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summit "notes" or registers?

PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2011 8:16 pm
by Dmitry Pruss
A climbing history / mountaneering tradition question, inspired by this article
http://www.summitpost.org/how-the-briti ... ing/713630

In Russia, traditionally, they don't use summit registers like in America / Gipfelbuche like in Germany.

Instead, there is a "summit note" system, the 1st ascending group leaves a brief note in a cairn on the summit, essentially the same info as would go into a summit register entry, but scribbled on a piece of paper. The next ascending group would take the previous group's note "as a proof of ascent" and then leave their own note with the usual info, but also adding that "we took a note of such-and-such group from such-and-such date". In the end there is always one note in the cairn, and it tells you something about the previous two ascents, but not deeper into the past. The note is constantly replaced by successive climbers. The old notes are typically archived by the local S&R office

Some people think that it is really a British tradition, but I couldn't find any proof, and I don't know how the original A.C. members recorded their ascents, did they use any registers or just gentelman's word. But in the Caucasus, some of the more obscure summits were told to still have British-issue food tins, where the firs ascenders presumably left their notes... And then the British are very fond of letterboxing game, where players leave and take little notes from special containers in the countryside, and collect the old notes as a proof of their exploits. Which sort of like how Russian Alpinism works :)

Re: summit "notes" or registers?

PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2011 4:15 pm
by Diego SahagĂșn
I wonder how is that there is not a How the French invented mountain climbing in the Early Modern Period (not Contemporary), instead of the British. They were the French and some Alpin countries' sheperds who started to climb the 4000ers, as Mont Blanc in the 18th century:

http://www.montblanc.to/fr/mtblanc/index1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace-B%C ... e_Saussure

Re: summit "notes" or registers?

PostPosted: Thu May 19, 2011 3:41 pm
by Palisades79
More than one hundred Inca ceremonial sites have been discovered from 16,500 -22,100 ft. in the Andes .Johan Reinhard has excavated 40 sites in 200 ascents . Is there any record of any other mountain culture on earth making as many ascents as the Incas ? Has any pre-16th Century high mountain site been found anywhere else ?

Re: summit "notes" or registers?

PostPosted: Thu May 19, 2011 6:36 pm
by Dmitry Pruss
Palisades79 wrote:More than one hundred Inca ceremonial sites have been discovered from 16,500 -22,100 ft. in the Andes .Johan Reinhard has excavated 40 sites in 200 ascents . Is there any record of any other mountain culture on earth making as many ascents as the Incas ? Has any pre-16th Century high mountain site been found anywhere else ?


Not sure about "as many", but mountain-worship is common, only in some cultures (like Buddhist) they would go close to, or around, the mountains, and in others (like Aztec or Inca) they would worship on the top. Archeological excavations by Mexico's IHNA also turned up rich evidence of sacrifices to Thunder-god Tlaloc at the summit of Mexican volcanoes (but apparently they sacrificed blood-drops rather than "whole humans"), and the cult, in a syncretic form, is still alive.

But while it is mountain-climbing, it isn't alpinism in a sense that the ancient climbers didn't come for the thrill / for the brags / for the technical challenge, and didn't come all the way from the flatlands. Mountaneering as a sport for flatlanders, that modern meaning sounds very plausibly British.

Diego - so in the Iberian peninsula, they also use registers rather than replaceable notes on the summits?

Re: summit "notes" or registers?

PostPosted: Thu May 19, 2011 8:30 pm
by Diego SahagĂșn
Yep but the seed was is in the Alps and the Alpine contries, mostly in France. Not replaceable notes here, sometimes boxes and register books the most of the times

Re: summit "notes" or registers?

PostPosted: Sat May 28, 2011 3:29 pm
by Arthur Digbee
Palisades79 wrote:More than one hundred Inca ceremonial sites have been discovered from 16,500 -22,100 ft. in the Andes .Johan Reinhard has excavated 40 sites in 200 ascents . Is there any record of any other mountain culture on earth making as many ascents as the Incas ? Has any pre-16th Century high mountain site been found anywhere else ?

There are various explanations for the Enclosure on Grand Teton but those involving Native sacred practices (vision questions, eagle capture) seem plausible to me. That's not as high as the Andes, but it's definitely climbing.