Faq
General information
What is the general philosophy of the sites?Why the name "Camptocamp.com" ?
How were the Camptocamp sites developed ?
How can I become a member of the camptocamp sites?
I lost my username and/or my password. What should I do?
Is information on the site verified and checked?
Who are the moderators?
How can I participate on the site?
Topoguide
How is the information organised in the topo-guide?How can I enter an outing in the topo-guide?
How can I write a route?
Which are the main errors to avoid when writing a route?
How can I modify an existing route?
Why aren't my route modifications displayed on the site?
What rating systems are used on the camptocamp sites?
How can I present a sequence of summits or a tour?
Album
How can I upload a photograph in the browser?How can I link a photo to an exit, a route or a summit?
Why aren't my photos displayed on the site?
Forums
What are the forums for ?How can I add a URL to a forum message or layout my text?
Other
How can I present myself as a mountain professional?How can I present a mountain training course or a climbing competition that I am organising?
How can I propose an article?
Is it possible to modify an article?
How can I propose a current event ?
General information
What is the general philosophy of the sites?
Camptocamp sites are sharing sites more than anything else. We provide the technological platform, not the contents.
This at least in theory; in practice, the need for maintaining coherence in the available information (and for avoiding certain blunders) led us to a system of partial moderation of contributions, except for the discussion forums.
Our goal is to offer maximum availability of the services for all interested parties, whatever the their technological environment and computer skills. For this reason we have limited the use of IT "gadgets" and given priority to a straightforward page design.
Lastly, camptocamp sites are not changed quickly. We want to ensure total compatibility of possible new functionalities with the old ones; this requires time, especially since we don't spend money on these developments, so we often have to give the priority to other remunerated projects.
Of course, if organisations, companies or even individuals see a possibility of collaborating with us to add services or functionalities to our sites, those would be likely to evolve more quickly... Back
Why the name "Camptocamp.com" ?
The "com" reflects the time when the company was founded, and the insane time of the Internet bubble. At that time, the list of available obvious and short domain names was not very long. We looked for a name with the following characteristics:
- connected to the mountains in general
- nonrepresentative of a particular activity. skirando.com was perfect in its field, but it wouldn't work for a general site.
- not linguistically stereotyped, since we aimed at a European and not only French extension.
The result of lengthy thinking was "Camptocamp". The word refers to the "camp" concept: a place for preparing races and other expeditions, a crossing point for the altitude camps, but especially a place where one finds oneself, a friendly place with shelter of for bad weather, a penchant for dialogue, sharing and reflection. Back
How were the Camptocamp sites developed ?
- Background
Lausanne has a considerable advantage: you can study there without being far away from the mountains. It is not rare to find people there who combine the passion of ski touring with a love of technology (or vice versa). In the years 1994-1995, some individuals answering this definition gathered in the physics section of EPFL. At that time, way before WWW, the ambitions of these pioneers, including Stéphane Bolognini and, even earlier, Claude Philipona, remain limited. They started to manage an e-mail mailing list of the Swiss avalanche bulletin. For two or three winters, the exchange of information on ski outings was done by e-mall, even by telephone. - Version 1 - 1997
While skiing was practiced in French-speaking Switzerland, information technology, and on line techniques in particular made progress. In autumn 1997, a new version of FileMaker was used to disseminate information on the debuting Web. Claude Philipona jumped on the bandwagon and created the first version of skirando.ch : an interactive FileMaker database running on a Macintosh connected semi-clandestinely to the network of EPFL. In spite of its rustic sides and certain slowness (for example, user management was done by hand), this site became quickly popular on the Lausanne campus, then in French-speaking Switzerland, before the French discovered it. All level skiers and mountaineers, including some walking mountain encyclopaedias like Julien Vallet, started to present their outings. - Version 2 -1999
With success the need to render the site more professional was felt. In 1998, Marc Fournier started by adding the first skirando forums. Thereafter, he and Claude Philipona undertook a complete makeover of the site based on longer-lasting more solid technologies. In 1999, the new version, using MySQL and php, was put on line on a Linux server, still hosted on EPFL. - Version 3 -2001
