Summit Registers

Items that do not fit the categories above.
Forum rules
  • This is a mountaineering forum, so please keep your posts on-topic. Posts do not all have to be related to the 14ers but should at least be mountaineering-related.
  • Personal attacks and confrontational behavior will result in removal from the forum at the discretion of the administrators.
  • Do not use this forum to advertise, sell photos or other products or promote a commercial website.
  • Posts will be removed at the discretion of the site administrator or moderator(s), including: Troll posts, posts pushing political views or religious beliefs, and posts with the purpose of instigating conflict within the forum.
For more details, please see the Terms of Use you agreed to when joining the forum.
User avatar
Boggy B
Posts: 781
Joined: 10/14/2009
14ers: 58  7 
13ers: 777 76
Trip Reports (40)
 

Re: Summit Registers

Post by Boggy B »

Scott P wrote: Wed Jun 17, 2020 1:19 pm
cougar wrote: Wed Jun 17, 2020 10:53 am I've found many Mike Garratt registers on obscure peaks, a lot have been there a while.
Mike Garrat and Bob Martin have both left a lot of registers (especially in baby food bottles) on remote peaks around the state. Usually in NW Colorado, the registers have been left by one of the two.
My guess is at least half of all registers currently on named/ranked/soft 13ers were placed by Garratt. Not many of them are older than 1999. Unless all the existing ones really were trash, I imagine he has a sweet collection of old registers. I don't know how long people (the CMC?) have been leaving the horrible PVC registers, but the use of small glass (and even plastic) jars that actually keep the contents dry seems to predate that. One obscure 13er has signatures back to 1950, possibly 1934 but I couldn't be sure. Another has some funny commentary from the '70s. At least in the San Juans, Linfield might possess the remainder of the cool old registers.

I'd love to see these old registers digitized for the community to enjoy. Sad to miss that connection to history when reaching these rarely-visited places.
User avatar
Trotter
Posts: 1409
Joined: 6/5/2013
14ers: 58  5 
13ers: 220 2 8
Trip Reports (10)
 

Re: Summit Registers

Post by Trotter »

Climbed Garfield peak today, next to Grizzly A.

Unfortunately someone chose a glass container for the register, and we found it shattered. Then apparently something chewed up the register pretty bad. I wish people would use plastic containers, because now the summit is littered with glass shards.

However, the register goes back to 2013, and has some cool names.

Some of the names

Ken Nolan, twice.
Bill Middlebrook
Brad Huslander
Otina
The Finns
Mark Udall (Colorado Senator)

But he register is so chewed and water damaged that a lot of the names, dates, and comments are lost.
After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. -Nelson Mandela
Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called Ego. -Nietzsche
User avatar
13erRetriever
Posts: 18
Joined: 2/1/2017
14ers: 58  1 
13ers: 164 1 6
Trip Reports (15)
 

Re: Summit Registers

Post by 13erRetriever »

How does the CMC play into this conversation? I've always wondered what the correct thing to do is when I find an old register on a summit that's in a half broken container, or the pages are so frail and crumbling that pretty soon it'll be useless. I've never taken one off but it makes me sad to think they'll soon be lost to all of us. Should I bag those up and mail them in to CMC to keep and log? I'm not a member, so this is a genuine question. Is that something they do?

I found this link that says you can get a register and canister from them to place on a mountain...anyone know if this is still accurate/acceptable?

http://coloradomountainclub.blogspot.co ... sters.html
User avatar
TaylorHolt
Posts: 761
Joined: 5/6/2012
14ers: 58  2  15 
13ers: 210 7
Trip Reports (8)
 

Re: Summit Registers

Post by TaylorHolt »

Trotter wrote: Mon Jun 22, 2020 6:16 pm Unfortunately someone chose a glass container for the register, and we found it shattered. Then apparently something chewed up the register pretty bad. I wish people would use plastic containers, because now the summit is littered with glass shards.
The glass jars just aren't a good idea. Peanut butter containers make good registers as long as they're cleaned well. I'll put a rock inside (and on top) to help prevent it from blowing away.
“If you're bumming out, you're not gonna get to the top, so as long as we're up here we might as well make a point of grooving." -Scott Fischer
peter303
Posts: 3535
Joined: 6/17/2009
14ers: 34 
13ers: 12
Trip Reports (3)
 

Re: Summit Registers

Post by peter303 »

The California Sierra Club had a project in the 1990s to retrieve, preserve and replace California summit registers for historical study.
Some go back to the Civil War era.

https://www.robiningraham.com/Mountaine ... isters.pdf
User avatar
wineguy
Posts: 342
Joined: 7/12/2009
14ers: 58  3 
13ers: 143
Trip Reports (7)
 

Re: Summit Registers

Post by wineguy »

Someone needs to check the summit register on Everest. Could finally establish whether or not Mallory made the summit.
"Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters." - Norman Maclean
User avatar
CaptainSuburbia
Posts: 1101
Joined: 10/7/2017
14ers: 58  35 
13ers: 125 9
Trip Reports (44)
 

Re: Summit Registers

Post by CaptainSuburbia »

I was disappointed there was no register on Hamilton Peak.
Some day our kids will study Clash lyrics in school.
Nothing drives people crazy like people drive people crazy.
Save Challenger Point
User avatar
12ersRule
Posts: 2264
Joined: 6/18/2007
14ers: 58 
13ers: 157
Trip Reports (4)
 

