Crossing the Line: Hiking the DeCaLiBron Loop Is a Privilege, Not a Right

On Wednesday, August 2, Westword.com published an outlandish account of reporter Bennito Kelty illegally climbing Mount Bross, a fourteener that is part of the popular DeCaLiBron Loop, several of whose peaks recently reopened to the public. The audacity of this reporter to not only climb, but to also photograph and publish his account of climbing a peak that has been closed for over fifteen years, is beyond the pale. This illegal activity threatens public access to peaks we have been working to reopen — and keep open — for years. We call on Westword to take down the article and for Bennito to apologize for recklessly trespassing and promoting illegal activity.

The DeCaLiBron Loop has four 14,000-foot peaks accessible through a single seven-mile loop trail. The loop is a mere two hours from Denver and is one of the most popular fourteener routes in Colorado. In 2020, the DeCaLiBron Loop was climbed by almost 30,000 hikers, bringing in more than $5 million in tourism revenue for the nearby town of Alma. However, a significant portion of this popular trail, including the summits of Mounts Lincoln, Democrat and Bross, is located on private property. Access to the hiking trail and the summits of these peaks has been closed several times over the past two decades due to landowner liability concerns.

It is important to stress that at no time over the past fifteen years has the summit of Bross been open to public access. Unlike the summits of Democrat and Lincoln, which are owned by one landowner, Bross has multiple fractional landowners. Permission has never been granted by all landowners to allow hiking to its summit. Respecting this closure by not trespassing is essential to keeping this loop open. This reporter’s choice to not only trespass on the Bross summit — but to publicly brag about it and laud the other “renegades” who violated the closure — risks access to the DeCaLiBron for all hikers. Further, with more than 10 percent of fourteener summits located on private lands, the cavalier and entitled actions of a few hikers to trespass on the DeCaLiBron Loop suggests to other private landowners that fourteener hikers may not respect their closures and access restrictions, a message we believe is counterproductive.

The DeCaLiBron Loop and the summits of Mounts Lincoln and Democrat have been closed twice over the past three years due to landowner liability concerns. Hiking groups, the Town of Alma, and others have worked patiently and creatively with the landowner to provide solutions to growing landowner liability concerns. Just last week, the loop was reopened using a temporary waiver system, as the Fix CRUS Coalition works on long-term reform at the State Capitol next year.

The liability concern for landowners stems from a 2008 mountain bike accident in which a man was severely injured after biking into a sinkhole on a washed-out section of an unofficial trail on Air Force Academy land. After a decade of litigation, the Air Force was found to be liable for $7.3 million in damages for failing to warn against a known hazard. The outcome of this lawsuit fundamentally changed the interpretation of the Colorado Recreational Use Statute and lowered the perceived bar for liability. It opened the door to landowner liability for simply knowing of a hazard on your land and failing to warn users adequately and, in doing so, has had a chilling effect on landowners allowing free recreational access on their land.

Fourteeners and much of the Colorado backcountry have many known hazards, from loose rock to changing weather, from old mine shafts to cliff edges. Signage to warn of these hazards sounds simple enough, but it is frequently vandalized, damaged by natural events or stolen. Having hauled six-foot metal signposts and signs to the 14,230-foot summit of Mount Shavano, a peak owned by Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, we know all too well how strenuous this is and how hard these signs are to maintain. It is unclear how many signs you need and how often you need to hike to check that all signs are in place and have not been removed or defaced. The Fix CRUS Coalition put in a "Closed Trail" sign a few months ago at the DeCaLiBron Loop trailhead, pointing to a petition that folks can sign to help reopen the peaks; it was torn down within two weeks. Because of known hazards and the unreliability of signage, landowners have been scared about liability, and many opted to close public access — a true loss for everyone living in or visiting Colorado.

This year, Senator Mark Baisley sponsored SB 23-103 in an effort to strengthen landowner protections by revising the Colorado Recreational Use Statute. When it died along party lines, with all Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee voting against it, landowner John Reiber, who testified in support of the bill that day, once again closed access to these popular peaks. Since then, over forty members have joined together to form the Fix CRUS Coalition. The coalition aims to improve long-term access to recreation on private land in Colorado, including on privately owned fourteeners, by revising the CRUS to balance recreation access with liability protection for landowners. With the help of Baisley and Representative Shannon Bird, the coalition is working toward a 2024 bill to revise the CRUS so that it promotes recreation throughout Colorado instead of being a barrier to recreation access. Coalition members include recreation nonprofits the Access Fund, Colorado Fourteeners Initiative and Colorado Mountain Club; conservation nonprofits Trust for Public Lands and the Nature Conservancy; local governments and tourism offices; and private businesses and landowners. We have all joined together to amend the recreational use statute to better incentivize landowners to open their land to free public recreational access. Actions like the ones taken by Bennito Kelty threaten this progress.

Hiking the DeCaLiBron loop is a privilege, not a right. We worked tirelessly to restore the landowner's confidence to reopen Mounts Lincoln and Democrat with a waiver system, knowing that we were progressing on the long-term legislative fix needed not just for this trail, but for other hiking trails, high peaks, climbing crags, biking trails and recreational opportunities on or adjacent to private land where access is threatened due to liability concerns. Long-term access only works if recreationists are respectful. This includes obeying the rules set by the landowners who are allowing this free access. In this case, that means signing the waiver and staying on the trail — not trespassing to the summit of Bross and knowingly violating the closure.

Lloyd Athearn is the executive director of the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative; Anneliese Steel is the chair of the Fix CRUS Coalition.