2010 Conference – Sustainable Summits Initiative

Use the list at the right to navigate to presentations, slides, and posters by category. ==>

The original Sustainable Summits Conference was called “Exit Strategies: Managing Human Waste in the Wild” and was hosted by the American Alpine Club (AAC) at the American Mountaineering Center in Golden, Colorado.

The AAC and a select group of nonprofits and government agencies teamed up to host an international conference on managing human waste in wilderness settings. The three-day “Exit Strategies” meeting was held at the American Mountaineering Center and Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, July 30 to August 1, 2010. The Exit Strategies conference brought together 100 land managers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and students to discuss strategies for dealing effectively with human waste, including existing solutions and innovative proposals alike. Presenters included land managers and scientists from the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Nepal.

In addition to the AAC, the event’s sponsors included the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Public Health Service, Access Fund, Alpine Club of Canada, and Leave No Trace. The AAC has a long history of cooperation with land managers in developing human-waste solutions. In 2001, an AAC grant helped launch the Clean Mountain Cans program in Denali National Park. The club was also instrumental in developing carry-it-out waste programs for Indian Creek and Castle Valley in Utah, and in building and maintaining a composting toilet in the popular Ishinca Valley of Peru.

The Exit Strategies chairs were Roger Robinson and Ellen Lapham.

The conference schedule with direct links to presentations are below. Use the list at the right to navigate to the presentations by category. ==>

Day 1 (30 July 2010):

Mike Mortimer
Conference Opening

Brenda Land
Backcountry Human Waste Systems – Pros and Cons

John Cocks & Tom Hopkins
Problems and Solutions in Remote Areas of New Zealand

Dr. Tomio Suzuki
Managing Human Waste in the Alpine Zones of Japan
Technologies used in Japan, including the SAT method.
Dr. Tomio Suzuki is a former special researcher for the Nagano Environmental Conservation Research Institute in Japan.

Joe Arnold
Solar Dehydrating Toilets in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Capt. John Leffel
Human Waste Disposal: A Public Health Perspective

Hawk Metheny
Batch-Bin Composting

Hawk Metheny
Moldering Composting

Adam French
The Ishinca Peace Toilet, Cordillera Blanca, Peru

Panel Discussion: Composting Human Waste

Ben Lawhon
Catholes

Michael Ells
Surface Disposal

Dawa Steven Sherpa
Human Waste Management in the Himalayas

Garry Oye
Mt. Whitney Case Study

Karen Rollins & Geoff Hill
Backcountry Black Water Management Options Analysis

Doug Whittaker
River Recreation and Human Waste Management