REPORT OF THE MOUNTAINEERING/INSURANCE TASK FORCE May 1989

The task force has met three times to review correspondence from Club members, formulate plans of action, share information, and prepare recommendations. The task force has determined (a) that perhaps four thousand members participate in mountaineering at least once a year in scheduled activities on which ropes, ice axes, or other mountaineering gear must be taken or used for safety. (b) Persons making claims against the Club following mountaineering accidents tend to be new members or even non-members, and the accidents resulting in claims tend to occur during training sessions. (c) There is no centralized authority within the Club that controls mountaineering or mountaineering training. Sections, groups, chapters, and subcommittees of the Outing Committee have, before the current ban on the use of equipment, conducted climbs under the guidelines and policies established by the Board of Directors and their own management committees. The task force also discovered (d) that insurance brokers and companies are generally unfamiliar with climbing and mountaineering, that the claims history of the Club in the past few years makes us an unattractive insurance risk, and that insuring climbing during the 1988-1989 fiscal year would have cost the Club approximately an additional $500,000 over the $400,000 it is currently paying for liability insurance. In its research of the law relating to liability, the task force has received several legal opinions that (e) properly-executed waivers from participants could reduce our exposure to claims. After considering the issues and the options open to the Club, the task force recommends (f) paying an additional premium to provide liability coverage for the Club for claims resulting from mountaineering accidents; (g) collecting fees and soliciting donations to provide, in part, for this insurance coverage; (h) requiring signed waivers from all participants in climbing; (i) centralizing record keeping and authority; (j) investigating the establishment of a new corporation, legally separated from the Sierra Club, that could manage either all outings or only those carrying greater risks. The task force also recommends (k) rapid action on these recommendations so that plans can be make for climbing during 1989-1990. (1) The Finance department, working through brokers, should attempt to obtain insurance for the program described in this report, which is, in short, that (m) all climbers are to be registered and identified; (n) leaders are to be trained, evaluated, and appointed: and (n) only members with adequate training, experience, and equipment will be permitted to participate in climbs and practices. As an additional part of its work, the task force also reviewed much of the related correspondence received by the President and other members of the Board. Although there were several letters supporting the Board's position on cancellation of insurance and climbing, there were far more that opposed the action and urged immediate restoration. The most common arguments supporting climbing were that it has been a traditional part of the Club and helps define the Club's image, that climbing programs bring in new members and develop leaders, and that climbing has taken members to remote, wild areas that they later try to preserve through conservation activism. It may be worth noting that most of the correspondence came from California, but there were a few letters from the Pacific Northwest and even one from Florida.

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