Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board MISSING INFORMATION ON WEB SITE?

I am surprised no one has apparently asked this over the last 3 to 5 days.

Why -- starting perhaps 5 to 7 days ago -- is so much information on the Whitney Portal web site now apparently missing? Specifically, on the page showing the forums available, now missing are the links to the large and valuable database of information, particularly useful to "newbies". For example, "what can go wrong on Whitney", VersatileFred's options for getting permits (with various steps to go through), and sundry other bits of information.

Also missing -- information showing how many people are visiting the site, including showing which board members are on it.

Just a VAST amount of information -- very important to have available here -- now missing completely with no links to any of it.

???

Hi The campground link is on the main page so is the weather and Forest Service Permit link Rec .gov is on the main page. We had trouble with new people to the board posting and it going to other sections so they were lock and later removed. Thank You Doug

Doug, thank you for your quick reply. I have seen you in the store a few times but never talked with you -- a mistake I'll have to remedy eventually!

I'm still confused. I wasn't asking about the two links you mentioned on the home page that link to information on outside web sites. I'm asking about all the information that is on YOUR web site that was linked to from the page listing the forums:

http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/cfrm

There were just SCORES of topics for new (or experienced) hikers to read -- all of it contributed and/or organized by you or board members. On the page that lists the forums there were many links for quick access to many topics -- and all those links are no longer there. For example, here is a post that VersatileFred posted back in 2003:

http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/34030

Note in that post all the links. Those links -- about a week ago -- were on your page listing the forums. Now they're gone!

So -- for anyone who wants basic information about attempting Mt. Whitney, all they can do right now is make countless searches for information buried in all the posts. Rather than get an overall view of all the information they should consider on the page listing the forums, with links to the detailed information from that page.

I don't understand what removing all those links from the page listing the forums would accomplish -- it only downgrades the usefullness of the site. And as I said in my first post, there was some other information now also apparently removed (showing how many are on the site, what board members are on, etc.) -- so it appears a big change was made. Apparently accompanying the removal of all this information . . . the forums list now spans the whole page from left to right (5 vertical columns) whereas before it didn't to allow some other information. And information that was at the bottom of the forums list is now also gone.

Have others noticed this too or have I gone mad? :-) Perhaps you can explain this better than I have so that Doug understands.

Why have all the links been removed from the page listing the forums? Like the links in VersatileFred's post I cited above?

Those links are gone and will not be added back. The board was set up many years ago so hikers could ask questions and other members could reply, that format was restored last week. Thank You Doug

That's unfortunate the information will not be back. It was extremly helpful for me on my first climb of Whitney last week.

Agree, it was very useful, and easy to find. Just curious, why was it removed? to much trouble to maintain correctness? or some liability issue?

I have used this site as my principle site in preparation for my first climb (this upcoming Sunday the 13th). I used that very list of recommendations many, many times, and then suddenly noticed its disappearance.

I'm very sad it's gone. For me a newbie, it was THE BEST link of the whole forum. It answered all of the questions that I had, and I'm sure many others relied on that compilation of data and answers.

Will you please restore that page? Please do!

Thanks.

Whitney Fan, thanks for asking the questions. I knew that things had changed but thought that perhaps it was some settings that I needed to change back to.

I also used the various missing information to prepare for our trip in early August.

i agree! that information for first time hikers was invaluable. would it be possible to put it back, or perhaps start a group effort to revise those bits that are outdated. this was much more informative than any guidebook (ok - expect for the "mountain lore" one ;-).

Missing Information