Trips Reports - Herd Mentality

This angst about crowds in the backcountry I find alternately humorous, silly and irritating.

This is tongue in cheek, but only partially. Let's petition Marcus to create a new "Conditions Report" category for posting of conditions. Leaving the "Trip Reports" for those who actually wish to share more detailed information.

There is an expression that NYC apartment dwellers use that applies: Sometimes it isn't enough just to stand by your window in the dark with your binoculars ..sometimes you need to give a little window in return.

I find the "conditions only in a general geographic area" style of report to be VERY, VERY annoying. I try not to read them, but I'm a TAY addict and so I read anyway and get even more annoyed. I wish these general style reports could be banned, but if we take the 18th amendent as an example, the demand for conditions only reports may go up if they are banned. And only gangsters will write reports....such as Alecapone.

After reading the report entitled, "North of stevens pass", I thought to myself that Alaska is north of stevens pass and wanted to write a report such as the following....

Title: Some day during the year, South of the North pole.
Description: I ran into a TAY herd while TAY-ing.

So there you have it. Some of us very much appreciate the "conditions only" style reports (though even I like to have a bit more location info than "somewhere north of Mexico..." and would note that often these types of reports given a pretty clear region along with aspect and general elevation ranges), and some find them annoying. I've noticed that these style reports usually have a title that is clear enough about what's in the report that those who don't care for these reports can skip them, so hopefully those on the annoyed end of the scale can learn to live with them, particularly given that some of your fellow community members in fact find these reports to be useful.

Again, I've not seen anyone on this thread suggest dialing back of other types of reports.

But now I'm eager to see some original and detailed reports coming in from the folks who want to see more not less in reports!! You know who you are...  (putting it another way - I'll take comments about sparse TRs more seriously when they come from someone like John or Randy from whom I've actually seen relatively regular and detailed TRs being posted)

A RedruM of Tayers!

So, if one person posts a good trip report with details on the location of a beginner friendly tour on Friday, then everyone who no idea of where to go on Saturday wanting that type of tour will be likely to go to that location.

What if there were trip reports for 5 good locations? Would the crowds spread out some?

What if there were NO trip reports at all? Someone might write another book (and actually profit off of it)!

For the beginner/intermediate people out there, time limited people or people just wanting something simple, there really are only so many places within a reasonable location. For people just starting out, a well traveled area is actually a good thing.

For the people with more time, more experienced, more willing/able to be seriously committed to an objective, etc, the options are a lot wider, and it seems like those are the people complaining about trip reports?

In the winter, will find me around Artist Point, or Skyline Ridge because mostly, unless someone more experienced is willing to take me somewhere new, I am most comfortable going where I have been before. Hopefully, my list will continue to expand. Comfort level increases in the spring, but I usually look back a few years when I am trying to find a trip idea from trip reports, and usually, I already have the location in mind, and I am looking for more information.

Where I go actually has little to do with the trip reports, unless one place appears to have better conditions, which I would be smart enough to glean from conditions only reports.

Where I go is more directly related to where people have taken me in the past.