Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Mt Whitney Summit Register

On 7/11/2008 kurt23hrs started a topic Surrogate Register Signers which generated considerable discussion. On 7/17 Kurt asked, "What happens to the register books when they are full, where are they stored?" I subsequently responded that the 1883-1941 summit registers have been preserved as part of a collection at UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library titled "Sierra Club Mountain Registers and Records 1860-2005."

The natural question then followed, "What about the registers since 1941? What will be the fate of the 2008 register currently on the summit?" The Wilderness Office of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park directed me to Park Curator Ward Eldridge. After a long week at work, I finally gave Mr Eldridge a call and he promptly and kindly answered my questions. All the Mt Whitney registers since 1979 are stored in the Park Archives at the Park Administative Offices in Three Rivers. The official US Government register paper is supplied and removed from the summit register by the Crabtree ranger. The stack of signed sheets for a year (containing thousands of signatures) typically stands one and a half inches high, Mr Eldrige notes. Thus, it does not present a storage problem. The existence/location of Mt Whitney registers for 1942-1978 remains an unsolved problem. No other summit registers are kept by the Park.

Periodically, summit registers from other Sierra Peaks make their way to the collection at the Bancroft Library. To learn of an effort to care for summit registers on the other big peaks in the Range of Light, one is referred to Harry Langenbacher's Sierra Peaks Summit Register page (http://summitregister.langenbacher.org/).

Jim

That's really interesting information--thanks for checking it out. I always wondered what happened to those registers. I suppose one day, someone will find the 1941-1978 registers, but who knows? It's always fun to sign the register--kind of makes it official that you've really reached the summit!

I hope they scan those in some day and put them on the web. My grandfather and great grandfather climbed Mt Whitney I think for the first time in the 1930's. It would be a real treat to see their names in such an old register.

Rick has your mother or father summited MW? Do you have any kids? That could be 3-4 generations of family to have summited Whitney. Now that would be cool.

Pretty cool to be on the same list as John Muir. Don't think they had registers then but we all know he summited.
I will make sure I get at least 3 generations signed in! Already have 2. My daughter is 17 so by my calculations, (because I know she'll wait to finish college and be married before even thinking about sex) I should be summiting with my grandchild when I'm 66ish...At the earliest!

A friend of mine summitted Whitney a few years ago but somehow forgot to sign the register amid the mixture of exhaustion, relief, and joy he felt in making it to the top. He didn't realize his mistake until he was halfway down the mountain and has always regretted it since.

He went back last year to sign the register but ending up turning around at the JMT Junction due to weather concerns. He wants to try again later this month but is thinking of cancelling that trip since he heard from hikers at the portal last week that they didn't see a register at the summit hut and that it may no longer be present.

Does anyone know whether those rumors are accurate or not? The latest reliable report I've been able to find was from about three weeks ago, before the earthquake and before permits were given out for the main trail. There were some names on that sheet - Ethan Ramsey, Jonathan Felsen, Jeff Decker, and some others. At the end of the list was the following on what appears to be row 19:

6/20 - ROB COLLIER - BONSALL - CA - NEVER AGAIN!

The rest of the sheet was blank.

In a way, was that entry strangely prophetic? Did it mean "never again will anyone else be able to sign in?"

FWIW, my friend has been to many other peaks in the Sierra and elsewhere (with and without registers), but said that nothing else compares to being on top of Whitney and signing in on that particular mountain. Does he have any hope of turning his dream into reality?

If the register is that important to him why not take a pencil and spiral bound notebook up on his summit attempt and leave it in the box if there isn't one?

The hikers told him that there was no container or anything else up or around the hut. Some said the hut was locked; others don't know since they didn't try to open it.

I suppose he could carry a durable container along with a notebook up there, but he might not even make it considering how tired he was when he summitted without all that weight and his younger age at the time.

edit: Leaving a notebook has been done before, but this was when a box was present: http://theforoughis.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/20120618-017.jpg

I have always heard that the rangers collected the full registers and replaced them with new ones. A call to the ranger station may clarify the current situation. No one has ever said what happens to the old registers. Are they stored somewhere or end up as recycling paper?