When I worked for Utah Parks Company as the janitor of Zion Lodge back in the day, one of the real treats available was the hike up Lady Mountain. You can see this grand peak right across from Zion Lodge.

Back then, it was possible for mere mortals to climb to the top and experience the 360 degree view because it was open to the general public. The Park improved the trail with safety chains and ladders like those still found along the Angels Landing Trail today.

But I’ll probably never see that view again because the Park doesn’t maintain the route anymore. It was dismantled in 1978 because the Park decided that the risk was too great. The remnants of the trail now involve 4th and 5th class exposed climbs and pitches.

The “risk” they’re talking about isn’t the risk of falling. It’s the risk of getting sued by someone after they fall. To put that in perspective, here’s the tally of people who have died falling off something in Zion National Park from the “official” NPS web site. Keep in mind that this is the entire list from the establishment of the park almost a hundred years ago.

Angels Landing - 5
Cathedral Mountain - 1
Emerald Pools - 7
Lady Mountain - 2+
Mt. Kinesava - 1
Mt. of the Sun - 1
Observation Point - 2
Watchman - 2
East Rim Trail - 1
Checkerboard Mesa - 1
Crazy Quilt Mesa - 1
Deer Trap Mountain - 1
Hidden Canyon - 2
Canyon Overlook - 2

An average of one person dies every day, just in Utah, from traffic accidents.

But the risk to the Park Service (that is, “all of us who pay taxes”) is substantial. In 1994, members of a scout troop from St. George died trying to descend down the Narrows. Relatives filed a claim for $24,556,813.

The reason this comes to mind today is that someone died climbing on the Chuckwalla Trail north of St. George yesterday. Every time this happens, I wonder if the rest of us will now have to pay the price by having another experience like Lady Mountain taken away from us. Will the Park be forced to take out the Angel’s Landing trail next?

Charles Cook, director of the National Center for Wilderness Activities and author of The Essential Guide to Hiking in the United States, had this to say about the lawsuit by the St. George scout relatives:

“The problem in our country is people’s failure to take responsibility for their own behavior,” says  “What I see happening more frequently is, group leaders and individuals entering an area that requires skills they don’t have and then they or the family sues.”

Amen, Charles!