This is Harry Langenbacher's Sierra Nevada Summit Registers Page.

After you climb a Sierra Peak, please click here to
Send a Report
to me on the condition of the summit register. I will keep track of them. I like "all OK" reports, too!

Before you climb a Sierra Peak

Click HERE for the main list of register needs

- as shown on Climber.org, AND read the updates here (below) for any additional register needs:

October 30, 2011 the big list of register needs at climber.org is almost up to date, except

Laurel Mtn needs book
Vandever Mtn needs book
Polemonium Peak no longer needs anything
Round Top needs large book (for Ammo Box)
Mineral Peak needs book (for Ammo Box)
Morgan S Mt needs book and container
Mt Langley needs book (for Ammo Box)
Charybdis no longer needs anything
Dade may need container and book
Unicorn may need container and book
Seven Gables needs a book.
Mt. Kaweah Needs Book
Leavitt Peak no longer needs a register
Mt Gardiner needs a book for SPS cylinder
Mt Cotter needs book (for Ammo Box)
Mt Clarence King needs a book for SPS cylinder
Mt Rixford needs a book and container

If you find any damaged register containers, please help me determine what it would take to repair it, so someone can go up there with the proper equipment. For example - Agassiz and University have ammo boxes with missing lids, so it was useful to determine that they need only a 30 Cal. box lid for repair. The register box on Mt. Kaweah (the emblem peak) is barely hanging on to the rock, and needs repair/replacement of the screws and anchors. Mt. Sill's box is reported to have damage... Photographs are greatly appreciated!

Desolation Wilderness managers don't seem to want registers on their peaks (Pyramid, Dicks, Tallac)

My collected reports and pictures are HERE. The picture are indexed, but not the reports yet (except in Google :-).

I will accept anonymous returns of registers or information regarding Sierra Nevada summit registers, no questions asked!
Click HERE for contact information and my policies.

The Sierra Club and the Sierra Peaks Section have long been active in maintaining registers on Sierra Peaks, but anyone can do it! I am currently the appointed " Mountain Records Chair". The SPS bylaws state: "The SPS Mountain Records Chair maintains ... a record of the condition of summit registers and register containers on qualifying peaks ... maintains and preserves, as required, registers and register containers on summits of qualifying peaks. He should provide new register books and cylinders to climbers to replace old and missing ones on SPS peaks and other qualifying peaks."

I have about 60 new SPS register books in stock!
3.75"x6", 144 page, soft cover,
with a sturdy sewn/taped binding, so the pages won't fall out.

I have a small supply of various sized register books that I bought myself. Please let me know if you want a tiny but sturdy notebook to carry with you always, just in case you find one missing, or maybe a nice hard cover book to put in a larger container.

Notebooks with sewn bindings will last much longer that spiral bound notebooks.

REGISTER CONTAINERS

Please help me find sources for replacement containers ! These things were perfect, but they are no longer available. Give me some ideas from some idiot-proof, water-shedding, bomb-proof, and light-weight containers. I would even welcome a source of properly sized, new Tin Cans, for the classic "nested cans" type of container.

If you can build containers like this "Sierra Register Committee" box, please let me know!

I have 6 ammo boxes left (fiv3 30 cal. and one 50 cal.). Please let me know if you are willing to haul an ammo box up one of the peaks that's missing a container. Ammo boxes are pretty good, but even they get damaged or lose their lids, and they are heavy (almost 4 pounds)- any suggestions for improved large container are welcomed! Unfortunately, these ammo boxes are no longer available as military surplus. I used to get them locally for $5, now I have to buy them online for $10 from http://www.armysurpluswarehouse.com/product/762-mm-ammo-can-2662.cfm for $7+$3, but they are excellent quality - virtually new. You can buy them too!!!

Summit registers are an endangered tradition in California. Some registers date back to the 19th century, and have great historical and cultural significance, especially to peak baggers. But the registers, containers (and even benchmarks) are disappearing at an alarming rate. Any suggestions on how to solve this problem would be appreciated.
I would like to get reports on the condition of summit registers and overfilled or missing summit registers/containers/pencils for any SPS (Sierra Peaks Section) listed summit, or other major summits in the Sierras. I also want any history on these summit registers, including the disposition of registers removed from their summits. Reports of registers in good condition are important, too.

Summit registers play an important part in SAR (Search and Rescue) efforts when a climber disappears (Mt. Goode 2008, Palisades 2007, Brewer 2006 ...) SAR even goes so far as to retrieve the registers by helicopter (North Guard/Milestone 2006). They use the registers to trace the path of the missing climber. The most famous use of registers in a search in the Sierra Nevadas was the search for Walter (Peter) Starr Jr. in the Minarets, 1933 (1 2).

I would like to document the condition of the registers and their containers on this web site. I am also fond of pictures of signatures and register entries of people I have climbed with, or of the not-so-rich but "famous" climbers of today. Please send me pictures or links to pictures of summit registers/containers on these peaks so I can put them here, or link to them. I will credit the photographer properly. I will try to avoid making any old registers become the target of register thieves, and I will not make public any pictures or reports that might do that.

I think that taking pictures, instead of taking away registers, is a great way to preserve the history they bear - it seems that putting a summit register away in a vault is like taking Bighorn Sheep out of the mountains and putting them in a zoo.

The Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley has a list of the summit registers in their collection here . The UCLA library has a collection of registers and other historical SPS artifacts. The East California Museum in Independence has the old Mt. Langley Sierra Club aluminum box on display. Do any other libraries/museums in California collect old summit registers, too? The Bancroft list of "mountain registers mainly from California summits of the Sierra Nevada", stored in 21 cartons, is 696 lines long. Some are dated as recently as 2005. This is evidence (along with the fact that most register needs are only for new books, not containers) that collectors are to blame for disappearance of many missing registers. In at least one case, register, container, and even multiple benchmarks have been stripped from a peak.

Please do not publicly brag about "discovery" of old registers, giving away their specific location. This serves only the braggart, the thieves, the vandals, and armchair climbers. The supply of old registers is diminishing, though some have been doing fine, surviving for many years on isolated peaks without any help from publicity. The older registers are the more valuable targets for those who collect them, as well as for those who would vandalize them, and they are free for the taking if only they can be located - such a bargain needs no advertising ! Please help by keeping the location of these valuable objects a secret, until they are no longer with us. And help keep the peaks (except in the Desolation Wilderness, where they are prohibited ?) supplied with new registers and containers to help the climbing community, and to aid in SAR efforts.

Robin Ingraham has some interesting history and commentary on Sierra peak registers, at http://www.robiningraham.com/summitregisters.html. Check it out!

My collected reports and pictures are HERE. The picture are indexed, but not the reports yet (except in Google :-).

Click here to send Harry E-mail with your email program, or click http://climber.org/contact/SummitRegisters or http://angeles.sierraclub.org/sps/scripts/emailform.asp?recipient=Harry+Langenbacher&Referrer=/sps/management.htm to send me E-mail (text only) through your browser.

See http://climber.org/data/SierraPeaks/RegisterNeeds.html for the complete list of SPS summits in need of help with their registers, maintained by Steve Eckert and myself.