Mt Hood Climber's Registration Room Survey

[MtnHigh]

The FS has been awarded approval to remodel and improve the climber’s registration room within the day lodge at Timberline. The FS has invited members of the local climbing community to assist by providing advice on the improvements. As a local climber I’ve been tasked with providing the FS input on what informational and process improvements should be made to the registration room.

 

Your input is important. Please help by taking this brief survey. Our goal is to make the climber’s registration room accessible to all climbers while providing information that is current and relevant. Thank you

 

Survey Link

[corvallisclimb]

pete- get me a hot tub in there and ill start climbing on hood again a bar would help too

[billcoe]

Eliminate it all together and if someone screws the pooch, let private enterprise operate to fish them out, if volunteers and friends can't do it, then THEY can PAY for a helicopter, if they choose -having made arrangements, just like you would in Europe, beforehand.

 

I'm not joking. Let FREEDOM RING!!!!!!!!

[MtnHigh]

pete- get me a hot tub in there and ill start climbing on hood again a bar would help too

 

Tyler, great ideas. I'll do my best to ensure the FS takes notice to them.

[Maine-iac]

Here is what I'm writing for what other information I think should be in the registration room.

 

Weather (current and future including freezing levels) and avalanche reports (I check beforehand, but always like to recheck). It is very nice being able to look at previous climber's registrations to see how conditions are, and what routes have been climbed and how many people will be climbing on the same route that you intend to climb.

As for the room itself, current photos of the mountain would be nice, maybe photos of winter and late spring conditions. Also information relating to the Hood triangle with bearings on how to get down. It would be very easy to reproduce these with arrows showing what directions/declinations (major landmarks) to travel, this could be done for any route on the mountain. Also large scale topo maps of Hood just for last minute reference, with key landmarks labeled.

Hell, put in a vending machine with PLBs, MLUs, SatPhones, Radios, whatever rescue thing you want, make it payable via credit card and don't charge a penny for it unless they don't return it. If its free and convenient it will get used.

 

 

Also, I feel that your question about the electronic system is slightly misleading or worded incorrectly.... Am I having to register using both paper and electronic? Or does the electronic take the place of paper? How are you going to mitigate the temperature affects for an electrical system?

[ScaredSilly]

Eliminate it all together and if someone screws the pooch, let private enterprise operate to fish them out, if volunteers and friends can't do it, then THEY can PAY for a helicopter, if they choose -having made arrangements, just like you would in Europe, beforehand.

 

I'm not joking. Let FREEDOM RING!!!!!!!!

 

I am with Bill on this one. I was up on Hood last month. First time in years, after a rough bivy in the lodge, we head up the hill. No registration, no cell phone, not a single luxury, as primitive as can be, I even wore my old leather tele double boots. Had a fine time in the storm. Came back and hit the afternoon buffet and watched the wind blow. A rough outing.

 

But back to the topic a hand the more that is done the more people will expect. Also there is no registration on the North side why just the south - ya get pepole on both sides. Of maybe 10 trips up the hill I think I have registered once and that was over 25 years ago.

 

[wdietsch]

.... the more that is done the more people will expect.

got to agree with that, so much of this is what experienced hikers/climbers/outdoor enthusiasts take as simple common sense.

 

 

You should put a question in the very beginning of the survey regarding years/amount of experience in order to help quantify the survey takers knowledge and help in the way a response is interpenetrated.

 

Example ---- section one, question #3 of the survey .. I myself would not pay attention to info posted regarding the topic of clothing and or self-rescue techniques, because I've been doing this for 30+ years .. if I check "never" how will the FS interpret my response?

 

 

I believe things such as way points and mountain features are good solid basics for navigation purposes, similar to the map of the Muir Snowfield at Paradise ... however that assumes people actually know how to use them.

 

Topics such as providing upper mountain conditions upon your return, while useful to some, again could lead the ignorant into a false sense of security .. what I determine safe is based on personally knowledge and abilities gained over 30+ years of being in the outdoors and climbing. What works for me may not work for the next guy.

 

Likewise for the "Mountain Safety" topic .. I can just see some bonehead looking at a diagram of a z-pulley setup and convincing him/herself that they are capable of setting one up

 

The remote registration would definitely be useful for the north half of the mountain .. however what is the tax burden to implement such a service?

