SummitPost.org

One of the first pages I ever created when joining SP was for Vulture Peak, northwest pf Phoenix (AZ):

http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock ... -Peak.html

This is a cool little peak, with some neat class 2 and 3 sections to get to the top. The summit block looks very imposing. This is one of the better-known Phoenix-area peaks. According to the climbers log, I'm the only one from SP to sign in. Surely others have been up this neat peak? No?

I just noted this today and was very amused. Some peaks get all the attention. Are there other peaks out there that have just one sign-in over 6 years?

Yeah, but who'se ever heard of Liberty Ridge?

By the way, how did you do that neat "mouse-over" effect for the image?

View the source and find out!
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<p>The Liberty Ridge is perhaps the best “full-on” mountaineering objective in the US, outside of Alaska. Although relatively free of objective dangers, the route is difficult to access, requires commitment, and is very exposed to weather.</p>
<p>Mt Rainier is a tiny, isolated high altitude island, straddling the border of an ocean and a continent. It is subject to raging storms, unimaginable snowfalls, ripping winds, and weird fogs. Although much of this weather is predictable from several days out, some of it is not. For this reason, being fit on the Liberty Ridge or, for that matter, any difficult route on Mt. Rainier cannot be overstated; the ability to outrun an incoming whiteout or to preemptively carry extra food and fuel in unstable weather means having a well trained set of pipes and the legs to get you quickly to safety. As compiled by the National Park Service Search and Rescue Reports, weather is the single greatest cause of accidents on Mt. Rainier, especially on the Liberty Ridge.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, a full range of mountaineering skills are required. In addition to the changeable weather, crevasse fields, grinding steepness, hard ice, deep snow, and altitude means that experience climbers will be enjoyably surprised and intermediate climbers will be thoroughly tested. This is no place for beginners not roped to an expert!.</p>
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<p class="style1">MouseOver the image for topo...</p>
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I stopped contributing, except for peaks that were so bizarre and obscure that I knew they would not be swamped with folks. I would like to help folks, but I don't want hordes to start taking some of my "secret" routes, which frankly can't take more than a few visitors per year.

I was chastened when one of our local internet hiking groups started haunting my spartan website. A few weeks after I posted a hike, up to 60 people would follow the exact same route, down to the excursions for nature visits (which showed up on the GPS track ). One trek became so popular that the sandstone is now smooth and impregnated with boot rubber.

FortMental wrote:I don't know what you're complaining about... Your little knob's got 4 more votes than the Liberty Ridge.

And nobody had signed the climbers log until now.

Why are some "vote-padders" in Arizona being ignored ???

Getting votes appears have lot to do with how well you're known on SP and how much you participate in voting on others stuff. Popular people could post a shot of their back yard and get POTD! While a lot of great stuff can easily go unnoticed if people are unfamiliar with the persons contributions.

tazz wrote:Not everyone thinks or feels it is important to sign logs on SP as a resume or tick list. Myself, I have climbed, scrambled, hiked 100's of peaks (big ones and small ones) all over the US. I have no online written record of how many because I feel I have nothing to prove to others by posting or ticking a list of what I have done. I climb for myself and no one else.

play with that folks.

You say you have nothing to prove by posting what you've done, but you preface that by saying you've climbed hundreds of peaks, big and small, all over the U.S. If you really didn't care what other people think, it wouldn't matter if your climbing log listed all your climbs or none of them.

FortMental wrote:I don't know what you're complaining about... Your little knob's got 4 more votes than the Liberty Ridge.

I think you're back in the lead now. A really nice page FM, and, this is kind of embarassing, this is the first time I've actually placed a vote for any page.

tazz wrote:Not everyone thinks or feels it is important to sign logs on SP as a resume or tick list.

Tazz is correct. I climbed Vulture (and a couple of its sub summits, which were really cool, although the rock's shit).

I just never signed the SP log.

Promise I'll check out the page, though!

REI checks the SP logs and awards extra refunds based on the number of entries. I've got to go back and add about 50 more peaks from the NE; I need a new parka.

Actually, I always check the logs before a trip to get any recent information.

I think you should be really happy that there are so few signatures on the climbers log. Obviously it isn't a very busy peak, so it sounds like a great place to go if you are looking for some solitude.

I would argue there is a direct correlation between how busy a peak is and with how many signatures are on the SP climbers log (regardless of how diligent all SP members are about signing the logs). Just check out the number of signatures on some of the Colorado 14ers. Just try to find solitude on one of those peaks (possible but challenging). That being said, someone looking for a quiet summit could use this valuable SP data of few if any summit signatures for "beta".

Again, be happy there are so few signatures.

Yep, in other words ... you folks are taking this WAY TOO seriously !!!

Just be glad they'll always be another mountain left to climb, and get on with it!

They'll always be "list persons" and "non-list persons" in the world.
One can't live without the other!



And, what the hell does it (really) matter ...

I think the most summit log signatures of my page submissions is a big 3. Although it might indicate a lack of page quality of my submissions, I choose to think of the low sign-ins as a badge of honor: I'm finding peaks that no one else visits.

splattski wrote:I think the most summit log signatures of my page submissions is a big 3. Although it might indicate a lack of page quality of my submissions, I choose to think of the low sign-ins as a badge of honor: I'm finding peaks that no one else visits.

Right on, spectacular "splattski" man !!!

That's the same way I feel when I climb little bumps in Arizona.