UKC

It occurred to me several times over the course of the last year that it would be incredibly useful to have an analog of the 'UK Winter Conditions' page for alpine routes, so that users could get reliable information about which alpine routes had been logged recently.

On the eve before many a small weather window in the alps I've scoured through recent entries in the logbooks to try and find which routes had been done, so it'd make a lot of sense to have these collated in one place.

Would this be possible/would other people also like this to happen?

In reply to alexm198:

Camptocamp?

In reply to alexm198:
Good idea. I think there are a few British guides that could provide weekly updates for Alpine areas similar to the winter conditions updates we get.

In reply to alexm198:

I think this is a good idea and is something we've talked about in the past. The trouble would be actually categorising the routes, so the page knows which climbs to display.

I'll look in to it further and discuss it with Paul and Martin, who will no doubt have a much better idea if this is actually feasible!

Cheers!

J

In reply to Jack Geldard - UKC Chief Editor:


That is the core issue... Most alpine rock climbs either get the french grade, or the UK rock grade. But some still use UIAA or the actual alpine grade.

I think the safe bet would be to start with routes that are given the alpine grade (TD, AD and so on).


Also considering and "additional" grade field might be nice. As in for alpine rock routes (e.g. O Sole Mio, it's f6c, but it should also have the additional grade of ED), to classify them as "alpine routes".

Of course people would most likely miss use this system, but still...

In reply to MG:

Camptocamp is good, but I feel like it's less widely used than UKC is, so it doesn't always provide a particularly representative picture of what's being done and what conditions are like. A lot of it's in French, too, so I think that it could be pretty well complemented by a UKC-based offering for English-speaking alpinists.

It would be cool if reports from C2C and also the weekly reports that the Chamoniarde publish could all be assimilated onto a UKC reports page, but that's probably biting off a bit too much at this stage.

In reply to Jack Geldard - UKC Chief Editor:

Awesome, thanks Jack. Yeah I definitely hear what you're saying about categorisation. I think like HeMa says, the issue could be solved by being able to apply primary and secondary grades for an alpine route, much like how big lines get given grades like "ED2, 5+ M6 1200m" or whatever.

Quite a tricky topic, but I'd be interested to hear the team's thoughts.

In reply to alexm198:


Yes, I'm a firm beleiver on the secondary "grade". In my opinion it could also be useful for non alpine stuff. E.g. UK trad and Scottish Winter grades are not that well understood outside the island you reside. For rock, giving the French grade might be helpful and the same thing for Scottish grades. Naturally this would be useful useful for UK climbers, as now they could also add their UK trad grade (or scottish winter grade) to YDS, french, UIAA or what ever system the climb was originally inserted...

In fact, if talkin' about rock climbs, each entry should actually contain atleast options for UK Trad, French grade and most likely UIAA grades plus the alpine grade. Naturally this being a UK site, if given the UK Trad would be the primary "grade" and the rest (if given) would be to help others. That said, local guidebook grades should be instructed to be always given.

But revamping the DB might be quite a bit more work. But this is something I'd really consider.