On our 1981 Ptarmigan Traverse, Kim Colis and I climbed Sentinel by carefully working our way up the chossy west side. The weather was threatening. On top were a heavy ground rod, an angle iron piece and a heavy wall aluminum tube sticking up... the latter used presumably to mount the cameras or theodolites being used by the USGS to monitor the South Cascades Glacier. It appeared that the rods and tubes attracted quite a bit of lightning as the summit area consisted mainly of shattered rocks. The contents of the brass Mountaineers register were quite interesting. After noting that most of the entries mention beautiful weather (as compared to us) I copied a number of the entries as listed below...

Aug 3 '88
Ken Ohlsen, Glacier
Ed Bressler, Castle Rock
Harte Bressler, B'ham
Ptarmigan 50th Anniv Climb
for Dad (Tup) Calder Bressler

8/21/86
Dean Kurath, Richland, WA
Dome Yesterday Here Today
Dana Glacier was a bitch!

Aug 23 '84
Joe Pepitone NY Yankees
Norm Hodges
Whitey Ford
Brown Bombers Alpine Club

There were about 38 entries in the small ledger with not much room for more entries so I left a few pages from my notebook. I found the Bressler entry fascinating because that party had been on Sentinel only two weeks ahead of us. As to the Brown Bomber A C... Does anyone know if this entry is for real? I have seen a Whitey Ford entry similar to this one in a couple of other registers in the Cascades.

After leaving the summit I regret not having taken a picture of these entries.

On my solo visit in 1991 I was really looking forward to getting some photographs of those notable entries. Coming to Sentinel from White Rock Lakes to the south I decided to climb Sentinel by a different route on this trip - the south ridge. The rock on this route was much more solid than the west face route used in 1988. There were some minor problems with pinnacles and a small cliff band but I was soon on the summit. Now where is that summit register? Then I spot it... It looks like someone has taken a cutting torch to it and one of the end caps is missing... as are the contents. So my plan to take some pictures of those enigmatic entries is thwarted. They were apparently blasted to smithereens by a lightning bolt. I am disappointed but also amazed at the condition of the heavy register. Take it with me to show people? No, too heavy... just take a picture.