the rest of the hiking community at risk of losing something important that they’ve worked hard for. Imagine if that article had been written by anyone from a non-majority demographic. It shows really limited self-awareness.
Adds Douglas:
I was pleased to read Lloyd Athearn and Annaliese Steele’s strong rebuke of the irresponsible article you published by Bennito Kelty, recounting his illegal climb of Mount Bross. …Kelty jeopardized fragile access to the rest of the Decalibron peaks for thousands of other climbers, simply to indulge a selfish whim and achieve the grand glory of publishing in Westword. Hunter S. Thompson or Norman Mailer he ain’t. A pox on him, and a double pox on the editor(s) who abetted this damaging stupidity.
Argues Reid:
That is the most irresponsible and selfish reporting and publishing I’ve ever seen. I hope you’re happy with yourself, Bennito Kelty. There are already selfish f*cks summiting Bross, and your article encourages more to do so. Screw you and the dude saying “fine me, whatever”; it’s not about you, it’s about all people’s access to it. If I come out on my trip next year and it’s closed again, I promise you will be hearing from me, loudly.
Offers Jesse:
No, I don’t think it’s wise to document trespassing, but Bennito L. Kelty’s original article is authentic to the experiences of Coloradans and tourists in the area, so it’s a piece of journalism with some value even if it is a fairly frivolous piece. If the U.S. Forest Service or local law enforcement in Alma want to enforce this silly law, they should do so. I’m sure they would rake in money, because trespassing on this property is extremely common.
The truth is that they don’t enforce it because it is not a priority for them, and they’re right to effectively ignore this crime that harms no one. Further, Mr. Reiber is willing to spend much of his resources on barring access to these trails but is unwilling to mark and warn hikers about the unused mining remnants on his property, suggesting that he is in fact in violation of the liability laws he claims to be worried about. The law isn’t that someone who is accessing his land with explicit permission can sue when they fall into an unmarked mineshaft, it’s that anyone who accesses the property can. The law concerns reasonable warning about potential dangers on property, not access rights. If Reiber doesn’t feel that he can adequately warn visitors to his land about these dangers, then he is free to sell, donate or abandon the land that puts him, supposedly, at such risk of liability.
I think that tens of thousands of visitors to “his land” can attest to the fact that he doesn’t leverage any substantial use from it, so the loss shouldn’t cause him much grief. On top of all this, does the public overwhelmingly agree that the concerns of Mr. Reiber are so great that he should have the sole right to bar people from accessing federally owned land, such as the peak of Mount Cameron, the slopes of Mount Democrat, or much of Mount Bross? I sincerely hope you can think contemplatively on the ramifications of agreeing that he has such a right, because much of Colorado’s land is scarred with strips of private mining rights that rightfully impinge on public access to lands which you own, American citizens,
Concludes Katie:
Maybe Bennito should go back to Arizona and leave Colorado alone. Too many people have worked too hard to gain respectful access for this idiot to wreck to whole thing.
For the record, Bennito L. Kelty is from a “non-majority demographic.” He was also born and raised in Aurora; after attending journalism graduate school and working in Tucson, he returned to Denver this spring as a Westword staff writer.
This wasn’t the first time a Westword writer had broken the law. We were threatened with jail for telling the secret story of the Rocky Flats grand jurors who’d wanted to indict eight individuals for environmental crimes at the former nuclear weapons plant; a young intern who wrote about getting a fake ID was warned that the district attorney was looking into charging him.
This particular instance was definitely less noble and also trickier, because the editors didn’t have prior knowledge. But when crossing the line, we always opt to fall on the side of truth.