 

Pete ... thanks for getting involved and putting this together ... appreciate your efforts

[billbob]

Adequate, accessible toilets would be a real nice-to-have, particularly on those cold & dark alpine starts.

 

Would love to remote register and post quick notes on the current conditions.

 

What is needed is a full-service website comprising registration, weather data & forecasts, hazards, special warnings, PLB/MLU rentals (units stored in key-code lockers in Cave), information on Guide services, links to local lodging/pubs/gear rental, etc.

 

 

 

 

[rbw1966]

I agree with Billbob--more often than not when I have gone in there they have been out of registration cards/permits. The ability to print one out online would be great, as well as checking back in remotely for those times when you stumble back to the car and forget to check back in.

[shortstow]

having the toilet door unlocked

 

double checking CURRENT weather/avi again would be great too

 

 

[ivan]

i promise to stop shitting on the mats in front of the lodge entrance doors if they'll promise to keep the bathroom open

[mike1]

A memorial wall for those that have perished.

[Major Major]

Agreed on the toilet. How am I supposed to trust improvements will occur when there is a failure to maintain the current hut. No registration cards/forms and a locked bathroom door suggest no one really cares in the first place. How about instead of focusing on building some solar powered XJ9000 registration center, let's just make the existing space work as it was designed. Sorry about the tangent, but someone in middle management has missed the point here.

[treknclime]

I think some kind of memorial wall would be a good idea...could be more than sobering, for those intrepid climbers who might be swayed by such a sight.

[denalidave]

Adequate, accessible toilets would be a real nice-to-have, particularly on those cold & dark alpine starts.

 

Would love to remote register and post quick notes on the current conditions.

 

What is needed is a full-service website comprising registration, weather data & forecasts, hazards, special warnings, PLB/MLU rentals (units stored in key-code lockers in Cave), information on Guide services, links to local lodging/pubs/gear rental, etc.

 

 

 

[Jay Chute]

MAKE IT HEATED! for emergency bivys of course

[Frikadeller]

pete- get me a hot tub in there and ill start climbing on hood again a bar would help too

 

 

DUDE, where have you been. There IS a HOT TUB there. You just have to look carefully, and about 100 yard further up the parking lot.

 

You might have to jump a fence, but it's there.

[Frikadeller]

Agreed on the toilet. How am I supposed to trust improvements will occur when there is a failure to maintain the current hut. No registration cards/forms and a locked bathroom door suggest no one really cares in the first place. How about instead of focusing on building some solar powered XJ9000 registration center, let's just make the existing space work as it was designed. Sorry about the tangent, but someone in middle management has missed the point here.

 

You would think that that the Timberline Management would notice that people are in need of that bathroom. The door looks like it has been kicked in a few times in the past. Sometimes it even smells like piss in the "cave".... I wonder if Ivan is responsible for that.

[Frikadeller]

MAKE IT HEATED! for emergency bivys of course

 

Believe it or not, it actually is. The supply register is above the ski ticket counter. I have seen people in sleeping bags there before.

[goatboy]

Here's what I wrote in the comment box at the end of the survey:

 

If this is an attempt to garner support for requiring people to carry MLU's, or otherwise require any sort of increased stipulations to climbing Mt Hood, then I want to voice my extreme disapproval with that plan. Let climbers regulate themselves, and do not even consider introducing litigation that dumbs down climbing to the deficit of all involved. Oregon has precious little alpine climbing terrain available, please don't compromise it with a ridiculous response to an ill-informed public outcry. Better to ban driving to Mt Hood than climbing it, statistically speaking.

[goatboy]

Billcoe, let's say that the FS agrees right away with your suggestion, and people are expected to behave "just as they would in Europe." Who do you call tomorrow morning to arrange your rescue from Mt. Hood?

 

I suspect Europe (kind of large continent for such a generalization, but I'll go with it for the sake of argument) MIGHT have more options available to it than Mt Hood does for privately-arrange helicopter rescue... or do you know something about private heli-rescue operators in Oregon that I don't?

 

Thanks for the insight,

 

Steve