People are stacking too many stones

It seems like some people would argue that burning a gallon of gas to get to the crag is just as bad as lighting a gallon of gas on fire.

David Kerkeslager wrote:
We can argue about the relative "necessary-ness" of cairns for trail marking versus cairns for art, but the fact is, neither is necessary,

I take it you've never on Mt. Washington in a whiteout?

Victor K wrote:

I think you were supposed to turn left here.

What can I say, I’ve contributed to this pile a few times... 

You should only be buidling cairns if you are officially part of a trail crew that is trying to mitigate erosion and needless trail braids.  Other than that your just trying to leave a mark that you were there as far as im concerned.  If its not a sensitive area that cant handle the masses i knock em over.  If my dumb ass can navigate using tools that dont alter the landscape so can you.

Edit:  This is my view now that i spend 99% of my time in Grand Teton National Park.  When i lived back east i totally understood the marking of official trails with blazes and cairns above tree line ( like Mt. Washington).  Two totally differant landscapes though.  In GTNP it really bugs me to find a cairn in a place that has no official trail.  I dont need someone else marking the way for me, thanks but no thanks

I’m a Level III Cairn Setter, and I have to say that the amateur hour of navigational stonemasonship I’ve been seeing out there is probably the largest problem ever.

Hobo Greg wrote:

Again, you are wrong. One of the places I worked trails and was trained this way was the Adirondacks!!

Thank you for your work, but unless you're claiming that everyone I've seen tossing rocks on these cairns are trained trail-builders, it's a fairly moot point. I'm referring to the cairns I've seen built by random hikers, not ones done by pros.

You’re trying to backpedal after making a ridiculous claim. Yes, I do agree that random hikers making navigational cairns are just as unaware as the artists, but that’s not the original point you made.

Actually, that's exactly the point I was trying to make. I admit I should have been clearer that I was talking about trail cairns built by random hikers--I didn't intend what I said to be an attack on your trail work. And when you brought up that some people build cairns in an ecologically sound way, I said that I thought that was okay.

Then again, you said: "There’s a huge difference between cairns used to mark trails and the social media inspired stone stacks that the article is referencing." You could have been clearer that you were specifically talking about trail cairns built by informed trail builders. I COULD argue that your original point was that all trail cairns are good, even the ones built by random hikers, and you're only bringing up ecologically sound practices to backpedal. But that would be rude and pointless. Maybe we can agree that allowing people to clarify when they aren't clear initially is a nicer way to have conversations.

But hey, I'm sure you know what my opinion is better than I do. Don't let anything I say get in the way of what you've decided my opinion is. ;)

I'm unsubscribing from this thread. People's blood pressure is just too high at this point for anything productive to happen.

John Clark wrote:

Yeah, Blazes are great, but you are still slapping paint on trees....

And the negative ecological effects are....

Saw this on the door of a latrine at a national park a while back  

People think this is really cool. It's a thing, bros.

Release the dam!

I don't see the big deal? What is the environmental impact exactly? 

I would say there are enough stones to go around.

I call this The Leaning Tower of Urdadalstinden. They do it better in the old world.

Tim Stich wrote: People think this is really cool. It's a thing, bros.

#drilledstacks