Stu Brandel wrote:No - the more popular, crowded summits will become deathtraps as people teleport into/through each other, merge-killing themselves. Mountain teleporting will acquire a dangerous, reckless reputation. Few will risk it.
I think a solution to this problem will come early on, from the parade/event industry, which suffered dramatic televised failures early on. For virtually any teleport point (even the riskier "InstaPoint" mechanism, an extreme sport in itself), a "ticket" is issued which reserves the port for a 3 second period for the ticket holder. Port clearance is accomplished automatically with a little slide (fun for the kids, problematic for the aged). The usual problems of scapling, event sabotage via "no show" blocks or junk teleportation from cloaked ports had to be solved, with solutions similar to their 20th century counterparts.
Different open source vendors maintain the ticketing mechanism, and especially in the Alps and places like Mt. Fuji and Mt. Hood, the authorities invested in relatively expensive multi-port facilities...much happier to deal with heavy traffic there at the ungodly 3 am mountain start times than to maintain aging, "biohazard" sanitation and sleeping facilities.
As is often the case, the real problems came later, and from an unexpected source. With complete dominion over any point on the surface of the physical earth, and with acceleration triggered InstaPoint safety gadgets, there was neither risk nor discomfort to be endured in the activity. Then where is the reward? An iron law of human nature had been transgressed, and in time the expensive teleport stations and interpretive trails beneath lovely Mt. Rainier and even the himalayan peaks attained the decay of the structures they supplanted. Except this time, through disuse, rather than overuse. Man began to turn inward, the more hedonistic with chemicals, and thus the generations found both their peace and their nightmares in a new way...