Economic benefits of resources used for rock climbing at Eldorado Canyon State Park, Colorado

Abstract

Rock climbing has gained popularity in recent years, with estimates of 15 percent annual growth as shown by increased congestion at climbing sites, growth of the indoor climbing facilities, and development of professional competitions. Many resources used for rock climbing are on public lands, but no estimates of value have been previously determined for these resources. Managers of these resources can improve decision-making with values provided by this research. This study surveyed climbers at Eldorado Canyon State Park in Colorado during Summer 1991. This canyon is internationally recognized as one of the premier climbing areas in the world. It has over 800 named routes in the main area of the canyon, with over 30,000 climbing days each year. Overall, the respondents were willing to participate and express their feelings about the climbing issues. The travel cost and contingent valuation methods used data collected from the questionnaires to value resources at this site. Four models were estimated using the travel cost method, comparing continuous and discrete distribution assumptions. The Poisson model provided slightly better results, but many similarities existed between the four models. Consumer surplus values were estimated for these models, with values ranging from $39.51 to $48.73, with higher values from the discrete distribution models. The contingent valuation method was used to estimate net willingness to pay equations for three levels of congestion. For current levels of congestion at the study site, consumer surplus was estimated at $10.55 per day, well below the travel cost estimates. However, about 60 percent of the travel cost values represented the travel time portion, adjustment to the contingent valuation amount of $10.55 increased the consumer surplus for current conditions to $26.38, but still less than travel cost estimates. Increased levels of congestion decreased levels of net benefits. For 15 minutes increased waiting, daily net benefits were $5.87. For 30 minutes increased waiting, daily values averaged $3.64. Net benefits for remote wilderness climbing provided daily values of $27.95, about 165 percent increase over current conditions of Eldorado Canyon State Park. Using the $26.38, net benefit for a day of climbing at Eldorado Canyon State Park, total annual net benefits can be estimated. With about 30,545 climbing days annually, resources used for climbing provided about $805,777 in value to climbers for 1991.