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Toilet Design at Longs Peak, RMNP Wins Architecture Award
#55910 08/09/19 07:37 AM
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The folks at Rocky Mountain NP teamed up with Toilet Tech and then brought in University of Colorado Denver’s College of Architecture and Planning to create an innovative solution to human waste management on the Long's Peak trail. They've managed to keep multiple toilets working there successfully for decades, and this is their latest system. This trail is very similar to Whitney in terms of heavy usage, high elevation, and harsh weather (more so than SoCal). The result - the annual "Small Projects Award" from the American Institute of Architects.

Simplicity is the key. This toilet is located at higher elevation (12,760 ft) than the one that was removed from Trail Camp, so there's no technical reason why it can't be done on Whitney.

This doesn't mean you can't use a wag bag even if there are toilets, that's how its done at almost every high-use remote trail out there. Whitney is the unique special case experiment where wag bags are the only option, no toilets. And Whitney is the one with the most complaints, by far.

Congratulations to everyone involved in this innovative project, you're advancing effective solutions to a very challenging problem!

Long's Peak Toilet Wins AIA Award





Last edited by SierraNevada; 08/09/19 07:40 AM.
Re: Toilet Design at Longs Peak, RMNP Wins Architecture Award
SierraNevada #55912 08/09/19 08:20 AM
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I love the steel rods and stacked stone walls. No concrete to fail in the harsh freeze-thaw cycles.

...and nobody can tear them down like vandals did to the summit toilet walls years ago.

No crazy ranger can burn it down, either. wink

Re: Toilet Design at Longs Peak, RMNP Wins Architecture Award
SierraNevada #55916 08/09/19 12:36 PM
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Definitely a nominee for Scenic Toilets award!!

Re: Toilet Design at Longs Peak, RMNP Wins Architecture Award
Kascadia #55917 08/09/19 04:43 PM
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Never thought I'd enjoy seeing a thread about a toilet, but here we are and damned if it doesn't deserve that award.

Re: Toilet Design at Longs Peak, RMNP Wins Architecture Award
sumptimwong #55924 08/10/19 04:18 PM
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Pretty cool..though looks like it will get pretty drafty eek

Re: Toilet Design at Longs Peak, RMNP Wins Architecture Award
nyker #55926 08/10/19 06:04 PM
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Originally Posted By: nyker
Pretty cool..though looks like it will get pretty drafty eek


At least the stink won't get trapped by a ceiling. smile

Re: Toilet Design at Longs Peak, RMNP Wins Architecture Award
SierraNevada #56598 12/15/19 11:03 AM
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Is the area around Mt Whitney designated as a wilderness area? Otherwise I do not see why they don't build something similar. It seems the WAG bags have not been a success. I'm guessing that for some reason it was deemed that pit toilets were an eyesore, hence they didn't want them. So now instead, bags of excrement are left all over the place. This is considered somehow better than the occasional sighting of a pit toilet? I'm all for protecting wilderness (if this is in fact a wilderness area) but the WAG bags are not the definition of protecting it, imo.

I think at a minimum they need to have containers for people to discard their WAG bags. Pay a contractor to haul them out periodically.

Re: Toilet Design at Longs Peak, RMNP Wins Architecture Award
Matt W #56599 12/16/19 02:10 PM
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East of the Sierra Crest (ie outside Sequoia National Park), the Whitney Trail passes through John Muir Wilderness. But given that there was a toilet at Trail Camp in the past, I don’t think there are any regulations that bar having a restroom in a wilderness area. With this said, I don’t think that unsightliness was ever the reason for removal of the solar latrine. Rather, from what I have heard, the bigger issue was the trouble and expense of maintaining it. Simply put, they were cheap. And it is for this reason (more than any other) that it is unlikely that you will see either a new toilet or a better system for wag bag collection any time in the future.

Re: Toilet Design at Longs Peak, RMNP Wins Architecture Award
StorminMatt #56657 02/09/20 09:59 PM
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FYI, The toilet shown in the picture is not the toilet at 12,760 ft in the Boulder Field.
If it were, then Longs Pk (in the right background) would be considerably higher than Mt.Whitney.

Re: Toilet Design at Longs Peak, RMNP Wins Architecture Award
John E #56713 02/26/20 05:09 PM
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Looks like it's at Chasm Junction (overlooking Peacock Pool with Mt. Lady Washington rising to the right).

Last edited by ariel; 02/26/20 05:12 PM.

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