Did someone say cairn?



This cairn leans just a little, but is bombproof. Over 7 feet tall and nearly three feet in diameter, this is the largest cairn I have ever seen.

cp0915 wrote:

rpc wrote:I love summit registers. Esp. on obscure summits. Stuff like top of Whitney etc..., I could care less though.

Bingo.

There's nothing like reaching the summit of an obscure peak and finding some rotten, old register that hasn't been signed in years, filled with ladybugs. Places like Whitney, Rainier --- never even cracked open their boxes.

That is a cool feeling.
Just a few weeks ago down in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Southern Colorado, the GF and I were on a ridge scrambling over to UN 13,555 from Huerfano Peak. There was a summit register on 13,555 that dated back to 1971! That's pretty freakin cool in my book whether you regard it as trash or not.

And as Sarah said, it's cool seeing the 'usual suspects' sign in, people you know.
I usually tear down needless cairns though.
Some people go apeshit over those things.

Speaking of oddly placed cairns, this bad-boy isn't even on the summit! (Culebra)

Muddeer wrote:Ok, MoapaPK. Your superior intellect and knowledge, already well established here on SP, convinced me that, as usual, you are right. I am trashing the mountains, so I shouldn't be upset that others are too.

Wow!

Did you enter this thread with a soft touch and humility? Go back and read your own words. I seem to remember a bolded F-bomb a few times as you disdained others' opinions.

I've (honestly) found some of your opinions on SP -- especially about equipment -- to be very valuable. But it's pretty easy to knock that chip off your shoulder. I'll bet you don't see it that way.

Btw, have you found any more articles on the growing ice mass of Greenland? Or may be you have published your own paper, describing the areal averaging proving that.

I've been paying more attention to the re-analyses of the Pinatubo and bristlecone data; that's much more fun, as the soft underbelly is exposed, thanks to Congressional mandate. Too frustrating to get the JPL guys to expose the details of the leading term corrections.

Kiefer Thomas wrote:Speaking of oddly placed cairns, this bad-boy isn't even on the summit! (Culebra)

The surveyors often built enormous cairns, for the optical geodetic surveys before the days of helicopters and photogrammetry. The surveying cairns are usually well-built.

[quote="MoapaPk"] Did you enter this thread with a soft touch and humility? Go back and read your own words. I seem to remember a bolded F-bomb a few times as you disdained others' opinions. [quote]

OP asked for our opinions; I gave mine, which happens to be strong in this case. But I did not attack others' opinions. I did, however, responded to your last post personally because you were trolling. Give me a break; how does driving to the trailhead equally detract from others' enjoyment of the mountain as finding garbage on the summit?

And, you are remembering wrong: I have never applied "F-bomb" or other obscenities to other people's OPINIONS. Don't do that even in real life. And I don't have a much of a chip on the shoulder since, unlike you, I know my opinions are just that, my opinions, no better than any others.

MoapaPk wrote:

Muddeer wrote: leave the mountain as you found it."

That really doesn't happen. Each ascent we make leaves a subtle trail, that gradually builds with repetition. It starts far away, when a person drives a relatively gas-guzzling 4x4 to a trailhead, or alters the habits of the animals that either avoid, or seek humans on the route. If you take horses or mules on the approach, they leave even more non-native remnants.

Excellent point.

I like cairns on slickrock routes (class-2 to 4) in the Colorado Plateau. I have this belief that all routes should have one path, not a network of braided paths where people wandered around, wasting time and trampling cryptobiotic crust, etcetera. If someone wants to deviate from this one path, to be adventurous or take photos or whatever, that is his choice. But to me it makes sense for a marked path to exist to provide an "ideal" path for those that are looking for some efficiency in getting where they are going and for those that want to avoid trampling numerous paths through the desert between the same points A and B.

I have no problem with summit registers or cairns near summits. But I despise cairns that obscure the true summit or rise higher than the true summit, especially if they appear to be trying to make the mountain two feet taller, for example. A mountain may have a billion rocks, each of which has no particular significance, but there is only one point on one rock that is the highest natural point of that entire mountain. I don't think the height of that point should be altered by humans, and I don't think it should be obscured or overshadowed by a cairn. I don't always go to the trouble of dismantling these types of summit cairns when I encounter them, but I don't always leave them intact either.

What is the highest point in the contiguous United States? It's the stupid metal cap on the chimney on the Smithsonian Hut on Mount Whitney. This fact is rather irritating. Highpoints should be natural features.

I really enjoy summit registers. I've found some that went back as far as the 1940's, with the names of many old climbing heros in them. There's one in particular which comes to mind, going back to the 1950's with about 2-3 ascents a year... the same badass having soloed it in like 1963, 1969, 1974, 1981, etc. I found one on a peak in Argentina that went back to 1945, with only a few names in it. A friend of mine found his dad's name in a register, and I've seen lots of long-lost friends and fellow climbers in them. I've placed a few myself and gone back and checked out who'd been up that particular crazy, obscure peak, and once or twice folks have even tracked me down and shared their stories about the climb. Great stuff!

