Vanishing Summit Registers

[+GeoSharks]

This is a little off topic from geocaching, but it is interesting for our region.

 

Many of you climbers may have signed summit registers on our Sierra peaks.

 

This article is from the Sacramento Bee 10/24/04.

I'm not sure how long the link will be good.

Into thin air: Climbers' notes left on Sierra summits are vanishing - and no one knows why.

[+Renegade Knight]

Interesting. The solution to dissaparing peak registers was to take them before they were taken.

 

Hopefully the organizatoin that's doing that now can keep up with becoming the museum that they will be come by default. Population pressure will cause more than just the Sierra Peak Registers to come up MIA. While I'm brainstorming that same organization should provide them. They should use custom printed paper that holds up, and each sheet is printed with info that can bring it home to the register archives. That way if a register or sheets torn from one are found in a garage sale you can see what it is and know where to send it on.

 

Also intersting was the NPS comment.

 

Edit: Re-read a bit. Bancroft may be up the the task of archiving, but they need to be willing to do things like scan them and make the collection online. Someone also needs to get in the business of maintaining peak registers or more history will be lost.

Edited October 25, 2004 by Renegade Knight

[+Touchstone]

In general I think that most summit registers are being removed. This trend started back in the 70's, particularly for peaks within Wilderness Areas and National Parks. I believe most land managers put summit registers in the same category as geocaches (i.e. trash). Some of the summits in the Oregon Cascades that I did had beautiful boxes for the log books. They were made out of forged metal and had the insignia of a Portland mountaineering club on the lid. I doubt you can find any of those any more .

[+Renegade Knight]

Peaks make such great wildlife habitat. Snow and rocks make such great wilderness. I can see how a peak register would ruin the effect.

[+Touchstone]

Peaks make such great wildlife habitat. Snow and rocks make such great wilderness. I can see how a peak register would ruin the effect.

I know RK. But just when you say stuff like that, someone finds an endangered speices of lichen .

 

I would also like to add that along with the great boxes that I've seen, the logbooks were generally huge. None of this puney micro sized logbooks in the summit registers I visited. The largest one I saw was the size of War and Peace. And people would fill these things up with long prosaic log entries too. No TNLN, TFT-Climb type of entries. Maybe people just sat there catching there breath for awhile and got bit by the muse. I don't know.

 

One of my favorite entries was the first entry of a logbook on the summit of Monkey Face in Central Oregon:

 

"This a replacement logbook for the one we had to burn to keep warm when we got benighted a few months ago...."

 

LOL

[+GeoSharks]

It would be nice to see scanned copies of the early logs.

 

I found this on the Sierra Peaks Section web site:

 

8.0 PEAK REGISTERS

A register should not be removed, even if full, when less than 40 years old, unless it is seriously weather damaged and in danger of loss. A register may be removed for preservation if it is 40 years old or older and full. Illegible scraps of paper, business cards, etc. may be removed from a register container if, in the judgment of the leader, they have no particular significance. However, if such notes are records of early Sierra Club climbs or SPS climbs, they should be left. Scraps removed should be returned to the SPS Mountain Records Chair. Notebooks with historical significance shall be preserved by copying. The original should be returned to the peak within one year. Another notebook must be left on the peak when the original is removed. Removal should be coordinated with the SPS Mountain Records Chair. Copies thus made will be retained by the SPS Mountain Records Chair.

 

I guess this is good for members that follow guidelines.

[+calipidder]

My husband was on North Palisade two weekends ago and I believe the register container was still there but it was empty. Now what's the point of that? I can imagine people removing entire registers for whatever reason (not that I agree with it) but why remove the log book and not replace it, and leave the container behind?