Whitney scoop

The increasing number of hikers on the Whitney Trail has created another mountain of a quite awkward sort: human waste. To keep it from rising to fourteener status, the U.S. Forest Service has issued a proposal for a radical solution to the dilemma. Pack it out. The plan would yank out existing solar toilets from the trail and require every trekker to use a kit provided at the trailhead to keep their business from polluting the area (see Outdoors, Oct. 14, 2003, “Rock and Risk”).

“Share the load,” says Gary Oye, district ranger for the southern half of the Inyo National Forest, whose territory includes the Mt. Whitney Trail. Pack-it-out policies are in force at Mt. Rainier, Mt. Shasta and Grand Teton National Park.

The Forest Service wants you to port your own potty because it’s expensive and hazardous to airlift out 4,500 pounds of human waste each year from very high altitudes: Trail Camp, at 12,000 feet the last camping area before the summit, and Outpost Camp, at 10,300 feet. The 20-year-old toilets need replacing. Helicopters must haul out 150-gallon bin liners of waste after a solar drying process at the end of the season. Wilderness rangers, who service the toilets four times a week, must hand-carry barrels of waste to the drying area. If the toilets malfunction, as has been known to happen, they are closed, and hikers must dig cat-holes.

The proposal would appear to be the logical end of the “leave no trace” ethic, but for some it goes too far. “I have done that trail four times, and I have seen most people unprepared in all areas -- physically, mentally, equipment-wise,” says hiker Melanie Hanusova. “They usually don’t have enough water, food or proper clothes, and they think that they will carry plastic bags and shovels? Most people get so tired that they care less where they crap. They should not remove those solar toilets. I am sorry, but we humans are mostly pigs.”

The Forest Service is making some concessions to public sensibilities by adding drying chemicals to the kit’s waste bags, to start the desiccation, and an odor neutralizer. But will this be enough to overcome an aversion to scooping up after ourselves?

“There’s no difference between what a big dog does and what a human does,” says Russell Deutsch, president of Portland, Maine-based Doggie Bags, a company that seems well-positioned for a potential breakout in hiker scooper equipment. “Our bags are designed to handle big dogs.”

Some hikers would be open to giving it a try. “I’d be willing to cope with a mandatory pack-it-out policy,” says James White, who wants to summit Whitney. “But I’d sure like to hear about other options.”

The pack-out approach is the Forest Service’s preferred solution, but four others also have been presented to the public for comment as part of its environmental assessment:

* Replace the old solar toilets.

* Use the same system.

* Build one new toilet at Outpost Camp and remove the toilets at Trail Camp, making pack-out mandatory from the high camp.

* Create a designated campsite system and reduce the number of campers from 60 a day to 25.

The Forest Service is asking for a “spirited discussion” of the options. It may get just that.

The Forest Service wants hikers to contribute to the Whitney solution by providing feedback to the online environmental assessment, posted at www.fs.fed.us/r5/inyo. Public comments must be postmarked no later than Feb. 4. Write to Gary Oye, District Ranger, White Mountain Ranger Station, 798 N. Main St., Bishop, CA 93514, or e-mail Oye at comments-pacificsouthwest-inyo@fs.fed.us.