Re: Summit Registers

Post by 12ersRule »

CaptainSuburbia wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 12:54 pm I was disappointed there was no register on Hamilton Peak.
Lin-Manuel Miranda took it.
User avatar
Jon Frohlich
Posts: 2606
Joined: 10/14/2005
14ers: 58 
13ers: 162 3
Trip Reports (29)
 

Re: Summit Registers

Post by Jon Frohlich »

12ersRule wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 1:02 pm
CaptainSuburbia wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 12:54 pm I was disappointed there was no register on Hamilton Peak.
Lin-Manuel Miranda took it.
I heard Alex got shot before he could climb the peak.
User avatar
SurfNTurf
Posts: 1890
Joined: 8/20/2009
14ers: 58  28 
13ers: 127 7
Trip Reports (48)
 
Contact:

Re: Summit Registers

Post by SurfNTurf »

13erRetriever wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 10:29 am How does the CMC play into this conversation? I've always wondered what the correct thing to do is when I find an old register on a summit that's in a half broken container, or the pages are so frail and crumbling that pretty soon it'll be useless. I've never taken one off but it makes me sad to think they'll soon be lost to all of us. Should I bag those up and mail them in to CMC to keep and log? I'm not a member, so this is a genuine question. Is that something they do?

I found this link that says you can get a register and canister from them to place on a mountain...anyone know if this is still accurate/acceptable?

http://coloradomountainclub.blogspot.co ... sters.html
Current CMC employee here. That post is from 2009 and extremely out of date (the 14erWorld reference :lol: ). That's not even the current URL for the CMC blog -- that old Blogspot page probably hasn't been touched (or thought about) in more than a decade.

The CMC is no longer supplying or installing summit registers, at least not in an official capacity. (There might be a rogue volunteer here or there.) We will accept filled-out registers if someone brings them down from a summit and mails or delivers them to the CMC headquarters in Golden, but nothing is really done with them. They're simply added to the American Mountaineering Museum archives, which is a fancy way of saying they're stored in our basement.
“There are two kinds of climbers: those who climb because their heart sings when they’re in the mountains, and all the rest.” - Alex Lowe

"There have been joys too great to describe in words, and there have been griefs upon which I cannot dare to dwell; and with those in mind I say, 'Climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are nought without prudence, and that a momentary negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime. Do nothing in haste, look well to each step, and from the beginning think what may be the end.'" - Edward Whymper
ltlFish99
Posts: 619
Joined: 5/21/2019
14ers: 49  3  2 
13ers: 51
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Summit Registers

Post by ltlFish99 »

I had a nice experience on Kismet 13,694. We hiked it on 08 17 1987.
The peak register had been placed there in 1934, which is the year my mom was born.

This is why when I see kismet almost daily from Montrose, I always think of it as my mom's mountain.
It was interesting to see how few people signed it during WW2.
It was full, so paul wilson retrieved it for return to the CMC.
He replaced it with a new one.
I am looking forward to returning there this summer and seeing how many people have signed it in the 33 years since I was there last.
User avatar
Kiefer
Posts: 1747
Joined: 5/10/2008
14ers: 58  39 
13ers: 317 24
Trip Reports (20)
 
Contact:

Re: Summit Registers

Post by Kiefer »

pvnisher wrote: Wed Jun 17, 2020 2:57 am Has there been any productive use of a summit register from a popular 14er in recent/memorable history?
If someone if lost I don't see the SAR team saying, "quick! Check the summit register!"

Maybe as emergency TP, which is perhaps the best use of that paper.
I remember a few years ago when that Wyoming firefighter went missing on Challenger and KC, SAR crews checked the summit registers to see if he had made the summit, to curtail their search location. I was up there during the search & talked at length with several of the volunteers. And yes, while summit registers on 14ers (or I suppose any peak really) can seem moot, they are used in emergency situations, situation dependent. I left a few myself over the years, I'll sign them if they're present but I don't go out of way to look for them...each to their own.
And he was found...at the base of the Kirk. :(
SurfNTurf wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 3:21 pm
13erRetriever wrote: Tue Jun 23, 2020 10:29 am How does the CMC play into this conversation? I've always wondered what the correct thing to do is when I find an old register on a summit that's in a half broken container, or the pages are so frail and crumbling that pretty soon it'll be useless. I've never taken one off but it makes me sad to think they'll soon be lost to all of us. Should I bag those up and mail them in to CMC to keep and log? I'm not a member, so this is a genuine question. Is that something they do?

I found this link that says you can get a register and canister from them to place on a mountain...anyone know if this is still accurate/acceptable?

http://coloradomountainclub.blogspot.co ... sters.html
Current CMC employee here. That post is from 2009 and extremely out of date (the 14erWorld reference :lol: ). That's not even the current URL for the CMC blog -- that old Blogspot page probably hasn't been touched (or thought about) in more than a decade.

The CMC is no longer supplying or installing summit registers, at least not in an official capacity. (There might be a rogue volunteer here or there.) We will accept filled-out registers if someone brings them down from a summit and mails or delivers them to the CMC headquarters in Golden, but nothing is really done with them. They're simply added to the American Mountaineering Museum archives, which is a fancy way of saying they're stored in our basement.
Jeff, your comment only makes me more sure of my decision many, many years ago as being the correct one that I posted on FB. 8)
Post Reply