Hello Mountain Project,
The opportunity to develop and guide at a local cliff on private land has presented itself and I have been grappling with the logistics and legal ins&outs of developing climbing routes on private land intended for an exclusive, for-profit guiding service. I am also seriously grappling with the ethics of that situation but I don't feel this is the time/forum to discuss ethics, and I'm more interested in discussings legals/logistics on this topic at this time.
The first thing that comes to mind is that I would need to have a lengthy discussion with a lawyer regarding liability and insurance for route development and fixed hardware installation (bolts), as this is well outside my normal insurance/liability knowledge for run-of-the-mill guiding. Assuming the legal team at this private property has the property owners' best interests in mind (and not mine), and they would probably sue the independent contractor that developed the routes without a second thought if something were to happen, I do have reservations about discussing this with the lawyers of the property owners. I remember in the early days of the Enormocast there was someone who marketed themselves as a climbing lawyer but I'm not sure how to connect or if they are even practicing law anymore.
Having done loads of new route development I know I am able to complete the task of safely developing routes to set them up, but I feel liability and legal specifics need to be discussed and clarified beforehand. This may include me creating an LLC for myself for developing routes and guiding and also liability insurance, to protect myself and my earnings from my main, full-time job. And I need to make sure I have the time available which would be required to get this project rolling, which I won’t know for certain until I’ve spent more time scoping out the cliffs and coming up with a plan for how to proceed (which invests even more time in something that I don't know I feel good going through with).
I've discussed the business model with the property owner, and without knowing what the demand looks like, it is really tough to come up with a predicted profit margin. I would likely be asking for hefty compensation for this, since I've already sunk HOURS into just contemplating this, and there are so many what-ifs (what if someone gets injured and says it was because of bolt placement, what if someone goes up there and hacksaws the bolts leaving only 5% of the bolt's diameter intact and someone whips on it, what if 40 years from now the piece of rock fails and the bolt is no longer good and someone whips on it, what if demand isn't high and the property owner feels that my preparation of the routes and guiding service is the reason for them losing money and demands compensation for those losses?)...
I appreciate any and all (on-topic) input on this situation - has anyone ever been in the situation of being tasked with developing routes on a cliff on private land before for a for-profit organization? There are no official certifications or real standards for route development that I'm aware of, everything I've learned has been trial and error and internet knowledge, so how does that factor in? How much would be a fair amount to request for compensation for this kind of task? (To begin with, I feel 2 beginner and 2 intermediate routes need to be developed, and each route will take probably +/- 12 hours between cleaning and equipping with protection. Does anyone have any insight on things to discuss with a lawyer / what I should do in terms of talking with a lawyer / forming an LLC? I'm also not opposed to abandoning the concept all-together with how much time/energy this will require. Or I could offer my services to the capacity of being a consultant and advising them on what to do, but I don't know what that would look like legally, either.
For more context, most of the cliff is single pitch with some sections at about 60 ft and most sections about 90-120 ft. There is also part of the cliff which is about 200 ft, and one 100-foot section which looks world-class and would offer routes in the 5.11-13 range. Lots of lower-angle terrain with cracks and features and holds, pretty good rock quality throughout.
Thank you! Climb on--