Version 3 of skirando.ch, based on the same technologies, was put on line in March 2001. The data base was reorganised to acquire its current form. - Creation of Escalade OnLine 2000-2001
Completely on their own, two French climbers found a lack in the sites devoted to rock climbing. By combining their skills, Arnaud Saint Léger and David Jonglez put the first version of escalade.online.fr. on line in March 2000. It acts as a directory of links to technical data sheets for routes. Articles were added quickly, then a newsletter. In January 2001, the two launched themselves into the adventure of the marketing of their site by founding the OhCEO company in Chambéry. - Founding of Camptocamp SA
In these years of the famous Internet speculation, a database of the size skirando did not fail to draw the attention of several companies. Rather than to accept one of these offers, Claude and Marc, with Luc Maurer's collaboration for the financial side, decided to found a public company to develop their work and, if possible, by living. Camptocamp SA thus saw the day 1 August 2001 in Lausanne. - Uniting the two
At the same time, contacts were made between the climbers of Chambéry and the skiers of Lausanne, and many joint efforts appeared possible. Together the two companies created the alpinisme site, modelled after skirando, and modified the existing escalade site to make it more compatible with its sister sites. - Current situation
It quickly appeared that the sites themselves could not bring in enough money to ensure their development. Fortunately, Camptocamp and OhCEO found other more profitable business niches. One is the maintenance of information technology systems, another dynamic Web applications in the field of the geomatics (MapServer, CartoWeb), and a third managing multilingual interactive contents (E-content project). Thanks to the income generated from these activities, Camptocamp is able to continue to maintain and develop the interactive sites devoted to the mountains.
How can I become a member of the camptocamp sites?
When you click on Member area, you will see a request for identification. If you are not registered yet, a link is available for registering. Then fill in the registration form.
The registration is free and is valid for the three sites (alpinisme, skirando and escalade). The information provided at the time of registration will not be transmitted to third parties Back
I lost my username and/or my password. What should I do?
Click on Member area. A link gives you the possibility of receiving this information by e-mail. Back
Is information on the site verified and checked?
Camptocamp is not able to check the exactness of all the information published on this site. We count primarily on our contributors to ensure the best possible quality of the information, and on the common sense of the users to evaluate the terrain they are interested in.
However, the moderators examine the new routes and modifications of them. Thanks to their excellent knowledge of a region, they are able to partly filter the contributors' information. This greatly improves the coherence of the database and makes it possible to filter obviously false information.
Please note that all members of the site can suggest modifications if they find errors. Back
Who are the moderators?
Moderators are people who in general know mountain sports very well and one or more regions. They take care of examining the new routes and suggesting modifications to the routes, to make sure there are no duplicates and ensure the quality of the information. They also give the green light to the publication of suggested photographs.
We are always looking for new moderators, to better distribute the workload. If you are able to fill this role for a region and willing to donate a little of your time to this service, we would like to have you. Contact the webmasters of the alpinism site or ski site. Back
How can I participate on the site?
The camptocamp sites exist for the community of the mountain sports enthusiasts, but also because of this community. There are several ways of taking part in these sites:
- As a contributor : After you register as a member, share your knowledge of the mountains.
- As a moderator : Read the very important role of these information quality controllers
- As a developer : If you have skills in Web development (php, MySQL, html...), motivation and ideas, contact the webmasters.
- As a translator : we need bilingual individuals to help us update the site interface and multilingual help. This involves translating strings in a timely manner. In addition, if you are interested in translating the site interface and help in a language not yet available, let us know.
- As a donator: Even if camptocamp.com sites have been developed and are still being developed by volunteers, their maintenance requires financial means.
access to passing band, purchase and maintenance of servers... We invite site users to make a donation which would make it easier to face our overhead. To support us, click here .
Topoguide
How is the information organised in the topo-guide?
