What is all this about?

Camptocamp.org is an interactive website available to all who practice mountain sports. It offers the following:

• An interactive guidebook of routes and itineraries, across the globe, and for a range of activities (alpinism, rock and ice-climbing, touring, on foot, skis or snowshoes, ski-mountaineering…): a space for sharing information on recent conditions in the mountains as well as descriptions of summits and routes… The guidebook includes a map-based geographic information system as well as data on access points, huts, books…
• A forum: an open platform for discussing issues related to mountain sports . Everyone is free to ask question, answer them, or simply share their feelings with other who are passionate with the mountains.
• Articles: a collaborative encyclopaedia on mountain sports and the mountain environment in general, as well as a platform for anyone to publish their own stories and creations...
• An album: where everyone can put their best mountain pictures on-line. Photos must be associated with outings that describe current conditions, summits or itineraries found in the guidebook.
• An association: a platform for the non-profit organization that manages the site: That’s where you’ll find all you need on membership, helping-out, the board and the annual general assembly.

These resources are all freely available and do not require any identification.
On the other hand, identification (which is free) is required for contributing new information to the guidebook, to publish an article or post a message on the forum.

What is the website’s general philosophy?

Camptocamp is foremost about sharing. Camptocamp-Association provides the technical platform, not the content.
In practice, moderators are called upon a posteriori to maintain consistency in the available information (and to avoid certain errors). The aim is to offer the much information as possible to all those interested, whatever their technical environment or computer-abilities. This explains the sober design of the pages.

Why the name "camptocamp.org"?

When the websites Skirando.ch and Escalade-OnLine.fr came together, during the dotcom bubble, the list of available domain names that were obvious and short enough wasn’t very long. The founders of these websites were looking for a name with the following characteristics:

• related to mountains in general
• not tied to a particular activity
• not tied to a particular language as the goal was to expand across Europe, beyond the French speaking parts of the Alps and Pyrenees

The outcome was "camptocamp". The name refers to the "camp", where tours, climbs and expeditions are dreamt and prepared, where other mountaineers come by, give feed-back on conditions, share stories and anecdotes...

The ".org" reflects the community which gives life to the website on a daily basis through its contributions, it reflects the voluntary involvement of a handful of moderators who maintain the quality and consistency of the site’s content, it reflects the organization that maintains, develops the site!

How did the site develop?

Check out the article on the history of the camptocamp websites.

How to contribute to camptocamp.org ?

By clicking on register, you will be asked to identify yourself. Unless you already have an account, a link will allow you to create one. Fill it in and follow the instructions.
Registration is free. None of the data provided for registration will be made available to third parties.

How can I customize the website?

For more detail, check out the article on customization
A single, wider community of users means more information can be shared but it can also make it more difficult to find it! To make finding and using information easier, a customization tool was developed. Customization allows filtering of the site’s content on the basis of activities, languages and massifs or regions. To customize your filter, follow the link on the left of your user name. A window will open and the filter will be activated once you click on “record”. A small light bulb on the right of th e link shows that filters are on.

How to use the "wiki" tools?

Using a wiki format is a small revolution aimed at making the interactive guidebook more dynamic. As in the famous on-line encyclopaedia Wikipedia, any identified user can modify a document and the change will be immediately visible. Previous versions are saved in a history of the document so that anyone can check and correct changes.

In each document, you will find 4 tabs on the top left:

• the "Consult" tab for seeing a document’s content,
• the "Modify" tab for improving the document,
• the "Versions" tab for checking out the previous versions of the document and the changes from one version to another,
• the "Comments" tab for commenting the document or discussing changes.

In addition, all the recent modifications, per document type or for all document types, can be seen following the Recent changes link in the left hand-side menu.

Is the information on the site checked and controlled?

Nor Camptocamp-Association nor the team of moderators are able to check the veracity of all the information available on the website.
We essentially rely on contributors for the quality of the information, and on the common sense and experience of users to evaluate their relevance in the field. Anyone can correct an error or report it by contacting the moderators. Moderators review recent changes and additions to the guidebook. Thanks to their excellent knowledge of a particular area, they are able to verify most of the information submitted to the website.
In addition, participation in the forums must follow the rules of a forum charter, on which moderators base their interventions. Moderators can modify, delete or move individual messages or complete discussions. You can signal a problematic message (spam, insults…) by clicking on “Report problem” in the left hand-side column.

Any comments on the moderation itself, such as asking moderators to intervene o toe explain an intervention, must be poster in French on the appropriate forum or in English by email.

Who are the moderators?

The guidebook moderators are individuals who are very knowledgeable about one or several mountain sports and one or several areas in particular. Their main task is to review new itineraries and improve existing ones to make sure that the information provided to user sis consistent and easy to find.

Forum moderators are people renowned for their continued presence on the forums and their ability for dialogue!

We are always on the look-out for new moderators, so as to better spread the workload. If you feel you are able to contribute to these tasks and can spend some of your time on either the guidebook or the forums, do not hesitate to contact the forum moderators or the guidebook moderators.

How to participate in the website’s development?

Camptocamp.org existe for and by its community of users and contributors. There are several ways to participate in the website’s existence:

• As a contributor: Once you are identified, you can share your knowledge about mountains.
• As a moderator: Find out about their key role in the previous section.
• As a developer: If you have the right skills in web programming (php, postgre, html...), motivation and ideas, then do not hesitate to contact the webmasters.
• As a translator : We need people who are fluent in two or more languages to update the interface and contextual (pop-up) help in the website’s several languages. If you wish to have the interface and help available in another language than those present, do not hesitate to mention it to the moderators.
• As a member of Camptocamp-Association: You can participate in decisions concerning the management and evolution of the websites, or to help them financially.

Camptocamp and me

I want to subscribe

Nothing easier: Just click on “register” next to the camptocamp logo on the top left and then fill in the registration page following the indications. You will receive an email with further instructions at the address you provided. Note that you will not be able to change your login in the future but you will be able to change the name under which you appear in the guidebook and the forums.

I’d like to customize my camptocamp

To customize camptocamp to your own specific needs, just click on “Customize” on the top left of the page. You can specify the language of the content you wish to see on the home page (for articles, outings or the forum), the activities you are interested in or the ranges or countries for which you want updated conditions. You can do multiple selections and change them as often as you want. Once you have customized the site, a yellow light bulb will appear indicating that the content is filtered according to your preferences.

The site doesn’t accept my customization, I can’t disconnect…

Try to login from the homepage, after activating Javascript and erasing the Cookies (go to the options menu in your web browser tools). There are known bugs with Internet Explorer 6. If the problem persists, send an email to the moderators.

I’d like to change my user profile

As a user, you can modify all collaborative documents, create new documents, add outings to routes that are already described… To change the name under which your contributions to the guidebook will appear, click on “Customize” on the top left of the page then on “My preferences” and change the “Name displayed in the guidebook”.
To change your user page, click on your login on the top left, next to the camptocamp logo, to access your page and then on the “Edit” tab on the left to modify its contents. You can describe yourself, indicate your whereabouts, preferred activities and so on.

I’d like to georeference myself

Your whereabouts will only appear on your personal profile and on the interactive map if the “users” box is ticked. To georeference yourself, go to your profile page (clicking on your user name on the top lef of the page) and click on the “Edit” tab on the left. You can then indicate the latitude and longitude coordinates of where you are based. You can also use the map to automatically fill in the latitude and longitude fields (look at the small sized link above the coordinate fields).

I’d like to modify my forum profile

You can change the name under which you post on the forms. For that, click on “Customize” (top left of the page) and then on “My preferences”. You can then change the “Name displayed in the forum”. You can also include / delete an avatar (a small picture associated with your posts) or a signature. See the specific Forum FAQ below.

The site does not look right!

Check out this article on browser support to find out if camptocamp.org is well supported on your browser.

The guidebook

Anyone can view documents but to create or modify documents, you need to be registered as a User (see section on "Camptocamp and me"). More detailed guidelines on using the guidebook are available in the Help article.

What is a summit, a route...?

Have a look at the detailled explanations by clicking on the Guidebook title in the top orange banner.
The guidebook is structured in top level documents, such as "summits", "huts", "sites".
The "summit" label groups different entities: high points, but also passes, lakes, cliffs...
A "route" is a way to reach a "summit": it may be a multi-pitch rock climb, a footpath, a ski track...

What about an outing?

A c2c "outing" is a personal document summarizing a climb, hike or tour out in the mountains, following one or various specific "routes" to one or several specific "summits", or a day spent at a crag or cliff (labelled as "sites" in the guidebook). An outing is always associated to a "route", except for crags in which case the outing is associated to a "climbing site" (see also paragraphs below).

