This just in from Yosemite NP. Permits now required for multi-day rock climbs. What's next, permit for photography (wait - there already is a permit for photography - commercial anyway). When I was in grad school the saying was "Publish or Perish", ie publish or you are irrelevant. In the federal bureaucracy the saying is "Regulate or Perish".

I understand but shouldn't we expand and clarify?

In our days, we had Yosemite and almost all other climbing areas to ourselves. The Sierra and other mountain ranges were virtually empty. Climbing was esoteric, dangerous activity on the fringe of human behavior.

Today, the activity/sport has grown to intolerable levels. There are climbers everywhere and in huge numbers. There is basically an assault on nature from us, outdoor enthusiasts.

No wonder that the response from authorities is to limit, restrict, block access. This is only going to get worse in all popular climbing areas.

Unfortunately, we all are responsible for this situation. Blaming the bureaucracy only, is missing the big picture...

BTW, I'm as perplexed and miffed by these restrictions as you are. But I don't see this easing, anywhere. Just the opposite.

Cheers, Alois.

Edited for clarity and spelling.

True what asmrz wrote above. ^^^ But the explosion in popularity has also come with a focus on the highest peaks and well-known 'bucket list' routes, so those have been the areas people gravitate to and the regulators regulate. I'm not into rock climbing to the extent I once was, but if you stay away from trails that lead to the highest peaks (like Mt. Whitney in the Sierra Nevada Mtns) you can find a lot of backcountry with little or no traffic and some pretty impressive class 3 or higher peaks. Exceptions might be some of the trails that have always been popular with scout troops and such (the 'loop' in SEKI comes to mine, but not its name ), but other than those there's plenty of 'elbow room' out there.