NEW SCOTLAND — State crews will chip away at a half-mile of cliff above the iconic Indian Ladder Trail in Thacher State Park in a bid to reopen the popular path later this summer.

Workers will remove "any loose surface material from the cliff face that may present a rockfall hazard," according to a statement Friday from the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

Last summer, a woman hiking along the trail was seriously injured when she struck by falling rocks, and the 2.5-mile trail trail has been closed to the public ever since.

"Crews (will) consist of experienced rope handlers and scalers, who are suspended along the slope edge to chip away loose rocks and debris," according to the Parks statement. "Depending on weather, this process and subsequent clean-up is expected to take approximately 4-6 weeks."

The trail "will reopen once work is complete," the statement continued. The work crews do similar work on gorges in state parks in the Finger Lakes region.

Limestone cliffs, like those in Thacher Park, are inherently unstable and can crumble without warning. Some of the trees along the Indian Ladder Trail, which has drawn many thousands of visitors over the decades, show scarring from being struck during previous rockfalls.

The limestone beds at Thacher are layered, making them even less stable. That, coupled with the freezing and thawing of snow and ice at the park during the winter, can weaken the layers.

Last July, 61-year-old Nancy Ladd-Butz was struck by a falling boulder while hiking the trail with her daughter, and suffered severe spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries. She has filed a lawsuit against the state in connection with the event.

The cliffs, part of a 400-million-year-old sea bed, were carved out about 25,000 years ago by glaciers. Limestone is a soft sedimentary rock that is highly vulnerable to erosion.

Stretching some six miles, Thacher's cliffs are some of richest marine-fossil-bearing formations in the world. Experts come from across the country and world to study the geology of the formation,