Page 6 of 7

PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 4:27 pm
by graham
Bob Burd wrote:
Day Hiker wrote: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.


Not true. It would probably have been dismantled by eco-terrorists if it were.

Bob, it’s true!. This “highest point” issue was debated several years ago over on the WPSMB. To resolve the debate, several of us took a construction bubble level and sighted off the highest rock and/or summit marker and in all cases the chimney is about a foot higher. BTW, since several of the lightning rods are also higher than the summit, the DESTROYER’S lightning bolt may not do much damage :D

Image

Image[/b]

PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:30 pm
by Bob Burd
So to correct this abomination I might hire someone to dismantle the building or contract some Texans to build one of their signature summit cairns.

Anybody know which would be cheaper?

PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:33 pm
by Bob Sihler
Bob Burd wrote:So to correct this abomination I might hire someone to dismantle the building or contract some Texans to build one of their signature summit cairns.

Anybody know which would be cheaper?


California is a union state and Texas has weaker labor protections, so I'd hire the Texans. :D

PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 6:20 pm
by Greg D
cp0915 wrote: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.


Obscure summit...?
Ladybugs...?

Image

PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 6:33 pm
by cp0915
Exactly, Greg. Good stuff!

PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 8:00 pm
by mconnell
Diggler wrote:
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:

Image


Followed by:
Image

PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 8:52 pm
by Day Hiker
Bob Sihler wrote:
Bob Burd wrote:So to correct this abomination I might hire someone to dismantle the building or contract some Texans to build one of their signature summit cairns.

Anybody know which would be cheaper?


California is a union state and Texas has weaker labor protections, so I'd hire the Texans. :D

Catamount wrote:After California is taken care of, the state highpointers club has a long list of similar summit "projects." Let's see: Mount Mitchell, Harney Peak, High Point, NJ, Clingman's Dome, Brasstown Bald, Cheaha Mountain, Spruce Knob, Timms Hill, Campbell Hill, an entire trailer park in Delaware ... :twisted:


If we're using Texan labor to fix state highpoints, they can start closer to home first:

Image

At least it's not a building or radio tower, though.

PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 11:29 pm
by Diego Sahagún
mconnell wrote:
Diggler wrote:
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:

Image


Followed by:
Image

And:

Image
Zugspitze (2962 m)

PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 11:59 pm
by hikinedd
I can understand the desire for isolation in the mountains, but unless you pony up and purchase the peak it belongs no more to you than anyone else. In 1910 the U.S. population stood at 92 million. By 1960 there were 180 million and now we have 305 million people in this country. Sadly, the mountain and peak population has not kept pace. So to expect, or even demand, solitude and no humanly trace whenever you decide to use the mountains as your personal retreat is pretty delusional, if not selfish. On the other hand, if you have access to a time machine, set it for 1776 when only 2.5 million lived in the colonies and the man to mountain ratio was much more favorable to the isolationist. And the mountains.

I personally don't like ostentatious displays like flags, crosses and anything else that 1/305,000,000th of the population has decided everyone else will absolutely love! I've no compunction about tearing something like that down, though I rarely do. A simple, small pile of rocks -- enough to protect a register and/or designate the high point on a broad peak -- I think is appropriate.

The metal plaque on LeConte is, in spite of my sympathy for the family, way over the line despite Secor's acceptance of it. He writes, "A plaque in memory of Kyle W. Ebeling has been placed at the base of the north face of Mount LeConte. This landmark serves as the starting point for four of the routes described here..."
Image

Finally, registers truly are time capsules. A few years ago while on Rattlesnake Peak in the local San Gabriel Mountains I signed a register that went back over 25 years. Earlier in that register was written, "Jean Isola June 25, 1976 #215." Jean had also written one word, "Hot." It was to be the last word she would ever write, because she perished from heat exhaustion on descent, having attempted this peak in 100+F temps. Hiking the same hike, sitting on the same peak and holding the same book... I made a real connection to her and it enriched my experience.

My fondest moments on peaks, however, are in the Sierra whenever I find my dear friend Patty Rambert's signature. She's alive and with me there. I can't tell you how satisfying that is.

PostPosted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 1:02 am
by Scott
I love summit registers. Esp. on obscure summits. Stuff like top of Whitney etc..., I could care less though.


I guess I'm the same way. We climbed a peak once where the last signature in the register was from 1911. I thought it was pretty cool.

On some obscure and remote peaks, I guess I'm guilty of leaving a few registers as well. The first one I left lasted 14 years before some else signed it even though the peak it was on is a spectacular one.

PostPosted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 1:02 am
by Andinistaloco
I almost forgot to mention one of the funnier register stories (which I've probably told before. Too many blows to the head, alas). There's a peak in the southwestern AZ desert I've climbed a couple of times, and although few others have, one guy climbed it 3-4 times and always made some sort of comment equating conditions or the peak to a woman or women, like:

"The clouds are wispy today, like a beautiful woman's hair in the breeze."
"The air is hot and clear, like the woman I came here with."

Alas, things must have taken a turn for the worse. His last entry:

"The wind comes in gusts, like lies from a woman's mouth."

:shock: :lol:

PostPosted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 2:18 am
by MoapaPk
I agree with all of you.

PostPosted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 5:00 pm
by Muddeer
Dingus Milktoast wrote:WE SHEET ON PETROL-BASED-ECO-WANNABES WHO POST IN THE INTRADWEEBZ.


You don't have to be an environmentalist to hate seeing other people's junk on mountains, especially on summits where they can't be avoided.

Dingus Milktoast wrote:Humans have been making cairns, ducks and leaving things in summits since the frickin dawn. Like some arrogant petrol-based-eco-wannabe is going to change things bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!


Lots of stuff have been going on since "the frickin dawn" of humanity: wars, racism, pollution, cutting down trees, etc.. You can't stop them completely, but humanity has been trying and made changes in some cases. People have been etching and painting pictures and their names on rocks and trees forever. Guess we should continue to do so.

Bob Sihler wrote:I apologize and wish to clarify, way too late now, that by bringing up "Cairns and Registers," I meant summit.


Cairns don't seem to bother me, if they are not big enough to change the landscape, probably since the rocks do belong there: They are a part of the mountain. The fact that others have been there before me doesn't bother me either since I know that before the climb.