A summit book or summit register is a record of visitors to the summit of a mountain. It is usually enclosed in a weatherproof, animal-proof metal casing. Some books 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 Peak bagging or hill bagging is an activity in which Hiking, hikers, climbing, climbers, and Mountaineering, mountaineers attempt to reach a collection of summits, published in the form of a list. This activity has been popularized around the world ...

lists, are more likely to have summit books. On the other hand, mountains which are very heavily climbed or have popular trails up, such as Mount Whitney or

Ben Nevis Ben Nevis ( ; , ) is the highest mountain in Scotland, the United Kingdom, and the British Isles. Ben Nevis stands at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Highland region of Lochaber, close to the town of Fort William. The mount ...

, may not have registers, or may have a daily logbook that is changed out often. The

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...

places official registers on many mountains throughout

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, typically small notebooks put inside large, metal boxes. When the registers are filled up, these are collected and stored in the

Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library is the primary special-collections library of the University of California, Berkeley. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retain the name Bancroft Library in perpetuity. ...

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

where they are available for viewing. Entries in a summit book vary in format, 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 books contain a record of climbs going back many years. On infrequently climbed peaks, this record may exist in one volume at the peak itself, while more popular peaks have well-maintained registers spread over across many volumes, with all except the current one with a keeper or the club.

Bibliography

* Òscar Masó García: ''Libros de cima. A History of Passion and Conquest.'' Madrid 2018, Desnivel Editions,

References

External links

Gallery of historical summit registers of the Association of Palatine Climbers
Mountaineering Records management {{Climbing-stub