You don't need climbing experience (or a flight to Europe) to climb these four via ferratas.
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Don’t have any rock climbing experience but still have an unquenchable desire to scale sheer rock walls using your own strength (and plenty of safety equipment)? Try out a via ferrata. Popular in Europe, a via ferrata, which translates to “iron path” in Italian, is a climbing route that often features cables, bridges, and metal ladders in lieu of rock holds. These via ferratas in the U.S. offer the thrill of wall climbing, but with no experience required, making for perfect adventures for the vert-curious.
Most lines are only doable with a guide. Luckily, you don’t need a passport to get this high off the ground with these four guided routes across the U.S.
Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico
Situated at 11,500 feet in the sub-alpine beauty of the southern Rocky Mountains—the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, to be precise—Taos Ski Valley offers guided via ferrata experiences for all levels, from beginner to advanced. Challenges include a 100-foot skybridge, a double-cable catwalk, and stunning views of the Rio Hondo, the Wheeler Peak Wilderness, and imposing Kachina Peak. You might spot some wildlife from above, too, including marmots, pikas, and bighorn sheep. The course is accessible via a UTV ride up the mountain.
Visitors to the world’s only Certified B Corporation ski resort can book just the via ferrata experience. However, for those who want to stay a few nights at the posh Blake Hotel, you can reserve a Blake Elevated Experience package that includes the via ferrata, spa treatments, yoga, and so much more.
Quarry Trails Metro Parks, Ohio
When you picture scaling mountains on iron rungs, visions of the midwest aren’t likely the first thing to pop into your head. But central Ohio, specifically the greater Columbus area, is a hotbed of outdoor activity, and that includes one of the nation’s newest and most accessible via ferratas.
The now-retired Marble Cliff Quarry, once the largest contiguous quarry in the U.S., has been transformed into Quarry Trail Metro Park, a 182-acre park complete with the via ferrata, lakes to paddle in, a mountain bike trail, and a waterfall. The route features 1,040 feet of cabled climbing via metal rungs, a 90-foot long suspension bridge that hovers 105 feet above a pond, a steel staircase, ladders, and two aerial walkways. It takes an average of 90 minutes to complete and is easily accessible from the lively metropolis of Columbus and its surroundings.
You’ll have to register for a fully guided experience with Metro Parks to avail yourself of the climbing features on the limestone rock face.
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Estes Park Kent Mountain Adventure Center, Colorado
Located in a secluded valley on private property near Estes Park is a via ferrata that’s about as close to a wilderness experience as you’ll get on a guided adventure course in the Lower 48. Two different routes—a beginner-friendly Peregrine Arete route on Deville Rocks and an advanced Cloud Ladder route—offer experiences for every type of adventurer. These two courses even meet in the middle, so if your group wants to split up based on ability or comfort level, you can still experience part of the course together.
Narrow bridges offer a serious thrill factor, exposed cliff faces will get your heart pumping, and the elevation is no joke. But the views of the surrounding mountains are more than worth the effort. In fact, it’s the location that truly sets it apart from other via ferratas in the state, according to Reed Woodford of Kent Mountain Adventure Center (KMAC) Guides. (That, and the exposed, rigorous lines on the Cloud Ladder route.)
Visitors can register for the guided experience with KMAC Guides.
Tordrillo Mountain Lodge, Alaska
Welcome to Alaska’s first via ferrata built by the Tordrillo Mountain Lodge in the backcountry around Judd Lake, Alaska, about 60 miles northwest of Anchorage. This experience is reserved for lodge guests only, and because summer bookings start at $9,400 per person for an all-inclusive three-night stay, few people have experienced the thrill of the route.
The via ferrata adventure starts with a quick flight in the resort’s private helicopter from the lodge to the starting point of the route. Once you arrive, you’ll cross several bridges, including a 30-foot and 70-foot structure, the latter of which is suspended above an impressive 1,000-foot glacial ravine. Along the route, which involves 900 feet of vertical climbing, you’ll also enjoy stunning views of the Triumvirate Glacier and the surrounding Tordrillo Mountains. When you reach the end of your climb, you’ll get whisked back to the lodge by the same private helicopter that brought you to the start.
Book your custom stay with Tordrillo Mountain Lodge to start planning the Alaska backcountry adventure of a lifetime.