Muddeer wrote:
And, you are remembering wrong: I have never applied "F-bomb" or other obscenities to other people's OPINIONS.

After a few people expressed their like of registers, you call the registers "F*CKIN' TRASH". If you don't see that as denigrating their opinions, then you have an unusual mindset.

What you call "trolling" is my attempt to get you to examine your own inconsistency. You can't champion environmental causes, yet leave all the heavy lifting to other people. It doesn't matter one bit if you have all the right PC opinions, if you don't practice them.

Bye now, this is getting too much like P&P.

I AM THE DESTROYER.



I HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO DESTROY ALL CAIRNS, DUCKS, WALLS, BIVOUAC SITES, FIRE RINGS AND SHELTERS THAT I CAN FIND.

IF YOU BUILD IT, I WILL DESTROY IT AND RETURN THE AREA TO ITS NATURAL STATE.

FOR I AM: THE DESTROYER.

LEAVE NO TRACE
TAKE NOTHING BUT PHOTOS
TRY TO LEAVE NOTHING, NOT EVEN FOOTPRINTS
KILL NOTHING EXCEPT HORSE PACKERS AND PEOPLE WHO BUILD CAIRNS

THEY CALL ME: THE DESTROYER.

AND IT IS GOOD.

But otherwise, I don't have any strong feelings about ducks and cairns.

Sierra Ledge Rat wrote:I AM THE DESTROYER.

I HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO DESTROY ALL CAIRNS, DUCKS, WALLS, BIVOUAC SITES, FIRE RINGS AND SHELTERS THAT I CAN FIND.

IF YOU BUILD IT, I WILL DESTROY IT AND RETURN THE AREA TO ITS NATURAL STATE.

FOR I AM: THE DESTROYER.

LEAVE NO TRACE
TAKE NOTHING BUT PHOTOS
TRY TO LEAVE NOTHING, NOT EVEN FOOTPRINTS
KILL NOTHING EXCEPT HORSE PACKERS AND PEOPLE WHO BUILD CAIRNS

THEY CALL ME THE DESTROYER, AND IT IS GOOD.

But otherwise, I don't have any strong feelings about ducks and cairns.

Here is your next assignment:

Diggler wrote:Here is your next assignment:

We'll hire some horse packers from Whitney Portal to carry the dynamite, take care of two birds with one stone.

Just kidding.

Oh, shit, Homeland Security is already pounding on my door....

Sierra Ledge Rat wrote:

Diggler wrote:Here is your next assignment:

We'll hire some horse packers from Whitney Portal to carry the dynamite, take care of two birds with one stone.

Just kidding.

LOL -- suicide-bomber equestrians!

MikeTX wrote:

RickandRhonda wrote:Did someone say cairn?



This cairn leans just a little, but is bombproof. Over 7 feet tall and nearly three feet in diameter, this is the largest cairn I have ever seen.

not to be the obnoxious texan or anything.

Further proof that everything really is bigger in Texas.

The surrounding area is swept totally clean in that pic. Interesting.

MoapaPk wrote:

Muddeer wrote:
And, you are remembering wrong: I have never applied "F-bomb" or other obscenities to other people's OPINIONS.

After a few people expressed their like of registers, you call the registers "F*CKIN' TRASH". If you don't see that as denigrating their opinions, then you have an unusual mindset.

What you call "trolling" is my attempt to get you to examine your own inconsistency. You can't champion environmental causes, yet leave all the heavy lifting to other people. It doesn't matter one bit if you have all the right PC opinions, if you don't practice them.

Actually, only one expressed his like of registers before my post. Read my post again; it was not directed to his post or his opinion: only answering the OP's request for my opinion.

Although I don't consider myself a champion of environmental causes (just a sympathizer), and this thread isn't about that, I have to ask, what are my "inconsistency" on the subject? Apparently you are so smart, that you can find these inconsistencies without evening knowing me. Actually, I think I'm a pretty considerate person when it comes to the environment. I've averaged less than 8000 miles of total driving per year the last 16 years, even less the last five. Yes, I used a mule team to transport gear to the base camp of Aconcagua, like most people who climb it (you are so sharp to figure that out from my previous posts! I guess a Ph.D from MIT does mean something). But hundreds, if not thousands, of mule teams have used and will be using that same trail over the years: I don't feel too bad about it. And yes, I do go into the mountains, leaving footprints and scaring the animals. Apparently some people who climb somehow don't.

Humm, geez, I wonder why I thought you were trolling....