Hi All,

A recent posting by a fellow SPer got me thinking.... where do summit registers go to die? Or what happens to them when they are all full and there is no more room to store them on the summit? I know that many registers from the Sierras and other prominent CA peaks like Shasta end up at the Bancroft Library at Cal Berkeley. But how about the rest?

Basically, the recent poster pointed out that he took the register home with him once he saw that it was completely filled up, and that he was looking for somebody to send it to.

Personally, I think they all belong at any library that'll take them, and if not that then a local nonprofit or stewardship organization that has long ties to that particular area and that can make them available to the public as necessary. Leaving them in the hands of a single individual for any extended period of time, no matter who it is, just seems wrong to me.

Thoughts?

I think they should stay on the mountain.

Meh, I'd rather not have a listing of it so easily available. I think it's cool that someone has to go up there to see my (or anyone else's) name. I'm looknig at the same thing they were when they signed it. Neato. That said, I enjoyed looking through Bob Burd's photos of Gabb's register. Luckily I saw that before it went somewhere to die.

In the end, I realize that it is a transient mark I or anyone else leaves. It can burn, fall off, get struck by lightning, or somehow offend a climbing ranger. I've made my peace with the fact that they go away (but that took a lot of therapy to get there).

Whitney's register just gets discarded (burned) from what I've heard .. probably the same thing with Shasta's -- popular peaks with relatively easy and well-travelled routes.

Actually, last I heard Shasta's goes to Bancroft.

I'm glad there are so many registers on peaks in this state. In other places I've lived, they don't seem to be as common, so people just end up carving their name into the closest rock, building big and multiple cairns, or leaving momentos. Something about being on top of a big pile of rocks makes humans want to leave their mark...

edevart wrote:Actually, last I heard Shasta's goes to Bancroft.

I have a hard time believing that, considering the huge volume of signatures that probably occurs every year on that mountain .. but then it does have a Sierra Club hut on its flanks Maybe telewoman will weigh in on this

I often see comments that the original log books were photocopied, and the copies stored at some repository. Latest such example was yesterday (Jan 06/2008), on Avawatz.

Today it would be easiest just to photograph the pages in situ.

Gary Schenk wrote:Registers belong on mountains and should remain there until disposed of by nature. Where's the thrill in seeing Norman Clyde's signature in a library?

I come across many registers where the older names (and paper) are so degraded that they are essentially unreadable.

MoapaPk wrote:

Gary Schenk wrote:Registers belong on mountains and should remain there until disposed of by nature. Where's the thrill in seeing Norman Clyde's signature in a library?

I come across many registers where the older names (and paper) are so degraded that they are essentially unreadable.

I think that's the point. Better to fade into nothningness than live forever in a library. For some this may go back to the "why do you climb?" question. Because it is better than sitting around in air conditoning. The register would rather be on the peak just like you.

Matt Worster wrote:In the end, I realize that it is a transient mark I or anyone else leaves. It can burn, fall off, get struck by lightning, or somehow offend a climbing ranger. I've made my peace with the fact that they go away (but that took a lot of therapy to get there).

Funny, I reached exactly the same conclusion. I used to be passionate about the registers, but came to keep it in perspective. Their disappearance and degradation into oblivion has been happening since they were first put up there. I read entries from the 1960s and 70s lamenting "stolen" registers. Who knows what happened to them. If you hike around SoCal the registers are even more fleeting due to the higher traffic. It's almost comical to observe Mars Bonfire trying to single-handedly replace all the ones that go missing, usually within a year. It's got so that the HPS has "hidden" caches for the more popular ones, at which point one has to ask, "What exactly is the purpose?"

I was lead to believe that summit registers only recently started getting swiped with the advent of the internet(s) and only after some evil SPer posted a photo of some beloved mountain celeb’s entry

norco17 wrote:

MoapaPk wrote:

Gary Schenk wrote:Registers belong on mountains and should remain there until disposed of by nature. Where's the thrill in seeing Norman Clyde's signature in a library?

I come across many registers where the older names (and paper) are so degraded that they are essentially unreadable.

I think that's the point. Better to fade into nothingness than live forever in a library. For some this may go back to the "why do you climb?" question. Because it is better than sitting around in air conditoning. The register would rather be on the peak just like you.

Notice that I didn't imply favoring libraries for the originals. What I would favor: good-intentioned folks who digitally photographed the registers, and put the photos of old pages in some fairly secure, retrievable place.

But we've had some heated debates about putting the register pages on-line, as that might supposedly encourage people to steal the originals.

Some registers have degenerated into chaotic masses of pages -- like those on Mt Moriah and Bald Mt in the Great Basin. For those... who cares.

graham wrote:I was lead to believe that summit registers only recently started getting swiped with the advent of the internet(s) and only after some evil SPer posted a photo of some beloved mountain celeb’s entry

You must be talking about this one:

The argument (certainly not mine) went like this:

1) fiendish signature stealer "Grinch" doesn't know which peaks have authentic Norman Clyde signatures, so distant peaks are safe;

2) some well-meaning guy, we'll call him Obb Brud, posts a picture on-line of Norman Clyde's signature on XXX peak;

3) now Grinch knows where s/he can get a much-coveted Norman Clyde signature, and undertakes a 15-mile round trip rugged 13000' XXX peak, just to steal that valuable signature.

I plead the Fifth.

Here, allow me to divert the topic by presenting something that relates to nothing. Chime in all. Its only cute.