Here鈥檚 one great outdoor sport that doesn鈥檛 wreck the great outdoors. Rock climbers do not, after all, damage the ecology of cliffs and routes they scale.
Research has repeatedly shown that climbing routes have half the plant richness of unclimbed cliffs. These studies have given climbers a bad rap and led many reserves to put their cliffs off limits. After sampling 20 different cliff faces, Kathryn Kuntz and Doug Larson at the University of Guelph, Ontario, uncovered the fatal flaw in these early studies 鈥� they had neglected to test whether cliffs that climbers chose to climb actually had less vegetation to begin with.
Kuntz and Larson deduced that if climbing destroyed vegetation they would see signs of damage in crevices and ledges that normally support plant life. They found none.
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鈥淲hat the plants are looking for is what climbers don鈥檛 want,鈥� says Larson. Plant roots break up the rock, making climbing perilous. So rather than climbers damaging the ecology of the rock face, they select bare cliffs in the first place, Larson believes. 鈥淐limbers would always choose solid stone cliffs over plant-covered ones,鈥� agrees Nick Colton, deputy chief executive officer of the British Mountaineering Council.
The report only applies to cliffs with an advanced rating, usually attempted by experienced climbers. Larson says research should also be done on easier routes suited to novices to ensure they too are not being damaged.
