lefty wrote:One thing I find particularly nice about finding registers on peaks is knowing when the last party signed in. This is particualry true of peaks that are snowed in during winter and where in May or June I might be the first one to have visited the summit during that year.

lefty wrote: ...After a friend lost her life in the Sierra's a few years ago I began looking for and photographing her signature in register books on the peaks I summitted. I find it comforting to find a signature of a lost friend who enjoyed the same peak before I got there.

Dingus Milktoast wrote:

edevart wrote:Hi All,

A recent posting by a fellow SPer got me thinking.... where do summit registers go to die? Or what happens to them when they are all full and there is no more room to store them on the summit? I know that many registers from the Sierras and other prominent CA peaks like Shasta end up at the Bancroft Library at Cal Berkeley. But how about the rest?

Basically, the recent poster pointed out that he took the register home with him once he saw that it was completely filled up, and that he was looking for somebody to send it to.

Personally, I think they all belong at any library that'll take them, and if not that then a local nonprofit or stewardship organization that has long ties to that particular area and that can make them available to the public as necessary. Leaving them in the hands of a single individual for any extended period of time, no matter who it is, just seems wrong to me.

Thoughts?

I agree.

DMT

granite4brains wrote:I think it's amazing people get as worked up over issues like this as they do.

Me ... I can't imagine hating registers so much that I would want to carry out a large awkward shaped 15 pound ammo can 15 miles just to throw it in the garbage.

On the other side, it does seem a shame for the ORIGINAL registers to fade away and become unreadable, and a museum does sound desirable to fix that and preserve mountaineering history. But in the end, it's just a piece of paper and I can care less about proving to other people I was at the top of something. Especially since I'm sure not making history with my weenie climbs

I almost always sign in when one's there, but it doesn't break my heart to not find one either. The experience of the climb and maybe the few pics I snap on the way are much more precious to me.

Dougb wrote:The cast aluminum cylinders in the High Sierra, well, the fellow that made them passed away a few years ago, so when they are gone, they are gone. Just an FYI.

1000Pks wrote:

Careful Pete, you're using up your entire 2009 allotment of SC-bashing in this one thread.

Btw, I just read your PnP M rules of engagement and wish to be instructed on how to speak in approved, glowing terms for pure hate, crime, and terror, if that is what is wished. And other instructions on how to post favorably for SP so I don't get banned it seems without notice or hearing.

Dougb wrote:"If registers are not preserved, then the terrorists have already won."

the terrorists have won, imo. But, it's never too late to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory! Anyhow, the way I see it, is if there's a register, fine I sign it, if not, then no biggie. Eventually, all of them will be subducted into the lithosphere and disappear.

Dingus Milktoast wrote:What's my expression right now?

DMT

1000Pks wrote: Being that I used to work with a lot of attorneys and pretty high end people, a subtle near imperceptible twitch or bend of the finger meant action needed to be taken quite precisely. That derived from my also working in a high end restaurant where a simple slight nod of the head had to be caught and water stopped from being poured or similar.