Unlike traditional rock climbing routes, which are typically protected with via bolts, via ferratas feature extensive, permanent hardware. Via ferrata routes have long been popular in Europe, particularly in regions like the Austrian Alps and Italian Dolomites, where they were used as a method of travel in technical alpine terrain by military units during World War I. Popular mountain towns such as Telluride and Ouray in Colorado, Mammoth Lakes and Lake Tahoe, California, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Taos, New Mexico have all opened via ferrata routes in recent years, and these routes are even appearing in urban areas. Although via ferratas don’t necessarily require the skill and experience level of a traditional rock climbing route, they can still be dangerous. In 2021, however, a 53-year-old woman died in a 200-foot fall off a via ferrata in Telluride—one of the few public via ferrata in the country.