fallow
I wonder if there is any way to let Mt Hood go "fallow" for a couple of years, such that people can take a step back and appreciate the mountain. Perhaps lottery based or just more scheduled access for a while, if such a thing isn't already happening. I mean, i know accidents happen, but having been up Hood at least a dozen or so times myself, I also know how overclimbed the South side of Hood really is. It's not as if there are not literally thousands of mountains, as well as several extremely large volcanos within 100 miles of Hood, which offer a range of climbs while requiring (I believe) more conscious preparation than Hood, if only due to the different level of access. There really doesn't seem to be any good answer for the whole locater beacon issue, aside perhaps from some hybrid that combines a local avy beacon with MLU's that can be picked up from several miles away - and that is really getting into a level of surveillance that is a bit creepy. But it might happen with or without my support, so meh. I suppose you could make it sort of fun and use it for tracking/training, but since the bulk of the people who would use such a system make a bee-line from Timberline to the Summit and back, that makes for pretty dull data.
I'm sort of just annoyed that the whole needing-a-rescue-location-pronto vs personal-recognizance issue is basically being abstracted out to require it now being a policy-level decision. Just letting Mt Hood go fallow for a year or more would be good for it, and let folk take a breath. People really dedicated to it would be forced to do something about the situation. It's such a difficult thing, because I hate being required (beyond safety measures such as sign in/sign out) to do anything different in climbing, but Hood is an exception just because of the vast numbers of folk on it.
Countdown to Dissertation submission: 18 days
I'm sort of just annoyed that the whole needing-a-rescue-location-pronto vs personal-recognizance issue is basically being abstracted out to require it now being a policy-level decision. Just letting Mt Hood go fallow for a year or more would be good for it, and let folk take a breath. People really dedicated to it would be forced to do something about the situation. It's such a difficult thing, because I hate being required (beyond safety measures such as sign in/sign out) to do anything different in climbing, but Hood is an exception just because of the vast numbers of folk on it.
Countdown to Dissertation submission: 18 days