Climbing fee increase proposed

I'm no climber & will never need or buy an annual climbing permit. I'd be offended to be charged money or cited for skiing in the places I've loved for over 35 years.  At the very least, they need to refine the language & loosen the requirement that requires buying a permit for travel "on any glacier".

Gary, I'm confused by your comments in this thread. A climbing permit has never been required to ski on the glaciers of the lower mountain (e.g. Paradise Glacier, Van Trump, Flett, Fryingpan, etc., below 10000 ft), and there is certainly no move afoot to change this. The MRNP climbing rangers' blog is clear about this: see mountrainierclimbingregistration.blogspo...mbing-pass-faqs.html , where it states that "A climbing pass is not required to walk up to high camps or ski/snowboard on the lower glaciers."

The current wording here matches the de facto situation over at least the last 14 years that I have observed. Many large groups such as the Mountaineers and Boealps hold glacier travel and crevasse rescue courses on the Nisqually Glacier, with full NPS approval, and they never have to pay the climbing fee. The fee is only required for travel above the high camps (Muir, Schurman, or Hazard) for summit attempts on Rainier, or for summit attempts on Little Tahoma.

That being said, I do think that the climbing fee increase to $50 is a disaster waiting to happen. I've heard about the increase coming for many months from friends in the climbing ranger corps, but yet it is still totally ill-conceived and so obviously not in anyone's best interests. The reason for this is very simple: it will cause a huge increase in the number of unregistered climbers attempting the mountain. Just like the unregistered climber/skier who died up there this June in a massive avalanche on the Ingraham Glacier. Do we really want to force more people to climb unregistered just because they can't afford or are unwilling to pay the climbing fee???

Among my own friends and acquaintances (which admittedly is a very biased sample, skewed towards those with exceptional climbing skills and outstanding fitness and not much extra money, while typically attempting one-day Rainier summits on skis), I would estimate that the percentage of unregistered climbs is already much greater than 30%. Increasing the fee to $50 will only send this number skyrocketing well past 50%, maybe even to 70-80%. Does the NPS really want to force people to climb without registering, for economic reasons alone? This just increases the workload and hazard for the climbing rangers, who have enough to deal with already as it is.

If there is a public comment period on the fee increase, I'll try to make sure that this issue (that higher fees cause more unregistered climbing) is addressed and noted.

A climbing permit has never been required to ski on the glaciers of the lower mountain (e.g. Paradise Glacier, Van Trump, Flett, Fryingpan, etc., below 10000 ft), and there is certainly no move afoot to change this.

As always Amar, thanks for the education.  I don't frequent the ranger's blog & took the park webpage literally.  Seems to me they should clarify it.  Not being a climber, I didn't realize so many were unregistered.  Great point!

Uberuaga attempting to either avoid entirely or minimalize the importance of public debate over his ruling is what gets up my nose.

Same old shit. He does whatever he thinks he can get away with or what he feels like doing. In our park.

Amar while the glacier fee is currently not enforced the park's offical policy via the .gov website (rather than the informal blog) is.

A Climbing Pass is required for all who plan to travel above 10,000 feet or onto any glaciers

I know folks who've been hassled on the lower Nisq about passes.

Uberuaga, I just realized can be rearranged to =

Uber Agua:
Uber= above, over, hyper, super.
Agua= Spanish for water.

so substitute urine for water= Super Urine and he's a superintendent.!
OMG I don't know what this means but I think it's profound.

Super Urine's a dick and should be fired for many reasons.

Urea Bug.

Is quite apt too.