Leave No Trace

In club trips, or even when we go to the backcountry just with friends, it is our first and foremost responsibility to leave no trace - leave the mountain exactly as you found it. This amounts to the following seven key principles:

• Plan Ahead and Prepare
• Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
• Dispose of Waste Properly
• Leave What You Find
• Minimize Campfire Impacts
• Respect Wildlife
• Be Considerate of Other Visitors

The Wikipedia page on Leave No Trace does a fair job of explaining these principles. Please read these and ask club officers if you have any questions.

Our mountains are beautiful and it is our responsibility to keep them that way.

We would also like to add some general tips for dealing with "shit" in the mountains:

• carry a wag bag or preferably two for longer trips
• if you don't have one, poop, place it under a rock which is unlikely to be picked up later, and definitely pack out your toilet paper
• do not leave wag bags outside tents - some birds can be very curious!
• if you see trash on-route, pick it up and place it in your pack. On even my "fastest" and "lightest" trips, I add the weight of trash to my pack and bring it down. You should do the same. It is not often that you have the opportunity to remove the only visible piece of garbage from an otherwise pristine scene!
• do not urinate on climbing routes