Rock climbers scale freeway bridges because they’re close and are ideal for training. But now Caltrans wants them . . . : Off the Wall

Fingers hooked into a narrow groove, toes splayed against unyielding rock, Paul Anderson clings to the boulder before him like a human spider. Moving deftly, he searches for his next hold, pausing only long enough to dip calloused fingertips into a chalk-filled bag hanging at his waist.

Anderson, a climber for 12 years, soon may have more company at Stoney Point, a natural outcropping of rocks in Chatsworth. In a struggle between individual interests and a lawsuit-wary bureaucracy, rock climbers and Caltrans officials are grappling over the use of freeway undercrossings and bridges as artificial climbing walls.

Of the nearly 200 climbing walls in Southern California, 75 have been improvised on freeway structures. Caltrans’ determination to dismantle them threatens to “discourage the overall climbing picture,” says Craig Fry, author of “Southern California Bouldering Guide.”

For several years, interest in rock climbing has been surging. More and more people have been drawn to the sport’s physical and mental challenges. But for climbers who don’t have the time to travel to Joshua Tree National Monument, a popular site 2 1/2 hours from Los Angeles, freeway underpasses and bridges are appealing because they are close and offer ideal training conditions.

“The structures provide an ideal, nearby recreation (area) for people on their lunch break,” says Randy Vogel, a local climber and attorney for the Access Fund, an advocacy group for rock climbers. “Because it’s such a controlled and safe environment, many people first learn to climb on freeway structures.”

But if the state Department of Transportation has its way, freeway walls will no longer be available as training grounds.

Last month, Caltrans workers began removing handholds, bolts and glue from the region’s best artificial climbing wall, the pillars supporting the Arroyo Seco bridge in a fire-ravaged gully just northwest of Pasadena.

Foot-trodden paths beneath the bridge and blackened vestiges of epoxy along its walls are all that remain of the Arroyo Seco site, also known as the Four Pillars of Society.

Ed Bannister, a rock climber of 25 years, is going to miss the Four Pillars.

“There were nine routes. What was there was really good,” says Bannister, owner of Art of Climbing, a Chatsworth store that sells rock-climbing equipment. “(The creators) did an excellent job.”

Kuan Jin, a local climber and Pierce College student, agrees. “It was the only cool place to go,” Jin says. “It’s very urban. It’s close to anywhere and everywhere. It was long and very safe.”

But Caltrans officials see nothing but danger in scaling freeway walls.

Although there is no record of injuries or lawsuits involving climbers using Caltrans property, the agency refuses to consider issuing climbing permits. Fearful of potential lawsuits and damage to state property, Caltrans workers are removing climbing walls as they encounter them, forcing enthusiasts to pursue their sport elsewhere.

In a terse statement, Stan Lisiewicz, Caltrans deputy director of construction and maintenance, says: “We do not permit climbing on our structures, and we will not issue a permit to allow this activity under any circumstances. We remove any rock/bolts that we find on state structures, and we send bills to any trespassers we find climbing on our structures.”

Says Bill Varley, a Caltrans highway maintenance supervisor: “We would be liable if we knew of a structure like this and someone got in trouble. We will remove them whenever we find them.”

Ron Cabral, a Caltrans maintenance superintendent, condemns the artificial walls because bolts driven into the concrete allow water to seep inside, rusting reibars, the grooved steel rods that support the structures.

“Rust has tremendous strength and will push concrete away, and the reibar can’t stand up by itself. That’s why I’m worried,” Cabral says.

But rock climbers insist they do little damage to freeway walls. “I thought we were having good, clean fun,” Fry says. “It doesn’t really harm the rock in any way.”

Enthusiasts add that Caltrans enjoys absolute immunity from lawsuits under a state statute that governs hazardous recreational activities.

Under the code, “neither a public entity nor a public employee is liable to any person who participates in a hazardous recreational activity,” defined as one “conducted on property of a public entity which creates substantial risk of injury to a participant or spectator.”

Rock climbers say they are well aware of the risk associated with their sport.

“The ethic for years has been personal safety,” Bannister declares.

“You save the risk for somewhere in Yosemite or Joshua Tree,” says Bill, a 30-year-old climber who declined to give his last name. “You risk a little more when you’re doing something more worthy.”

Many say the sport offers respite from their daily lives.

“It puts your normal, everyday problems into perspective,” says Jan Fordham, a technical writer who’s been climbing for eight years. “Your life and that of your (climbing) partner become the most important thing.”

Jeff Michaels appreciates the transcendental qualities of the sport.

“The rock itself has a spirit to it,” says Michaels, a Canoga Park resident who disdains artificial climbing walls. “(Rocks are) past thoughts of the gods solidified. Our ideas are limited. The thoughts of the gods are unlimited.”

For those who enjoy artificial walls, however, there is hope.

In Orange, climbers are allowed to practice on an artificial wall made of river rocks in Hart Park, near the Garden Grove Freeway and Glassell Street, says Jane Owens, a city public information officer. City officials tolerate climbers using the structure as long as they don’t alter it by screwing in bolts, Owens says.

And in Chatsworth, climbers have long flocked to Stoney Point. “Legends of the sport have started here,” says Dimitrius Fritz, 22, of Canoga Park.

As Caltrans continues to disassemble artificial walls, Fry speculates that climbers will build more private walls at home. “If they can’t build them on the closest bridge, they’re going to build them in their back yards,” he says, estimating that there are already 50 to 100 such walls in Southern California.

Buying an artificial wall is another option. In a recent gift catalogue, Sharper Image, a purveyor of expensive, trendy items, offered a $14,995 “tread wall”--a vertical version of a treadmill.

But for those who find that price tag a little too steep, Stoney Point and Hart Park may be a little more promising.