Summit register

About Summit register

Summit register on trailless Rocky Mountain in New York's Catskills.

A 'summit register', sometimes known as a 'canister' or 'cannister', is a record of visitors to the summit of a mountain, usually one without a maintained trail. It is usually enclosed in a weatherproof, animalproof container, such as a length of PVC pipe or a metal box. Some registers are maintained in an informal manner by an individual or small group, while others are maintained by a club. Well-known and often-climbed peaks, such as those on peak bagging lists, are more likely to have summit registers.
Entries in a summit register vary, from a simple note of a person's name and date of the climb, to notes about the scenery or long essays about the events of the climb. Some summit registers contain a record of climbs going back for many years. On an infrequently climbed peak, this record may exist in one volume on the peak itself, while on frequently climbed peaks with a well-maintained register, this record may be spread over many volumes, all but the current one in the possession of the maintaining person or club.
Summit registers are slightly controversial: on peaks with a wilderness character, summit registers are sometimes removed by persons who feel they are incompatible with their surroundings. Systematic removal of summit registers for this reason has led in some places to a loss of valuable climbing history.

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