The interactive topo-guide should not be viewed as a collection of separate files, even if the presentation seems like it is. All the information is divided into three parts:
- the Summit: e.g. "Mont Blanc"
- the Route: e.g.. "via the 3 Mont Blancs"
- the Outing: Julien Vallet, on 15 June 2001
A "Summit" can have several "Routes" (for example, for Mont Blanc, the route "via the Grands Mulets"), and each Route can have several Outings, i.e. to be carried out different times by various people, with different dates and with conditions (snow, weather, ice...).
The "Summit" and "Route" layers are thus divided between several people when there is more than one outing; they should not contain changeable information (valid only on such or such day), but only permanent information (always true).
The advantage of this system is that it is not necessary to completely re-enter the description of the route if it already exists in the topo-guide; you just need to add information to its outing. Another advantage is to have a "history" of the conditions of the outings which have been made (e.g. to know that such or such route is carried out each year between April and June). Back
How can I enter an outing in the topo-guide?
To enter an outing you must be a member of the camptocamp sites.
Click on New outing in the member area, then carefully follow the instructions for each step. Some contextual aids are available for the majority of the fields to be filled in.
There are two opposite errors not to be made:
- Create a useless route or summit, i.e. already existing in the database. To avoid this problem, it is necessary to re-use the existing summits and routes if a new outing has taken place on them.
- Do not create a new route unless it would be useful. If your outing was on a route which has not been described, do not propose modifications to already existing routes (they will be rejected by the moderators), create a new route, under a new name.
How can I write a route?
The best manner to fill in a route for the interactive topo-guide is to write it directly after having done it, using the 1:25,000 topographic maps, remembering the route and using the map toponymy with the spot elevations.
Target readers of the route have no prior knowledge of the region but they have the map.
Use simple but correct language; the machine translation will not work if the spelling of your text is too haphazard. In particular, use the accented characters (é, ü...) if they are available on your keyboard and use a capital letter for proper nouns.
A few additional points:
- Cardinal points: use the international abbreviations S W N E.
- Abbreviations: use only the most standard abbreviations and those of the topographic map.
These are themain errors to avoid. Back
Which are the main errors to avoid when writing a route?
- It is not necessary to duplicate an existing summit. During the first step of the introduction of an outing, you enter the name of the summit and the system searches for existing potential candidates. Carefully read the results and select the summit if it is found.
- It is not necessary to duplicate an existing route. If the route already exists in the topo-guide, it must be re-used to enter your outing. When you have selected a summit, the system will display the existing routes. Carefully read each one of these routes and select the one corresponding to your outing. Do not click on "Enter a new route" unless you are sure it is original.
- The route should not contain temporary information. For the community to effectively use the topo-guide, it is very important that the information related to a "Summit" and a "Route" be generic and permanent, i.e. no matter what the current conditions or the specific events of your outing. The "Outing" part is used to make remarks concerning a specific date.
- Plagiarism is prohibited. A description entirely or mostly copied from a source protected by the copyright (paper topo-guide, specialised magazine, CDROM, Internet site...) is unacceptable. If the route exists in a book, nothing prevents it from being mentioned IN ADDITION TO your personal description. In certain cases, short quotation may be accepted, if the source is clearly indicated.
- A route consisting only of a reference to a paper guide (see guide XY p. xy) cannot be accepted. The interactive topo-guide must be sufficient for this.
We may have to simply delete your contribution if these rules are not followed. Back
How can I modify an existing route?
You may find that the existing description of a route you took during an outing is unsatisfactory. There are two separate cases:
- If you chose a slightly different route, it is better not to modify the existing route. However, you will mention your alternative in the various Comment fields of your outing.
- If you think that the existing route is incomplete or needs corrections, it is possible to suggest modifications. Since these modifications can affect several outings, they are first checked to make sure that they are an improvement over the original version. So they are not visible immediately but only after this manual moderation (1 to 7 days wait). Back
Why aren't my route modifications displayed on the site?
There are two possible reasons:
- The moderator has not yet handled you modification suggestion. Since these modifications can affect several outings, they are first checked to make sure that they are an improvement over the original version. This step can take from 1 to 7 days.
