Removing summit registers

[Andinistaloco]

I've been up a bunch of peaks lately that once had registers (that I can remember) and now don't. Is there a band of folks just taking them off peaks? If so, is it because it's not natural, or it's litter, or what? I'll admit to kind of digging summit registers... fun to read and sign and whatnot. Though I'm interested in hearing why they're not OK, too.

[Bob Sihler]

I've never taken or destroyed a summit register, nor would I, but I've been atop enough peaks without cairns or registers to appreciate the absence of both.

I don't care who else has been there, how, or what his/her impressions were. I like the illusion, and the occasional reality, that no one else has stood there and seen the view and put in the work to get there.

Once, I climbed a peak in Glacier NP with two other SP members. One of them left a register. The other and I declined to sign it. Understand?

Years back, I signed registers because I thought it was cool to be part of the community. That was before I realized that hundreds or thousands might sign the same register in the same year. So I lost my interest.

I still sign registers for remote and/or difficult-to-attain peaks. For example, you'll see my name in the South Guardian Angel register.

But you won't find it in too many other spots nowadays. Most peaks I climb don't have registers. And most that do are time-killer peaks whose registers I'd be ashamed to sign for being grouped in with the frothing masses.

[Scott]

That was before I realized that hundreds or thousands might sign the same register in the same year. So I lost my interest.

Those kinds of registers, I don't have have much interest in either.

I still sign registers for remote and/or difficult-to-attain peaks. For example, you'll see my name in the South Guardian Angel register.

I kind of like reading those too, especially on peaks that go years or decades between signatures. Sometimes you can read old registers from famous mountaineers. Such is the case of Elephant Butte in Arches NP, but since the peak has shown up on the internet and now in a guidebook, use has exploded (which I'm not complaining about; I contributed to this too) and the register isn't as cool as it once was.

I still like reading the old registers where years or decades go between ascents. There are lots of those registers in the area I live in.

[lcarreau]

Yeah ... I'm thinking the SC - MLC had something to do with this ...

Seriously, the registers here in Arizona are few and far between ... the only ones I've signed were on lands administered by NPS.

[Catamount]

In New Yawk, the state removed the registers from the trailess 46R peaks probably 10 years or so ago while the Catskill trailess 3500 foot peak registers were redesigned to be more natural looking. I don't really care for them myself but, ya know, whatever floats your boat. On Granite Peak this summer, I got a few laughs when everyone was making a big deal over the summit log and I declared "I don't need no stinkin' register."

[MarkDidier]

I don't seek out summit registers. I wish I could give a really good reason why, but I can't. The best I can say is that, I don't feel the need to sign them. There are certain peaks I wish to climb, and that is enough. If I make it to the summit, that's a bonus.

That being said, my name is on the register of many of the Colorado peaks I have summitted - signed by my friend Rob. On all of these summits I have been with my son Andrew or my friend Rob. My son likes to sign summit registers, and Rob LOVES summit registers and will spend a lot of time trying to locate them. He likes reading them and signing with a comment. He usually asks me if I want to sign the register, or he'll ask if he should sign my name for me. In both cases I usually say no -although I will admit that I told him to sign for me this year on a couple of peaks that I was particulalry proud of summiting.

[lcarreau]

" ... I got a few laughs when everyone was making a big deal over the summit log and I declared "I don't need no stinkin' register."

[Brian C]

As mentioned above, the registers place of value is on obscure summits. Signing your name in a register that you know will be full and replaced in a month or two doesn't matter much. Signing your name a few pages after something like this...

Priceless.

That said, I have also noticed registers going MIA on places that I've seen them before in the last few years.

[Deltaoperator17]

We are having the same issue's in Idaho.

[Bob Sihler]

We are having the same issue's in Idaho.

It's lousy to steal what others have made.

But still I ask: Why did it have to be there in the first place? And why did someone need to pile up some rocks atop the peak?

Many times, I have kicked apart cairns that had no business being there; they did not mark an important junction or mark a critical spot, so why were they there at all?

[lcarreau]

Many times, I have kicked apart cairns that had no business being there; they did not mark an important junction or mark a critical spot, so why were they there at all?

Bob, I always thought THIS GUY had something to do with it ...

[Andinistaloco]

We are having the same issue's in Idaho.

It's lousy to steal what others have made.

But still I ask: Why did it have to be there in the first place? And why did someone need to pile up some rocks atop the peak?

Many times, I have kicked apart cairns that had no business being there; they did not mark an important junction or mark a critical spot, so why were they there at all?

If you'll admit it's fun to read registers (or even occasionally sign them) - especially ones from like fifty-plus years ago - then no doubt you'll agree that SOMEONE had to put them there.

I never sign the one for Humphreys Peak, for example, or most of the other peaks that get climbed on a weekly or daily basis.

But on a fifth-class butte in Sedona (rare, I know) there's one that goes back to the 1950s and has only around a name a year, average. Some of the folks who've been up there I know, some I've just heard of or read of. None of that would be there if the guy who climbed it second took the register. Or really, if ANYONE in the last sixty years took the register. All it takes is one person to decide "that doesn't have to be there," and all that is gone.

[Fred Spicker]

Sometimes registers are removed and preserved - here is the site for the Tetons:

http://www.tetonclimbinghistory.com/index.html

[Bob Sihler]

If you'll admit it's fun to read registers (or even occasionally sign them) - especially ones from like fifty-plus years ago - then no doubt you'll agree that SOMEONE had to put them there.

I'll admit it's fun to look through the old ones, though to be honest, the main reason I flip through registers now is to look for SP members, but I guess my point is that they don't enhance my experience, I wouldn't miss them if they weren't there, and I still don't get why someone felt compelled to put one there.

I guess we're like dogs in that sense. Dogs have some need to piss on everything they pass just to leave their mark. Me, I find it a shame that we have this compulsion to leave our scent on mountaintops through piled rocks or processed trees.

But to repeat-- I have never and would never remove a register.

Exception: there are peaks I've climbed that I'm pretty sure I was the first to. Were I to go back and find a cairn or register, especially if I'd posted a page for the peak, I might undo that as an apology to the mountain, and delete my post as well.

[mrchad9]

it's fun to look through the old ones

they don't enhance my experience

Okaaaaayyyyy....