Summit Flags

[rodeoclimber]

Before heading up the North Ridge of Stuart last weekend, I tried to locate a flag to place on the summit. Couldn't find one but when we made the top on Sat (9/15)there were already three there. I got to wondering how many other summits had also sprouted small memorials to the crap that took place last week. Any siteings?

[jon]

I was actually just about to post about this. Timmay and I climbed N. Ingalls on Monday and someone had put a flag on the top. It was quite a sight with Stuart in the distance. I'll post the picture next week.

[Christopher]

We had a little one the Summit of Eldorado....it was actually on my Helmet and my other friend waved his from the Top of Sahale too on Sunday.....I hope one will be present the to CC Roudup in Leavenworth ???????

[Nick]

Litterbugs.

[crack_addict]

i agree with nick. these flags (or anything else) have no business in the wilderness. i saw the flag on ingalls last weekend and felt that it detracted from the view of stuart. i can see plenty of flags unfurled atop rednecks' trucks on my way to the climb. i'd rather keep our summits pristine.

 

 

[lizard_brain]

I sure don't mean to discount the disaster in our countrty last week, but one of the reasons I climb is to escape from the "outside world" for a few hours. Support America, but don't resort to trashing the outdoors to do it. There are much more practial ways.

[Erwin]

Not to beat a dead horse, as with every single posting on this site, but we don't need flags on any summits. I'm proud to be an American and I wear my proud, but do not pollute with it.

And I hope the people who are leaving these flags are not the same people who criticize every bolt or rap sling or chalk mark ever made on rock. Garbage is garbage, but at least bolts serve a purpose in the outdoors.

Thank god its Friday.

[freeclimb9]

Crack Addict: your post suggested that flying an American flag on a vehicle is redneck behaviour. You're wrong.

Erwin: you suggested that a flag left unattended on a summit is garbage. You're wrong as well.

Whoever planted the flags on summits should also take on the responsibility of lowering them and taking them away. It's disrespectful to leave the flag unattended indefinitely, and those who left them behind probably didn't understand the portent of their action. But it is NOT redneck behaviour to fly the flag nor is a flag left on a summit "garbage". If you find a summit flag, I suggest lowering it, folding it, and packing it out. That's all.

[Erwin]

Rednecks have confederate flags. Anyone who waves this around is an ignorant fool and should be deported from the states.

[verticalswamp]

Maybe you could deport them to Afghanistan. I hear there are some vacancies.

[Dru]

you don't deport citizens, you exile them.

[lizard_brain]

banishment works, too...

[Dru]

you can put flags on other things too:

http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/39627_phallic20ww.shtml

[Drederek]

and they say Lacey sucks!

[Alpine_Tom]

quote:

---

Originally posted by freeclimb9:

Erwin: you suggested that a flag left unattended on a summit is garbage. You're wrong as well.

---

It may not be garbage while it's up, but once the wind blows it down, and tumbles it down into a ravine or snowbank or crevasse someplace, it will in fact turn into garbage.

 

[Jarred_Jackman]

I think the bigger problem is the toilet paper I seem to see on every mountain in the state. Why can't people pack it out.

[David_Parker]

One man's garbage is another man's treasure!

So are all those prayer flags in the Himalayas garbage too?

[nolanr]

Yeah, but I'd have to say any man's used toilet paper is every other man's garbage.

Hey, that reminds me, I'm just about finished reading David Roberts book on what REALLY happened on Annapurna w/ Herzog and the boys, and there's something in there where one of the climbers was sick and he reported "I shat myself." I hate it when that happens.

[lizard_brain]

Parker - This isn't the Himalayas, it's the Washington Cascades. Take only pictures, leave only footprints.

[EddieE]

Hey Parker,

To be fair, you can't see a summit register from a neighboring peak.

(BTW - that's supposed to be a winking smilie , not a thumbs down. I checked the wrong circle)

[This message has been edited by EddieE (edited 09-23-2001).]

[David_Parker]

Good point, but you won't have to worry about me personally. I'm the king of no trace! (except for billy-bobs!) That's Canadian for abalakov anchors, aka v-threads.

Is a flag at a summit any more "trash" than a summit register?