Accuracy in reporting

I was showing some online videos of climbing/skiing trips on Mr. Rainier to my son today.  I was reminded of something that always bothered me a bit.  It’s common for many people to reach the south crater rim of Mt. Rainier and call it good.  I know many of the guide services do just that with their clients, even to ones who pay full price to “summit” the mountain.   This then reminded me of a recent post here.  As a wise man once said “If you turn around short of an objective, please say so ….   But claiming that you reached an objective when you did not in fact do so …is just not right”

That sounds pretty simple to me.  While reaching the crater rim of Mt. Rainier is no easy task and I fully understand saying “screw it, close enough,” it’s not the top!   Unless you’ve slogged across the crater, past the register and up to the tippy-top, you haven’t truly climbed Mt. Rainier.

Are there any other mountains out there where it’s acceptable to lie about reaching the top or is Mt. Rainier unique? (I might have to rethink the list of mountains I’ve climbed.)

I've read about many guides with impressive numbers of summits of Mt Rainier, but I’ve never seen an asterisks after those numbers.

What do you think?
(sorry about any spelling mistakes)

Is 99.99 the same as 100.00? It depends on the tolerance used.

I find it pretty impressive when people forgo a summit because it's not part of the ski descent, it's a waste of time, or they simply don't need it.

I was showing some online videos of climbing/skiing trips on Mr. Rainier to my son today.  I was reminded of something that always bothered me a bit.  It’s common for many people to reach the south crater rim of Mt. Rainier and call it good.  I know many of the guide services do just that with their clients, even to ones who pay full price to “summit” the mountain.   This then reminded me of a recent post here.  As a wise man once said “If you turn around short of an objective, please say so ….   But claiming that you reached an objective when you did not in fact do so …is just not right”

That sounds pretty simple to me.  While reaching the crater rim of Mt. Rainier is no easy task and I fully understand saying “screw it, close enough,” it’s not the top!   Unless you’ve slogged across the crater, past the register and up to the tippy-top, you haven’t truly climbed Mt. Rainier.

Are there any other mountains out there where it’s acceptable to lie about reaching the top or is Mt. Rainier unique? (I might have to rethink the list of mountains I’ve climbed.)

I've read about many guides with impressive numbers of summits of Mt Rainier, but I’ve never seen an asterisks after those numbers.

What do you think?
(sorry about any spelling mistakes)

Are you being a bit "picky".

I'll tell people that I have climbed St. Helens when I actually only made it to the rim.  My wife was waiting back in camp and it wasn't worth taking the time to hike over to the true summit for the same view but only 200ft higher.

I find it pretty impressive when people forgo a summit because it's not part of the ski descent, it's a waste of time, or they simply don't need it.

Call me a traditionalist. When I'm ski mountaineering, I'm mountaineering. For me, skipping the summit because it's not part of the ski descent is like skipping the main course of a meal.