Middle Rabbit Ear Summit Register

I retrieved the old summit register from Middle Rabbit Ear May 21st, 2011. It consisted of a PVC tube. The contents were not in good shape, and haven't been since 2007 when i first found it. I left some fresh paper (our route description) in order to sign, because the only other stuff in the tube was a moldy, wadded up piece of "paper" crammed in the bottom. I wasn't able to decipher much from this old sheet of paper, but what I could decipher is transcribed below. I plan on placing a copy of this transcription back up on the summit this weekend.

ORP summit register

The ORP summit register that I retrieved last weekend was a good one. Similar to the one found on wild-cat, it was a small metal film canister (rusted out a bit), with bits of folded paper in it. The whole thing had been placed in a larger orange pill container, which would help preserve it, but it looks like this pill container is relatively new. I left a new jar and notebook, and plan on bringing up a copy of the transcription when I next climb up there (tomorrow). The register did not have many entries, but it did have entries dating back to the 60's and the early Organ Mountain climbers. Very cool.

South Rabbit Ear summit register

I replaced the summit register on the South Rabbit Ear on 3/18/11. the existing register did not date back very far, and a cursory glance did not show much climbing beta in it. Still, it was only some loose scraps of paper in a degrading plastic pill bottle, so I left what I hoped would be a more long-lasting glass container and notepad.

The Wedge Summit Register Part 2

I finally finished transcribing what I could from the Wedge's summit register. It provides pretty good history between 1989 to present, but many of the pages were in bad shape. it's too bad I don't have the history before 1989. I was able to read about the first 3 ascent parties from the laminated articles included with the summit register. Maybe NMSU archives can shed light on this? I will try to remember to birng the laminated pages back up to the summit on my next trip, along with this transcription.

The Wedge Summit Register: Part 1

I climbed the Wedge back in November and replaced the Summit Register. I am just getting around to transcribing it now. One of the neat things about this register was a largish PVC tube containing several laminated newspaper articles which relate some of the history of the first ascents on the Wedge. I've posted them here so that folks can check them out. The transcribed log is coming soon...

Low Horn #2 Summit Register

Back in November I replaced the Summit Register on Low Horn #2, but did not find one currently up there. Another local climber, James Stockton, had retrieved it a few weeks earlier and gave it to me so I could post it. The log consisted of one sheet of "paper" that was in decent shape, and another two terribly brittle sheets which I immediately destroyed in removing frmo the glass vial which housed them. I can't really decipher what these papers had, but there are some dates and names on them which I can share here. One of the dates goes back to 1956 and I'd guess that this brittle sheet of paper recorded the first ascent party as well as the next few decades ascents. Of the 4 Low Horns I climbed back in November, this one (#2) was the most challenging to summit, and it is pretty reasonable to say that it doesn't see many ascents. The names I can make out are familiar from the annals of the Southwestern Mountaineers club; Hahn, McCalla, Boyer, Erhardt, Amato. Even the stationary that the newer sheet of the register is on is pretty cool, some kind of official club stationary conveying membership proviledges to Dan Erhard. A glimpse at the initialization rituals of times-past.



Photos of Summit Register

Squaretop Summit register

Below is what I was able to retrieve of the Squaretop summit register last week-end. I was glad to find one, but it is apparent that the original register has already been removed, lost or destroyed by weather. There were some remnants of a glass bottle, indicating what might have been the original register container. The existing register only had 4 ascents recorded dating from 1996 through 2001. Not a lot of traffic for this little square. I'll still copy the entries out and place the history back up with the new register, but its sad that I cannot find the complete history.

Wildcat Summit Register

The Wildcat summit register was tiny compared to the North Rabbit Ear SR. It fit in an old-style metal Kodak film canister, and consisted of two folded pieces of paper, moldy and faded with various entries scattered around the page seemingly without any order. I think it is quite possible that recent summitters have not written on it for fear of destroying it. There are no entires that were dated after 1989 and I find it somewhat un-likely that this peak hasn't seen an ascent by someone in that time period.



Since the entire log was only 4 pages, it's easy enough to post the scanned images of the log here. While the actual documents are a little easier to read than the scans, they're not much better:

North Rabbit Ear Summit Register

Below is my transcription of the NRE summit register. It was immensely fun to do this, read all the entries from climbers past, learn about new routes. It sure has me psyched to get back up there and climb more. Also I'm now eager to get my hands on the other summit registers and sift through them.

I did my best to record all the original entries, but some pages are badly torn, weathered, or simply hard to read. I noted this in [brackets] in most places. I think I'll print this entire register out on sturdy paper and replace it back with the summit register so that others can read the history. I also will try to archive the originals (and original copy since the 1954-1969 entries were already re-copied once) at NMSU or some other local archive. Finally, the left-hand column estimates the Recorded Summit Ascent # by ascent party. It is approximate, especially in the later decades of the register as pages may have been lost, etc.. By this approximation, our last ascent was the 159th.



Some pictures of the summit register: