Abstract
For defining social carrying capacity in recreational settings, it is necessary to ask visitors about their acceptable limit of encounters with other visitors. But their coping behavior may confound the reliability of that information. We examined the relationship between mountaineers' acceptable limit of encounters and their coping behavior. The survey was conducted at Daisetsuzan National Park from July to September in 1998. Mountaineers' acceptable limit of encounters with other visitors, acceptable limit of discourteous manners, their intention of coping behavior and their experience of coping behavior were acquired by a mail-back questionnaire. The results may be summarized as follows:
1) Mountaineers who were tolerant of encounters were older, traveled shorter distances, and were less able to recognize human impacts.
2) Some mountaineers avoided encounters with others by coping behaviors such as intra-site displacement. When the number of encounters exceeds the acceptable limit, they tend to change their experience definitions to what they expect of more crowded conditions, or move to a less crowded area, tent site or season.
