Via Ferrata at the Nelson Rock Preserve is a must see trail for any formative BA. Taking on Via Ferrata, a system of cables and rungs, that at first glance would seem like a beginners course in rock climbing. Perhaps excellent free climber might consider this a walk in the park, but a decent rock climber will have a healthy respect for this obstacle course.

No seriously, it’s definitely kind of scary. Who would have thought that climbing a simple system of rungs could be so freaky. In fact, we risked life and limb to bring some of the excellent photos of just how BA this thing is. I hope you can appreciate just how much we risk to bring, you, the reader, an accurate portrayl of how just how crazy this thing is.

That being said, the view is fanatastic. For avid rockclimbers, there’s some excellent sides to spend your day rock climbing if you want. The course is relatively safer, but there are many areas where you would want to fall off. While the equipment and cable system will keep you from instant death, you can seriously bang yourself as you’ll likely fall 5 -15 feet before everything catches your fall, and that means, you’ll probably be 5 to 15 feet away from the lowest rung.

Yes, there are many parts where you’re not actually going up straight up, but you’re going sideways or diagonally. One slip, and you’ll have a hell of a time trying to get back. In fact, ya might stuck! And if that happens, best of luck. Forgot to ask, and probably better not to.

What’s morale of this story? Don’t slip!

Inside Scoop:
Highly recommend this one! It’ll take you a good 2 to 4 hours to finish the course. Come somewhat early. We showed up at about noon, and they had to look around for extra gear.

Bring some water with you, as there’s no watering hole at the top. Bug spray if you make it out there in the summer. Helmets are optional. Don’t throw anything off the mountain, people are walking at the bottom, even though you can’t see them. We did on the way down, and some sucker was kickin’ stones. Helmets would have been good then, but it would have killed the “cool” factor considerably.

Call ahead! You can use your own harness, but you’ll probably want to use their equipment becuase their carabiners where specially modified to use their cable system comfortably.

We rate this a solid 4 out of 5 B.A.R.s