The question isn't about staying on trails; it is about cutting switchbacks. Most all of us do bushwhacks, but cutting switchbacks isn't bushwhacking. It's real simple; either go off the trail totally and go where the trail doesn't go, or stay on the trail. Use it (or not), but don't abuse it.

You wouldn't drive through someone's front yard when the road is just across the curb, would you?

No, you're all missing something. Technology is to blame here; first and foremost, the GPS unit:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xLR5mjkfs4[/youtube]


By the way, can anyone tell me why I expend the energy to carry (and buy) a handheld hiking GPS unit if I never turn the darn thing on?


Ed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xLR5mjkfs4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xLR5mjkfs4

Buz Groshong wrote:The question isn't about staying on trails; it is about cutting switchbacks. Most all of us do bushwhacks, but cutting switchbacks isn't bushwhacking. It's real simple; either go off the trail totally and go where the trail doesn't go, or stay on the trail. Use it (or not), but don't abuse it.

I expanded a bit, but the point remains: To the guy cutting switchbacks on the trail, just trying to get somewhere faster, why should he give a fap that you don't like it?

Think about it from his perspective, and come up with an answer that addresses it from his perspective.... otherwise all anyone is doing here is preaching to the choir.

Ben Beckerich wrote:

Buz Groshong wrote:The question isn't about staying on trails; it is about cutting switchbacks. Most all of us do bushwhacks, but cutting switchbacks isn't bushwhacking. It's real simple; either go off the trail totally and go where the trail doesn't go, or stay on the trail. Use it (or not), but don't abuse it.

I expanded a bit, but the point remains: To the guy cutting switchbacks on the trail, just trying to get somewhere faster, why should he give a fap that you don't like it?

Think about it from his perspective, and come up with an answer that addresses it from his perspective.... otherwise all anyone is doing here is preaching to the choir.

OK, thinking like a Northwest climber - when I'm on Rainier/Baker/Shasta/... it's a lot easier to take a shit directly on the glacier and just leave it there (or if I'm worried about a ranger citing me, toss it into a crevasse) than to do it in a wag bag and have to carry it out. Might as well toss my empty fuel cannisters and other trash into a crevasse while I'm at it. Why should I care if you don't like it? Carrying it out is just going to slow me down. Use iodine tablets in your water if you're worried about drinking the snowmelt.

PS I don't take a shit and leave it (or other trash) on the glacier, for the same reason I don't cut switchbacks when I'm on an area with a well-established trail.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

We are our habits.

Discipline is freedom.

Buz Groshong wrote:It's real simple; either go off the trail totally and go where the trail doesn't go, or stay on the trail.

Like most things in life, it isn't "real simple." The "slab-cuts" from Lone Pine Lake down to Whitney Portal are almost invisible, cut multiple switchbacks at a time, and save a huge chunk of time. Shaving a few feet off the end of a normal switchback saves almost no time while destroying the trail. The short way down from Garnet Canyon in the Tetons has an impact, but doesn't create any real erosion, and saves a lot of time. The trail up Borah is a real trail too steep to survive. The Meysan Lakes trail is absurd. And forcing humans to follow trails built for pack animals is cruel and unusual punishment.

Ben Beckerich wrote:

Buz Groshong wrote:The question isn't about staying on trails; it is about cutting switchbacks. Most all of us do bushwhacks, but cutting switchbacks isn't bushwhacking. It's real simple; either go off the trail totally and go where the trail doesn't go, or stay on the trail. Use it (or not), but don't abuse it.

I expanded a bit, but the point remains: To the guy cutting switchbacks on the trail, just trying to get somewhere faster, why should he give a fap that you don't like it?

Think about it from his perspective, and come up with an answer that addresses it from his perspective.... otherwise all anyone is doing here is preaching to the choir.

You're right. Assholes will be assholes; we can't change them.

.