Coming to Rainier?

Ok bear poles: easy to use, about the simplest design ever.

They are a huge piece of rebar essentially. They have a divot in the ground, set in concrete that the pole goes into in summer time (one person can set it up if you beat the rangers there as the snow melts). At the top is 4 smaller bars of rebar. Think a sparse X-Mas tree. The rangers set the pole up in summer and take it down after the first hard snows.

Said pole comes with a second metal pole. You put your stuff sack's handle on it and use the pole to hang your bag up on the rebar bars. And that is all you do.

Done. Simple. I am 5'4" and the bear poles at Rainier are made for shorties <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Compared to the bear wires in ONP they are a dream - and need little arm strength (all you need is to be able to lift the second pole)

Btw, every backcountry camp at Rainier has one in camp. You can fit a ton on these poles.