Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Wilderness poop

We all see the policy and know it doesn't work perfect, but in my opinion, when the time comes, "most" hikers use the wag bags. Some from pressure from their friends, some because they know it's the right thing. There certainly are way too many wag bags on the trail. I've seen as few as three and as many as 17 on one hike. The 17 were, as wbtravis pointed out, behind rocks.

Before my first hike of Mt Whitney, I told my buddy that he and his son would have to carry their poop. He said "are you kidding" and said he would just go without pooping and make sure he used the Portal facility before the hike. Well, as Whitney can do, his son actually had diarrhea, but my buddy told his son to use the wag bag. He also used his bag. I'm sure some of it came from KNOWING I told him it was what he was supposed to do. He still goes up with me and has no problem using the bags.

I was hiking with my buddy this weekend, and another friend of ours wants to hike Whitney. I told the guy that on Whitney, you have to carry your poop. He had the same look on his face and same reaction my first buddy had. The hiker who had had such a hard time with the rule (but followed it) on the first hike started telling our other friend how you need to be responsible with your poop on Mt Whitney.

The moral of the story is that a bit of peer pressure helps. I think the visitor center could do a better job of explaining the wag bags too. I know they tell you, but I think it would be helpful to stress how important the rules are, possibly explain mathematically in detail how many poops would be on the mountain if you didn't carry out, citations, etc.