If new solar toilets were installed, the availability would probably be just like it was for the 30 some yrs that the old ones were in operation.
These are the toilets you told us were defective and didn't work. Were you mistaken then or now?
A modern design can easily hold the small use that occurs in the early and late season.
Is there new design you have not yet revealed? You have presented a design you claim works at a similar location. Let's look at what you have given us as the facts. The design used on Long's Peak must be closed to prevent mechanical damage in the winter and can't be successfully sealed against snow. It needs maintenance to remove the snow block before use begins in the summer.
Actual composting and evaporation would then catch up in the warm months exactly when the use also picks up.
The Longs Peak ranger reports that false expectations like this have lead to vandalism problems when the design limitations have forced winter closure.
For the few hearty climbers in the winter, this would be like any other place in the Sierras, you have to pack it out, the toilets might be buried in snow. No different than anywhere else.
"any other place in the Sierra" without Whitney's concentration of use doesn't require you to pack it out.
Dale B. Dalrymple
