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Best practices for dealing with human waste in the great outdoors

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76 points rntn | 1 comments | 31 Aug 25 19:48 UTC | HN request time: 0.204s | source
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benjbrooks ◴[01 Sep 25 02:25 UTC] No.45088873[source]▶
I summited Mt Whitney last fall, a trail that 1) is notoriously hard to get a permit for and 2) requires all waste to be packed out via Wag Bags.

I was surprised to see a dozen or so wag bags tossed to the side of the trail over the course of my trip. You’d think that visitors would either poop on the ground with no regard for others or pack out their waste, not take all the effort to bring the bag but leave the remnants. It really left a sour taste in my mouth (and smell in my nostrils).

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1. kyralis ◴[01 Sep 25 03:12 UTC] No.45089102[source]▶
The portal side of Whitney is a sad sight. I ended a week-long trip there years ago, and the difference between the backcountry side by Guitar Lake and the portal side in terms of human impact and trash was somewhat horrifying. And it's not like Guitar Lake is unpopular - the line of headlamps climbing the path up before the sun comes up attests to that.