- After this time, the moderator decided that your modifications did not make notable improvements over the original version. Back
What rating systems are used on the camptocamp sites?
The page ratings summarises everything you need to know on this inexhaustible subject to use our topos-guides. Back
How can I present a sequence of summits or a tour?
Because the information is divided into summits, routes and outings, you need to be clever to enter a tour or sequence in the database. There are two ways of getting around the problem:
- If summits are clearly separate in the sequence or the tour, it is necessary to divide them and enter separate summits and routes. On the other hand, you can use the "Comments" fields in the outing part to describe the sequence.
- If a main summit is reached after a secondary summit, enter the route under the name of main summit and create a route named according to the secondary summit. Example: Grand Mont, via Montagnette.
If you are not sure, divide them. Back
Album
How can I upload a photograph in the browser?
First, you must be registered as a member of the camptocamp sites.
If you are, go in the Member area, click on New image and follow the instructions. Your photograph must meet certain technical criteria.
The publication of the photographs is subjected to manual moderation, which makes it possible to reject technically insufficient or obviously moved images. In general, your photograph will be on line and visible to everyone in 24 to 48 hours.
You can display and manage (modify info, delete) your photographs at any time by going to the Member area and clicking on Your images. Moreover, each photograph of the browser can be linked to an outing, a route or a summit of the topo-guide. Back
How can I link a photo to an exit, a route or a summit?
You can link your photographs to one of your outings, but also to any route or summit of the database. You can do it when entering the image or any time later.
To do this, go to the Member area, click on Your images, then the Link button. Then follow the instructions to select the element you want to link your photo to.
To unlink your photo, follow the same procedure; a link for effecting this operation will appear when you click again on Link. Back
Why aren't my photos displayed on the site?
It is only a question of being patient, except in rare cases. The publication of the photographs is subjected to manual moderation, which makes it possible to reject technically insufficient or obviously moved images. In general, your photographs will be on line and visible to everyone within 24 to 48 hours. Back
Forums
What are the forums for ?
The discussion forums are a space for freedom. Everyone can express themselves, without having to be registered and thus without identification. They are organised by topics.
Some minimal rules of common sense and of courtesy are used for the discussions on the forums. They are described in the forum rules. Back
How can I add a URL to a forum message or layout my text?
The forum is able to understand simple HTML. You can use the tags <b>, <i>, <ul>, <ol>, <li> to make your text bold or in italics or to create lists. PLEASE, do not try to enter tables.
There are two methods for entering links:
- Directly typing the complete address E.g. http://escalade.camptocamp.com.
the text will appear as a link: http://escalade.camptocamp.com - Use the tags <a>. E.g. <a href=";http://escalade.camptocamp.com"> cliquez-moi</a>.
"click here" will appear as a link to the site: click here
Other
How can I present myself as a mountain professional?
If you are guide, mountain leader or mountain sport instructor, you can present yourself with text and an image on the site.
This service is free, but first you have to be registered as a member of the camptocamp sites. Then go to Directories, then Professionals, and click on Add.
Fill in the proposed fields. You can present yourself, provide all your information, a link to your personal site and enter an image.
You can always modify your presentation page. Back
How can I present a mountain training course or a climbing competition that I am organising?
If you want to present a training course that you are organising or announce a climbing competition or any other related event, it is easy (and free).
First you have to be registered as a member of the camptocamp sites. Then go to Services, then Training courses or Diary, and click on Add.
Fill in the proposed fields. You can present your event, to give the complete information, a link to your personal site and enter an image.
You can always modify your presentation page later. Back
How can I propose an article?
The management of the articles does not allow any collaborative writing of the contents. Nevertheless, if you wish to propose a new article and write it, contact the webmaster. Back
Is it possible to modify an article?
The community cannot directly modify articles. If you wish to make corrections or add information, contact the webmaster. Back
How can I propose a current event ?
The community does not directly write the current events.
If you wish to add a current event, send your text and some photos to the webmaster.
The text must to be clear and relatively short. It must obviously be of interest to the site users. Back
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