I was also kinda eyeing this post Gdurkee.. and being a way too loud member of the forum, I thought I might read their site before replying.
This is what I uncovered from their website:
"This is also one of the reasons for placing a Summit Stone within an Adventure Muse... The Muse is about pondering our motivation for being out there... because in our motives we find meaning... and it is in our nature to protect what is meaningful to each of us...
I do believe though, there is a difference between the graffiti and garbage we have all seen out there that may permanently mar wild areas, and a small stone that is very thoughtfully placed, and meant to be carried away with the 'Finders' themselves... a simple re-minder of precious moments..."
AND
"While it is not my intention to be intrusive ( and it may be amusingly ironic, considering my interest in Geology, that an 'intrusion' is a body of rock forced between strata) sometimes we may have to commit to an act... then hope for understanding... let go of the outcome... and simply ask for forgiveness if others see things differently...
As for the actual placement of these small Summit Stones, over ninety-nine percent of them have only been placed with a summit register, at an established trail head or campsite, or at times upon the windshield of another adventurers vehicle... These are places where traces of our passing are already clearly there....."
The "commiting an act.. then hoping for understanding" is a little spooky (George Bush's reasoning?!). Personally I would prefer them to leave 100% of these things IN the trail register.. if left at all.
Actually I would prefer they leave a big chunk of tasty mint chocolate in the register rather than a painted rock and a pamphlet.. but like you said.."Everybodys gotta have a hobby."
But otherwise I think leaving a painted rock and a pamphlet is harmless. I would suggest that they do it themselves though, cause getting others to climb peaks to put their junk in the register is kinda cheating IMHO.
I mean thats like us getting SnowNymph to climb all the peaks and place OUR names in the register for us.. I don't think that's cool... and It defeats the Spirit of the summit register in the process.
Okay, enough talking about you Westwinds; Now I am talking to you as a Fellow Lover of the High Places. This being your first post and the fact that it is loaded with a link and the fact that you wish others to spread your message for you, I make the following comments entirely without malice just love. But...
If you want to have something put in the register on a mountain peak.. Do it yourself. And then you will have my respect, at least for climbing the same peak as me... and I will be more apt to listen to your message.
Some of my favorite times have been afternoons spent on Peaks like Volunteer and Matterhorn, just reading the registers and tripping out on all the different things people wrote(as well as the weird stuff I wrote the years before!). Aside from the odd powerbar or fruit rollup they leave nothing. The Message IS the Tribute.. no rock needed.
I am not trying to hate on your idea here.. but you did put it out there and your own site does mention the "controversy" I applaud that. They are cool little stones and you are obviously quite a thoughtful person. And we share a love for the lonely places.
But I only caution that there is a fine line between offering your message and broadcasting it.. believe me.. I KNOW. I am in a constant struggle with my self to attenuate my own hyperactive personality. I think that is why I find the solitude of the Sierra so fascinating.
So I suggest the following as a fellow mountaineer.. no malice intended... just Love.
Hmm.. Why don't you just skip the rocks, sign the register and leave your message like the rest of us?
Somehow the approach of leaving the rock AND the pamphlet is like ME climbing the peak but YOU explaining to me what I see rather than me seeing for myself. I think that is what I find most invasive about this .
I know what I think, and afterall I am the one standing on the peak at that moment.. no pamphlet can convey such a transendental message as is already there in the void. Completely personal, and beyond mere words.
What painted stone can compare to the ice riven heights there before me un-owned and un-ownable? Nothing can carry that away.. and therein lies the power. There is no possesing the moment only the moments memory.. it is here and gone again 'till the peak is climbed again.
Hey, Why not climb the peaks and leave your email or address in the register? And IF people choose to, they can contact you and you can mail them the rock.
That way we all win.. You don't have to lug rocks around the backcountry.. We wont have to be offended.. and you can still get your message out by writing it down, by hand, in the summit register. Save the pretty rocks for Ebay and the pamphlets for the airport.
Sincerely, The Very Loud.... Hetchy