What is a mountain massif, a region?

For the sake of simplicity, a massif is an homogenous set of summits surrounded by valleys. But massifs have not been defined for the whole planet and even parts of Switzerland are not assigned to specific massifs in camptocamp. To search for documents, you can also use administrative area, such as a French department, a Swiss canton or a country.

Why is not there any information on the summit, the route or the climbing site in the outing?

You need to go up one level! The upper level is that of the "route" the outing is attached to, which you can reach by clicking on it on the top right column of the document. To reach the "summit", no need for crampons, but rather reach the level on top of the route, again by clicking on its name in the top right column.

This hierarchical organization of the information makes it easier to retrieve by other users.

What is the difference between a climbing site and a summit?

This is a trick question! A "climbing site" groups crags (single pitch climbs), whereas multi-pitch climbs are associated to a "summit". Traditionally, rocky summits are reached using long, multi-pitch, rock routes. Thus, multi-pitch climbs, both in the mountains and on lowland cliffs are associated to a "summit". The summit itself may be associated to a climbing site (look at the associated documents on the top right column of the document).

Why do not I find a crag for this summit?

Because crags (single pitch climbs) are associated to "climbing sites". By looking to the top right column of the summit's page, you might find that a "climbing site" is associated to the summit. In that case you'll find the crag there. Note that historically on c2c, few single pitch climbs are referenced. You will most likely only find a short description of the climbing site, maybe a list of the crags or a picture of it!

Why do not I find a multi-pitch climb in this climbing site?

See both paragraphs above.

Is it possible to create a climbing gym site in the guidebook?

Yes. As a "climbing site". Take care to select both the "climbing gym" site type and "artificial" rock type fields.

I'm looking for a summit, a route to a summit, etc.

Use the search engine! For example, move your mouse over Guidebook on the top orange banner, then on the type of document you are looking for (summit, hut...), and finally click on "Search". You then have to enter the name of the document you are looking for, either its complete name (but take care with dashes, name variants...) or part of it (avoid e.g. "mount", you'll have too many answers). Then choose the one you were looking for in the result list. You can make a more advanced search including elevation, massif and lots of other criteria.
The result list is not alphabetically ordered; to do so simply click on the "Name" label!

I'm looking for the name of a mountain massif and I only know the approximate position

Perhaps you know the name of a summit in this massif. Then you can search for it and access the corresponding area from that summit's page.
If you do not have such information, then it gets a little bit more tricky. But everything is possible! Click on "Search" under "Summit" of the Guidebook menu. In the web address, replace filter by query. Then open the interactive map and limit the search to visible borders of this map. Zoom in to reach the massif you are looking for. Then click on "Search", which gives you a list of summits. Select one of them and look for the area it is attached to.
Another way to do this is to use any interactive map on c2c. Move the area to the massif you are looking for, then select a summit by clicking on its icon on the map. You'll then find the associated area.

How can I add a summit, a route...?

You first need to ensure that this document does not already exist and thus need to do a search (have a look at the corresponding paragraphs). Pay a particular attention to summit on borders that may have different names. For routes, you must take care not to create a variation (in this case, modify the existing route, see next paragraph) but an original route, in order to avoid the multiplication of documents and dispersal of information. Do not hesitate to ask for advice in the moderation forum.

In order to create a document, move your mouse on the "Guidebook" item in the top orange banner, then e.g. "Summit" and click on Add".
Fill in all the information, and preview your document before publishing it.

To create a new route associated to a summit, you'll need to go through the summit document and use the bottom link "Create new associated route".

There are huge errors in this summit / route... description, how can I correct them?

It's easy. If you are certain of the validity of your information, you can make corrections by clicking on "Edit" in the left column, which gives you access to the edit page. Validate your modifications (after having previewed them) by clicking the "Update" button at the bottom of the page. If you are not satisfied with your modifications, click on "Cancel".

How can I add an outing?

Do this either from the homepage by clicking on the orange link within the left column: "Add an outing" and then following the instructions (select summit, route and then validate your choice) or directly from a route or site document ("Add an outing" link at the bottom of the page). For more information on how to fill in an outing, see the help. For incorporating pictures to your outing, see the section on pictures.

What kind of outing may I add?

Every outing is good, except the ones in a climbing gym. If some comments are important for climbing gyms, either modify the document or leave a comment on the document (by clicking the link on the left column) if the information is not permanent.