Panamintcity

[CottonballMarsh]

From my understanding from NPS, trailhound is correct. 
I’m not sure why Steve doesn’t have an account on here to clarify this stuff when it comes up.

He's always been into all the drama, and wanting lots of attention for everything.

I've known Steve for over 15 years now, and I'm aware based on email conversations with him that it's in part because of the drama that he's been avoiding a lot of public forums. I know it's easy for things to be miscommunicated and misunderstood, and TBH I've noticed that seems to happen a lot around Steve's reports and videos, so I reached out to Steve to ask if there's anything he'd like me to quote and post here for him.

He has created the drama.  Avoiding the forums is just him creating more drama.  He seemingly loves to draw attention to himself, both in his presence online, and then his absence.  If he simply acted like a normal human and just left everything alone, none of this drama would have happened.  But he couldn't resist promoting & hyping up his trip reports, and then taking it all away when he decided his own promotional activities had opened pandora's box. 
He might have the best of intentions, but the reality is that his behavior has caused everything that has happened, and he continues to poke the bear.

Alongside Hiking Death Valley, Steve's website was one of the best resources available for hikers. His work has inspired countless people, myself included, and it's disappointing to see this sense of entitlement in suggesting that he "owes" anyone something.

This forum has generally been such a positive and encouraging space, so it's disheartening to see people criticizing Steve simply because he chose to take down his website. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times, and he’s always been incredibly friendly and deeply passionate about Death Valley. To suggest that he removed the site "for drama" feels like an unfair and unkind assumption—and honestly, beneath the respectful discourse I’ve come to appreciate here.

Facebook might be the place where people tear each other down (which is why I usually avoid it), but here, we should celebrate those who care about Death Valley and who have contributed so much to the hiking community. There is nothing wrong with him not engaging with every forum especially if he's being met with hostility like this. 

I also agree with Daymouth that the videos aren't quite my thing. I definitely prefer the old trip reports, but I also get wanting to change up the medium after so many years and so many trip reports. Thankfully we get to choose what content works for us! It's fantastic having the panamintcity as an option again.