Summit register

A register book can be found on many mountain peaks, especially in the Alps and on some rock climbing. The summit book fulfills the function of a guest book for the particular mountain or rock. In general, it is stored in a weatherproof shell. On the Alpine peaks provided with a rainproof cover sheet box is often mounted on the cross on the summit, where the summit register is located. On via ferrata is called, by analogy, from the climbing book, climbing walls from the wall book (see also Hut Book).

In some books, the summit of the first ascent route and the names and paths of the individual climber is held. More often, however, one meets on a simple notebook, in which each Gipfelstürmer can perpetuate. Most entries in the summit manuals indicate the date of the ascent, the weather and the mood of the climbers during the ascent. But you will also find humorous entries, poems or drawings in books Summit.

If a summit log is full then a new one is stored. Most often this is done by a person in charge of each mountain club or the host of the nearest mountain or lodging facility, or a private person.

Top books on climbing peaks there are, among others in the Saxon and Bohemian Switzerland, in the Zittau and in the Lusatian Mountains, Ore Mountains, in the resin and in the southern Palatinate region, all of which are provided with a summit log entries for the climbers. The top books of the Saxon Switzerland, for example, supervised by the Saxon climbers covenant, who keeps in its archives summit books dating back to the 1920s. With the exception of a humorous award for the first year, so the first ascent of the summit in a new year, there are entries that go beyond the date, name and path, frowned upon among the climbers. Nevertheless used prior to 1989, often climbing the summit books for critical and usually anonymous entries on the situation in the GDR. This even led to the fact that the Stasi dealt with the top books. An example of such a sentence is the following:

"From the Baltic to Saxony - no mountain is dear to us. From east to west - that we can not test "

In some cases, accurate records on travel, time and destination for mountain rescue of benefit and for that got into mountain rescue can be lifesaving. In exposed places in the alpine areas even the huts and chapel books this purpose meet.

Physical summit books and their containers are not without controversy and are sometimes stolen or destroyed. In the 1920s, there were extensive in the Saxon Switzerland Distances from summit books in contention for the social orientation of mountain sports between the bourgeois Saxon climbers federal government and the labor movement entstamme ligand United climbing department (MCA ) Friends of Nature.

With the proliferation of mobile smart phones, there are now virtual alternatives, which provide the local evidence using GPS chip in smartphones and only allow entries locally. And GPS devices with appropriate firmware can be used for this purpose. With such a digital summit book can be the theft workaround, are also entries on snow peaks possible, which have no physical Summit Books. The principle is similar to geocaching, the cache need not be specified.