Stay on the Trail! Preserve the Mountain?

[Mitsugi]

When I was hiking Holy Cross last Saturday many of the switchbacks on the way up to the Notch Mtn shelter were obstructed by snow and difficult to follow as a result. So my girlfriend and I basically said "f it" and we started going straight up the mountain. Makes sense to me. I'm not going to walk through a snow field simply to follow the switchback. These goons further up the mountain kept yelling at us to "follow the trail". I asked a couple others and they said "that's some people for you." Mountain preservation and what not.

I do find it annoying to be picked at like that while hiking a trail but is there some unwritten rule against drastically shortening my distance by straight lining it? I understand the merit of staying on course but if I look up a mountainside and see 40 switchbacks in it above me and I can go straight up, and I'm physically able, is this frowned upon?

Rules about preserving the mountain?

[Ptglhs]

I'm thinking Bill was right about the troll comment. I don't think you'll take as much s**t for this post as your Alltrails comment; this one is just too obviously an attempt to be incendiary.

[Mitsugi]

*sigh* I am not trolling. Do you really think a person who just moved to Colorado knows all these rules? "Day one stuff" is probably an accurate description for most questions I am asking, which is why I put it in the beginner forum area.

So why is it frowned upon?

[Scott P]

*sigh* I am not trolling. Do you really think a person who just moved to Colorado knows all these rules?

Only if he or she isn't a dumbass.

I suspect that Mitsugi is also dontbugme.

Both are dumbass trolls. If they weren't trolling, that would even make them more dumbass, but no one could really be that stupid could they?

[Cygnus X1]

So why is it frowned upon?

Asked and answered

[Ptglhs]

Asking if you shouldn't cut switchbacks and should stay on the trail is like asking if it's okay to drive the wrong way on the interstate.

[RyGuy]

When I was hiking Holy Cross last Saturday many of the switchbacks on the way up to the Notch Mtn shelter were obstructed by snow and difficult to follow as a result. So my girlfriend and I basically said "f it" and we started going straight up the mountain. Makes sense to me. I'm not going to walk through a snow field simply to follow the switchback. These goons further up the mountain kept yelling at us to "follow the trail". I asked a couple others and they said "that's some people for you." Mountain preservation and what not.

I do find it annoying to be picked at like that while hiking a trail but is there some unwritten rule against drastically shortening my distance by straight lining it? I understand the merit of staying on course but if I look up a mountainside and see 40 switchbacks in it above me and I can go straight up, and I'm physically able, is this frowned upon?

Rules about preserving the mountain?

It causes erosion and will eventually destroy the hillside. Will one person by themselves do it? No. But after a few people do the same thing, a visible trail is formed. More people then see this faint trail and follow it. Soon everyone is following it, and it's a full blown trail. Because it's pretty straight up and down, it will now act as a natural funnel for water during rain and snow melt, which further erodes the trail deeper into the ground. Now people don't want to walk in the deep rut, so they start a new trail alongside the older one, and the process begins again. Example:


CFI and other trailwork organizations spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of man hours to help preserve and protect the fragile tundra environment as well as build trails that are resistant to erosion from runoff.

Please:

[Mitsugi]

Another question would be. Why is a new member on a forum, a new person to Colorado, being roasted and flamed for posting a newbie question in the "Info for 14ers Beginners" forum?

It's not a very welcoming vibe. Just saying. This isn't 4chan.

[nunns]

Whether Mitsugi is a troll or not, we need posts like this for entertainment. Especially since highpilgrim hasn't posted on here in several months that I know of.
Mitsugi, if you're not a troll (I give you the benefit of the doubt), don't cut switchbacks. I am not a hyper-environmentalist, but it can turn the whole side of a mountain into a scree-fest (see RyGuy's example above).
The only exception might be in a boulder field with only large boulders, but then again there isn't much of a trail in that situation anyway.

Sean Nunn

[Mitsugi]

It causes erosion and will eventually destroy the hillside. Will one person by themselves do it? No. But after a few people do the same thing, a visible trail is formed. More people then see this faint trail and follow it. Soon everyone is following it, and it's a full blown trail. Because it's pretty straight up and down, it will now act as a natural funnel for water during rain and snow melt, which further erodes the trail deeper into the ground.
[/quote]

Thank you very kindly. This was all that was needed.

[Bill G]

All trails cause erosion. Just because VOC or CFI constructs them doesn't make them "resistant". Nobody is an expert in trail building. We learn from our mistakes over time. We incorporate that knowledge into future projects.

As others have mentioned the goal is to create a sustainable trail. On the one hand the argument is pretty funny, the youngsters telling the geezers they're doing it wrong. In the early days you followed game trails to where you wanted to go. Eventually you had numerous social trails. Especially with the 14ers there was the acknowledgment that there was no way to stop the influx of people to the state and the desire to climb these selective peaks. That's where CFI came to life with the desire to keep people on the trail.

The goal was to create a trail that was preferable to social trails. We blocked a lot of those paths. The boardwalk at Bierdstat is a classic example, would you really prefer the willows? At the end of the day it's HYOH. For those of us who constructed the trail, our preference is that you stay on the trail.There is no rule against it.
Play nice!

[boudreaux]

I have no problem with anyone taking a straight line up to the summit providing the trail is covered in snow. The trail is buried, you are not breaking LNT rules. In time this temporary trail, and I mean temporary, will melt out revealing the standard trail that you should follow. I was just on Crestone Needle, we did this very thing without any quilt whatsoever!