I was able to sign the Black Kaweah register in August 1958. What a thrill to find Walter Starr Jr's signature, written in blood even! I spent a long time reading the ancient dated signatures with a virtual Whos Who of Sierra Nevada climbing history.
A friend of mine did the climb years later in 2005 and the register was still there and he too had the pleasure of reading a marvelous history of Black Kaweah climbs.
Recently in Colorado the forest service and the Colorado Mt Club have been removing the Brass cylinders that contain the summit registers. Many of us felt they were being stolen but the expressed reason for the removal was: they attract lightning and are dangerous. I found a beautiful Brass one at a garage sale and asked the person doing the sale the history of how it got in their garage. She said her son had brought one back as a trophy of his climb. I bought it and the next time I was in the Colorado Mt Club office in Golden, CO gave it to someone in the office that I knew. She told me actually that the kid did someone a service as it meant that no one would have to climb that peak and retrieve the Brass cylinder. Since the cylinders are numbered it was easy to identify which peak it had come from. It turned out that it was from a previous 14er Grizzly Peak that had been downgraded to only a high 13er 13,988' so the mt got its revenge on the kid = he didn't bag a 14er after all.
PVC tubes are widely used now and apparently lack the attraction as they seem to stay put on the summits.
