Summit Registers: Trash or History?

[jaee]

In a recent discussion a summit register was called trash. The poster also said that he hoped it was removed.

 

What's your opinion?

[Dru]

some registers are cool

some are not

 

its nice when you see a historic old klim tin or whatever

the ones that get wet and turn to mush are not so cool.

[ken4ord]

I find that the hikeable summits with registers are boring . Summits that are harder to get to seem to have more interesting material to read . As for being a important historical record, who cares, does it really matter who was the 5th or 500th or 50000th person to climb the peak?

[AllYouCanEat]

I don't find a box with paper in it bad. Is it intrusive? Yes? But so is our climbing them. I find them interesting and occasionally add my name when I can find them. I agree that the more difficult summits to reach the top of are more interesting. I especially like some of the older national park cabin registers that i've read...

Edited August 4, 2004 by AllYouCanEat

[griz]

They are useful as hand warmers.... just flic your bic and get those hands nice and toasty.

 

99.9% of the registers for peaks are just trash that nobody will ever miss. That said ...they are fun to look at every now and then but I really can't remember the last one I bothered to open up.

[Dru]

there are interesting summit reg pics at snafflehound.com right now but who knows for how long?

[jordop]

The best cans are metal explosives tubes from the 60s!!! Cigar tubes too. Anything made out of plastic will get eaten. Some well-intentioned person put homemade PVC tubes on a few summits in the Valhallas and now even the paper inside has been eaten

[Beck]

anyone who presumes themselves important enough to remove summit registers is a grade A asshole. Leave them alone. if you don't like em, don't open em. Does a person who removes registers also see it upon themselves to remove trail signs, old Indian or white man blazes, etc? How about petroglyphs, do those get the axe as well?

[cj001f]

They are useful as hand warmers.... just flic your bic and get those hands nice and toasty.

 

99.9% of the registers for peaks are just trash that nobody will ever miss. That said ...they are fun to look at every now and then but I really can't remember the last one I bothered to open up.

Maybe in Colorado.

 

There are alot of Summit registers that are interesting, many with historical value. Like the BC Sierra ones - before some no good fuckface went about removing them REMOVING THE ORIGINAL REGISTERS

[Dru]

How about a person that tags the summit with some wild style 6-color spray can piece Beck?

[Mal_Con]

Most aren't much but sometimes you will find one with the 1st ascent party from years ago and that seems pretty cool. Sometimes a neewbies 1st climb report is fun to read and recapture their excitement.

[cluck]

Get a little tired of folks in the back country not wanting anything or anyone to intrude on "their" view of what the wilderness is supposed to be and then enforcing their view by doing something like destroying a summit register.

 

Trashing a summit register, in my opinion, is stupid and childish. I'm with Beck on this one....if you don't like em, don't open em. Knowing that there is a register on the summit shouldn't spoil your whole climb / experience for heavens sake.

[griz]

the flick your bic comment was a joke to those who missed that. I could care less if they are there or not. They seem silly to me. Who really gives a crap if you climbed Mt. Pilfuckchuck?

 

Edited August 4, 2004 by griz

[Pandora]

I think summit registers are part of the fun of topping out. It's always neat to look through and recognize the names of people who have climbed the peak before you, whether they are friends or first ascensionists. I usually get a good laugh at what some people write, so for me the registers add to the experience instead of detracting from it.

[Norman_Clyde]

I used to be snooty about climbing registers, avoiding signing them because that makes it look like I came all that way just to brag and show off. Now, of course, I'm wiser and I realize that signing the register is a poor substitute for a chestbeat TR on cc.com.

 

Seriously, I did once avoid signing registers, but as I gain respect for local history, including the less obviously historic events that may later become important, I have decided that summit registers are a valuable archive. Everyone who summits should sign, and the record should be preserved.

[cracked]

We need a system, where, like in Europe, you HAVE to sign the register, otherwise you get ticketed by Larry the Tool.

[SEF]

I fall into the camp who does not really care that much about a commonly done summit that has a register, but I don't think anyone has the right to unilateraly decide that a given register must be removed and that it is their duty to do so. I sometimes enjoy reading them.

 

I recall finding a register on the middle summit of Index when doing the traverse back in the early 70s. It was a 35mm film canister that had a scrap of paper signed by 2 parties - the first by a couple of guys named Schoening and Beckey. I thought that was an historic find. We added out names and left it. Last summer I repeated the traverse, but found no register on the Middle Peak, and was disappointed, and wondered what happened to the original register.

