This is the Sierra Nevada Summit Registers home page.

Dedicated to maintaining summit registers on the SPS PEAKS LIST.

SPS Mountain Records

The Sierra Club and the Sierra Peaks Section have long been helping to maintain registers on Sierra Peaks. I am currently the appointed "Mountain Records Chair". The SPS Policies and Procedures 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." Unfortunately we have no Cylinders any more. I have metal and plastic ammo boxes, and a lot of note books that I can send to you if you give me plenty of advance notice. I help publish only peaks on the SPS LIST, but I archive reports for all the peaks on the 344 Sierra Peaks list on Climber.org.

YOU CAN HELP

Please help me gather information to assist in Summit Register documentation and maintenance.
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.
Plastic Register containers are NOT acceptable as permanent containers (Gatorade bottle, water bottle, plastic box, etc.) Please let me know when you find one.
I also want any history on any summit registers, including the disposition of registers removed from their summits.
Reports of registers in good condition are important, too, so I can remove a peak from my list if it no longer has Needs, and I can track their condition and the type of container!

Please send me pictures or links to pictures of summit registers/containers on any of these peaks .
The registers may be harmed by publicity, so I will not publish pictures or reports on this web site. I will keep them forever, as a valuable reference for maintenance and history.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me pictures and detailed reports!

If you find any damaged or unaceptable register containers, please help me determine what it would take to repair or replace it, so someone can go up there with the proper equipment and fix it.
For example:

Agassiz (had) an ammo box with missing lid, 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) was barely hanging on to the rock, and needed repair/replacement of the screws and anchors (but it went missing before it was repaired).
The register box on Pilot Knob Needs a new lid, but I need accurate measurements for it.

If you find a container that Needs a book, please let me know what kind of container it is, so we will know what size book it Needs. Photographs are greatly appreciated!

And the most important way you can help is to volunteer to carry a register to a summit on my list! Ask me. well in advance, and I will tell you precisely what the reported Needs are, and I can send you materials or advice.

REGISTER RETURN

I will accept any returns of misplaced registers or information regarding Sierra Nevada summit registers, and try to restore the register to its proper place.
If you want to be anonymous, I don’t ask, I don’t tell!
No one has taken me up on anonymous communication in 15 years, so If you want to do it, you can send me an anonymous email here. Then I will make arrangements according to your request and post the address to use here, on this page.

SAR

Summit registers play an important part in Search And Rescue). When a climber disappears (as at 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 or to find people who may have seen the 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).

REGISTER BOOKS

	I have a few 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 many other notebooks of various sizes suitable for use as summit registers
	I have purchased a good supply of various sized register books. 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 an ammo box. Notebooks with sewn bindings will last much longer than spiral bound notebooks.

REGISTER CONTAINERS

Please help me find sources for replacement containers ! These aluminum cylinders, machined by the late great Charles Gerkins, were perfect, but they are no longer available. If you know who cast the raw canisters or who else helped design them, Please let me know! Give me some ideas from some idiot-resistant, water-shedding, bomb-proof, light-weight containers.
I would welcome a source of properly sized new Tin Cans, for the classic "nested cans" type of container, or a source of black 4" PVC pipe and caps.

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

I have a bunch ammo boxes . I prefer 30 cal. boxes. They will hold books up to 10" x 6.5" max. Ammo boxes are pretty good, but even they get damaged or lose their lids, and they are fairly heavy (3.7 pounds)- any suggestions for improved, large, DURABLE containers are welcomed! Unfortunately, new metal ammo boxes are no longer used by the military, so they are more expensive now.

The classic Sierra Club aluminum boxes were designed by Kasper Casperson around 1924, later adopted by the national club.
The last one made that I know of was on Olancha Peak in 1959 - now missing.

PROTECTION

Summit registers are an endangered tradition in California. The earliest Sierra register was placed on Mt. Dana in 1863, and another on Mt. Brewer in 1864. Some registers (used too) survive on their summit for 100 years, dating back to the 19th century. Registers have great historical and cultural significance, especially to peak baggers. But the registers and containers are disappearing at an alarming rate.

Please do not publish your "discovery" of old registers, giving away their specific location. This serves only the braggart, the thieves, the vandals, and armchair climbers. The number of surviving old registers is diminishing, though some have been doing fine for many years on isolated peaks without any interference from you. The older registers are the more valuable targets for those who collect them, as well as for those who would vandalize them, they need NO advertising !
Please help by keeping the location of these valuable objects a secret, until they are no longer with us. Tell your family and friends, but not the whole world. Registers, containers, and even multiple benchmarks have been stripped from many peaks.

ARCHIVAL

I think that taking pictures, instead of taking away registers, is a great way to preserve the history they bear. Send the pictures to me and/or to the library, and keep the registers on the summit. It seems that putting a summit register away in a vault is like taking Bighorn Sheep out of the mountain wilderness and putting them in a cage - they will never be the same. This is my personal opinion.

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, given to them, oddly enough, by RJ Secor. Do any other libraries/museums in California collect old summit registers, too? Bancroft lists "mountain registers mainly from California summits of the Sierra Nevada", stored in 27 cartons, with 738 registers listed.

CONTACT

Click here to send E-mail to me with your email program, or click http://climber.org/contact/SummitRegisters to send me E-mail (text only) through your browser.