Packing out Human Waste

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Urban Snowshoer
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Packing out Human Waste

Post by Urban Snowshoer »

From the Denver Post:

https://www.denverpost.com/2022/05/20/c ... ste-parks/

Packing out human waste has been standard practice in rafting and glacier climbing for awhile.

Encouraging (or requiring) it was probably bound to happen in some of the higher use areas sooner or later.
Codyhill1991
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Re: Packing out Human Waste

Post by Codyhill1991 »

I think I remember seeing a sign near S Colony lakes TH almost 2 years ago requiring it in that area. I think there were wag bags provided? I don't remember, maybe it was a different area but it was somewhere in CO.

I have no problem with doing this and have always carried wag bags for above treeline. My problem is only in knowing that people are inevitably going to do what they do with dog poop bags - s**t in a wag bag and then tie it up and toss it behind a rock and leave it there. I saw 5 or 6 on the descent from Whitney. If you can't manage to do things right then just do it the old way rather than just adding plastic to the wilderness.
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Re: Packing out Human Waste

Post by cottonmountaineering »

A good first step would be to have a pit toilet at every major 14er trailhead
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Re: Packing out Human Waste

Post by Skimo95 »

Last year was the only time I’ve ever been to upper south colony lake. There was a group of 4-6 punks who camped by it the night prior. As they were scattering like ants due to a rain storm, they left several FEET of used toilet paper in the willows not even 50yds from the lake. I’m all for setting fees IF we can use them toward putting “boots on the ground”. If we can find a way to pay our rangers better, and to have more, it might eliminate the people who shouldn’t even be up there. Just my 2 cents in a perfect world
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Re: Packing out Human Waste

Post by Urban Snowshoer »

Skimo95 wrote: Sat May 21, 2022 10:39 am Last year was the only time I’ve ever been to upper south colony lake. There was a group of 4-6 punks who camped by it the night prior. As they were scattering like ants due to a rain storm, they left several FEET of used toilet paper in the willows not even 50yds from the lake. I’m all for setting fees IF we can use them toward putting “boots on the ground”. If we can find a way to pay our rangers better, and to have more, it might eliminate the people who shouldn’t even be up there. Just my 2 cents in a perfect world
Fees for the sake of reducing usage is a horrible idea, which reduce support for public lands; however, I can live with fees if they're reasonable and go to something useful like enforcement.

The issue isn't just paying rangers better but the sheer amount of land that needs to be enforced versus the number of rangers available to police it. To adequately enforce every areas, you'd either have to relatively high fees, which reduces support for public lands, or get a lot more money from Congress.
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Re: Packing out Human Waste

Post by uwe »

Packing it out is a good call. Will be a long time before it is widely adopted.
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Re: Packing out Human Waste

Post by pvnisher »

So people don't just hold it until they get to Buena Vista?
Crazy.
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two lunches
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Re: Packing out Human Waste

Post by two lunches »

Skimo95 wrote: Sat May 21, 2022 10:39 am Last year was the only time I’ve ever been to upper south colony lake. There was a group of 4-6 punks who camped by it the night prior. As they were scattering like ants due to a rain storm, they left several FEET of used toilet paper in the willows not even 50yds from the lake. I’m all for setting fees IF we can use them toward putting “boots on the ground”. If we can find a way to pay our rangers better, and to have more, it might eliminate the people who shouldn’t even be up there. Just my 2 cents in a perfect world
=D> =D> =D>
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Re: Packing out Human Waste

Post by Dayute »

I usually take immodium when heading into the backcountry to keep the wag bag numbers down. Nothing worse than an explosive liquid BM above treeline when others are around. Also pays to be careful where you step around trailheads with no facilities.
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Cide
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Re: Packing out Human Waste

Post by Cide »

Never had an opportunity to tell this excerpt from the story of my life but I did Tabeguache via the west ridge. I completed it and got back to the "trailhead". A couple had passed me as I descended and their vehicle was next to my motorcycle. I doffed my gear and donned my moto gear. I decided to sit on a rock but I needed to move it slightly to get a better sit-feel. It had a pretty fresh human dump under it and in the summer heat the smell washed over me and I came close to ralphin' in my moto helmet.

Don't take TH dumps on the ground and place a rock on it. It's rude and you were probably raised better than that.
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Re: Packing out Human Waste

Post by 9patrickmurphy »

Dayute wrote: Mon May 23, 2022 8:09 am I usually take immodium when heading into the backcountry to keep the wag bag numbers down. Nothing worse than an explosive liquid BM above treeline when others are around. Also pays to be careful where you step around trailheads with no facilities.
A neat idea, I might give that a go.

I keep saying that if I could have one superpower, it would be never having to #2 again. Absolutely the worst part about having a body, IMO.
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rijaca
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Re: Packing out Human Waste

Post by rijaca »

9patrickmurphy wrote: Tue May 24, 2022 7:56 am

I keep saying that if I could have one superpower, it would be never having to #2 again. Absolutely the worst part about having a body, IMO.
Beats the alternative….

https://www.ostomy.org/what-is-an-ostomy/
"A couple more shots of whiskey,
the women 'round here start looking good"
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