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Meaty
climber
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Jul 26, 2011 - 10:08am PT
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Some people like history, some people don't consider summit registers history. Some people have a streak of vandalism, some people consider summit registers vandalism/litter. Everyone self justifies, some could care less and need no justification for removing litter. Takes all kinds. Things you think and do change as you age, and some that once viewed these registers as historical no longer feel that way.
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Gary
climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Jul 26, 2011 - 10:15am PT
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BTW, that Alice B Carter of Claremont really got around. I've seen her name other places.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Jul 26, 2011 - 12:33pm PT
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Let me be clear: Since the Registers were designated part of The Collection by The Sierra Club, the Registers are kept by The Bancroft as they come in.
As they are processed, they become available for view in the reading room. My guess is that the most fragile ones will end up in conservation until they can be stabilized or photographed. But that takes a lot of dough, and I don't know what the processing budget looks like for that collection.
Typically, it's much easier to get donors to pony up dough for big purchases than it is to get folks to donate money for the associated labor. The B has had to radically cut back its opening hours over the last few years due to budget cuts, and is currently horrifically understaffed.
If folks really want to have better access to the summit registers, I imagine the Bancroft would be open to having a donor step up and fund the labor to digitize the things (contingent upon the original contract allowing for that sort of thing). I haven't searched for any of them, so don't know if any of them are online now.
So far as The B doing anything with them, I can easily imagine a register with Brower or Adams in it turning up in a display on mountaineering or The Sierra Club, if The Library does one. Generally, there are one to two small, themed exhibits per year. And sometimes there are loan arrangements with other institutions.
But if this is an issue you feel really strongly about, then join the SC and start agitating to put this item on the agenda.
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Gary
climber
"My god - it's full of stars!"
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In today's LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-summit-registers-20120703,0,7345895.story
It's a question Glen Dawson never had to consider when he was scrambling across the top of California in the years before World War II.
"I don't understand why anyone would take them," he said. "It may not be a matter of law. But it is a matter of ethics."
Dawson, who recently turned 100, is a legend of California mountaineering — the last living vestige of an era of extraordinary exploration.
Dawson shared rope with men who summited peaks before the advent of motion pictures. He is credited with dozens of first ascents. A mountain is named after him. A photo of Dawson belaying a partner up a knife-edged peak hangs in his Pasadena living room. It was shot by his friend Ansel Adams.
His signature is in countless summit registers. Some remain in the wild. Many are in the Bancroft Library. How many are in curio cabinets may never be known.
Told the Black Kaweah register had vanished, Dawson shakes his head in resignation.
"The Sierra has changed…" He doesn't finish the thought. But his point is clear.
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Barbarian
Trad climber
New and Bionic too!
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Somewhere in the Sierra is a band-aid can with 5 names (1st ascent party) in it. It is protected from the elements by a zip-lock bag. If you happen upon it, please leave it on the mountain. It has no purpose in a library. i don't think any other register should be removed either.
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Somewhere in the Sierra is a band-aid can with 5 names (1st ascent party) in it. It is protected from the elements by a zip-lock bag. If you happen upon it, please leave it on the mountain. It has no purpose in a library. i don't think any other register should be removed either.
+10000
Summit registers lose their value after being placed in a library. A few examples of Dawson, Clyde, Underhill etc signatures is enough. Why try to collect all of them? Makes me sick this register war....
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10b4me
Ice climber
dingy room at the Happy boulders hotel
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How long was the register on Mt. Barnard. It was there in 1980. It was the last remaining register with Norman Clyde's signature(I think).
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Gary
climber
"My god - it's full of stars!"
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10b, there are more registers out there with Norman Clyde's signature, but they are in way out of the way places.
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