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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Feb 12, 2010 - 11:55am PT
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john muir's yosemite did not have this many people tho.
Neither did his America.
His Valley did have loggers, sheep, a sawmill, a hotel at Vernal Falls, and a via ferrata up Half Dome. Or it did once the government and squatters had forcibly removed most of the Indians.
It's a double bind-- tourism is almost as hard on beautiful areas as logging or mining might be. But without tourism, you can't maintain public support for the very idea of a National Park System.
Would I prefer a pristine Valley? Of course. I hardly see the place anymore because i don't want to deal with the urban environment. But the popularity of the area helps to keep National Parks popular, and it keeps the crowds out of other parts of the Sierra.
Americans haven't yet reconciled themselves to the difficulties they are facing with visitor management. We're ending up with the worst of both worlds: The big crowds AND an endless series of legal and bureaucratic civil wars to try and maintain the fiction that the Valley floor and popular trails are "wilderness."
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truclimber
Trad climber
Nevada/Washington
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Apr 13, 2010 - 10:47pm PT
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I wonder how many people will find out about the death slabs?
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Apr 14, 2010 - 12:25am PT
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What cragnshag says is spot on and the only solution is to defund, seriously restrict the money, that the NPS sucks out of us. Fire a bunch of workers and get the ones that remain back to working for us.
Sure, people will still die on half dome, and they will with the permit system as well, but it's all about control. One step at a time they take take take. I'm tired of it, lets defund the bastards and start becoming a free people again. With freedom comes responsibility though. You chose to hike up half dome in the snow, tough titty if it don't work out for you.
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