 

The Mountaineers does collect the paper registers when full and then does submit them to the University of Washington Library archives and they do become state history documents. The importance of that may well vary with the summit, but still, vandalism or theft is a selfish act that deprives others of recorded historical information.

 

I vote with those who say ignore them if you do not want them.

[Alpinfox]

I don't think anyone has the right to unilateraly decide that a given register must be removed and that it is their duty to do so.

 

But its OK that the MountainEars can "unilaterally decide" to put a summit register on a particular peak? I don't think they get permission from the Park Service/Forest Service/BLM/climbers-in-general/etc before they drop those things off.

 

Sure it would be cool to find a film canister summit register on a remote/seldom-climbed peak with only a couple of names on it, but I don't see ANY historical value, or any OTHER value, in having a register on Das Toof, or Forbidden Peak, or any other commonly visited peak in WA. I don't like seeing big metal cans with "MOUNTAINEERS" stamped on them in the wilderness. Thier apparent sense of ownership of mountains in this state pisses me off. Those fuckers should keep a personal journal or a summit log at their denmother's house if they feel the need to keep track of their mighty accomplishments.

 

Occasionally someone actually writes something worth reading in a summit register, but for the most part it is lame chestbeating and a surregate pissing post. Maybe it keeps people from carving/spraypainting their name into/onto the rock - that's good obviously.

 

I'm surprised I'm in the minority here.

 

Maybe I take the Leave-No-Trace ethic a little too seriously.

 

WWJMD?

[AaronB]

Depends where you are. Some of the peaks in the sawtooths have more of a challenge finding the registar than finding the route. It's almost of game of "hide the registar" You have to get an alpine start, just to spend the necessary time on the summit hunting for the damn thing. If you dont find it, you have to carve a hole in your arm and write it out in blood on your t-shirt, shove it in your only water bottle. Makes for a thirsty/sunburnt descent, but it will be there next time.

[snoboy]

I generally like registers, I don't always sign them, sometimes I do. I do think they should be unobtrusive though; you should have to look for them.

 

Hut logs are usually more better reading, and I like those too.

[MervGriffin]

 

Sure it would be cool to find a film canister summit register on a remote/seldom-climbed peak with only a couple of names on it, but I don't see ANY historical value, or any OTHER value, in having a register on Das Toof, or Forbidden Peak, or any other commonly visited peak in WA. I don't like seeing big metal cans with "MOUNTAINEERS" stamped on them in the wilderness. Thier apparent sense of ownership of mountains in this state pisses me off. Those f*ers should keep a personal journal or a summit log at their denmother's house if they feel the need to keep track of their mighty accomplishments. Occasionally someone actually writes something worth reading in a summit register, but for the most part it is lame chestbeating and a surregate pissing post.

 

As a professional archaeologist and historian, I can best summarize my opinion of your attitude with the following image:

 

 

What constitutes meaningful or poetic value to YOU is not necessarily universal.

 

Maybe it keeps people from carving/spraypainting their name into/onto the rock - that's good obviously.

 

I would venture that few climbers carry chisels and spraypaint in their packs. Having dealt extensively with the issue of graffiti in my work (both ancient and modern), I contend that the generally unobtrusive summit registers provide both an often positive outlet for personal expression, and an historical record that does not permanently alter the environment. I have personally read some deeply powerful comments, gained useful route information and have been delighted by the record of previous ascents (by climbers of all abilities) in many a summit register - some of which are not particularly easy to find.

[tomtom]

Maybe I take the Leave-No-Trace ethic a little too seriously.

 

So you pulled all the fixed gear on Liberty Crack to leave no trace of climbers?

[Off_White]

Generally, I like 'em, but I can never find the damn things. Just not driven I guess, other things on my mind when I'm up there.

[Stefan]

For some reason we as a society value words written on paper. Like money. Like a book. It just seems to have more value on paper.

 

Removing registers to me is like removing books out of a library becuase they were not deemed worthy. It is a form of censorship.

[Dru]

I note in many places in the Selkirks, Coast Mountains etc where first ascents were not documented except in the summit register, and the register was later used as the primary source for the guidebook.

 

Then again I know people who enter false data in summit registers... signing in with wrong times up the mountain and saying they were accompanied by Peter Croft and Reinhold Messner