How ‘Chicken Head Holiday’ helped this canyon make history

Little Cottonwood Canyon became one of Utah’s first technical rock climbing areas — if not the first — and attracted an emerging local and national climbing community seeking new challenges in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
And now the Little Cottonwood Canyon Climbing Area has become the first recreational climbing area in the country to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The listing came on Aug. 5.
“Recognizing the historical value of Little Cottonwood Canyon climbing and its surrounding landscape elevates the need to protect and preserve this special place in the hearts and minds of Utahns and the many people who visit our state,” Julia Geisler with the Salt Lake Climbers Alliance said in a press release.
The climbing area is located at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, about 21 miles southeast of Salt Lake city. It can be accessed from two main locations: the Little Cottonwood park-and-ride via the Alpenbock Loop trail or Pipeline trail and the Grit Mill parking area via the Grit Mill trail.
The area’s “period of significance” runs from 1962 to 1974. Both technical and non-technical climbing in Utah pre-dates that period, but those activities are less documented. The Alpenbock Climbing Club, which served as Salt Lake County’s first mountain search-and-rescue unit, established routes in the historical area and beyond, according to the climber’s alliance.
The late former Salt Lake City Mayor Ted Wilson and Larry Love, both Alpenbock Climbing Club members, established the first recorded climbing route in the area in 1962 at a time when route and technical climbing knowledge was passed by word of mouth, rather than in guidebooks or apps, according to the climbers alliance. It also captured the rise of the Leave No Trace movement in climbing embraced and promoted by the club.
According to the 102-page application for the historical designation, “The site is significant for its contributions to the pattern of early rock climbing and development of ‘classic’ climbing routes, pioneering of hard-rock climbing technology and building local enthusiasm for climbing as an outdoors activity. The distinctive granite formations within the site remain unchanged since 1962 and share an interrelationship within a relatively small geographic area.”
Wilson, who died in April at age 84, recounted in a 2022 interview with John Flynn, assistant director of the American West Center at the University of Utah, how he first came to climb Little Cottonwood Canyon.
“I met Yvon (Chouinard) when I was climbing in the Tetons in 1959. He was living in an old incinerator with Ken Weeks in the (American Alpine Club) Climber’s Camp. Yvon and Ken were planning to climb Baxter’s spire. But Ken dropped out for some reason, and Yvon invited me to join him. Yvon asked me where the SLC climbing was along the way, and I told him about Big Cottonwood and climbing the quartzite rock.
“No one climbed in Little Cottonwood then. Yvon asked me about the granite and said I should try it, and he told me about the granite in Yosemite. So, when I got home one fall day, Bob Stout and I planned a climb. While we considered a Big Cottonwood climb, I remembered Yvon’s granite advice. So, Bob and I decided to give it a try. It was an easy but fun route we called ‘Chicken Head Holiday.’ Bob and I spread the word about how good the granite was in Little (Cottonwood Canyon), and the Alpenbock Club, including (Bob) Springmeyer, got busy and put up many good early routes. What I know about Chouinard: He is one of the most innovative and brilliant persons I have ever met.,” he said, as cited in the nomination.
Protrusions of harder rock, which are more resistant to weathering and erosion, that cover rock faces are commonly called “chickenheads.” The route, now spelled Chickenhead Holiday, is described at mountainproject.com.
Chouinard, who founded Patagonia, Royal Robbins, Fred Beckey and Layton Kor were among the national figures who helped legitimize climbing in Little Cottonwood Canyon, elevated the status of the Alpenbock Climbing Club, and contributed to the spread of international climbing culture, according to the climbers alliance.
Climbing became one of the canyon’s main attractions with its varied climbing, reasonable approaches and warm rock on sunny winter days, according to the nomination. “Its crags are shorter and more complicated, by some climbers’ claims, than Yosemite. With these conditions, it’s also a perfect training ground for other granite areas around the world.”
The Salt Lake Climbers Alliance applied for the historic designation after the Utah Department of Transportation chose building a gondola as the preferred option for easing traffic congestion in the canyon. UDOT’s record of decision says the plan will have “low” impacts on climbing, which includes removing two climbing boulders, according to KSL.com.
This past week, the alliance, State Historic Preservation Office and Wilson’s daughter Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson, celebrated the designation with a short hike on the Alpenbock trail. They served smashed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches wrapped in wax paper in honor of Ted Wilson.