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19 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2011 : 11:16 PM
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| Are there any guidelines for trip reports? Maybe it would be a good idea to post a sticky at the start of the TR forum. For ex., TRs should include certain items such as explanation of the trail conditions, locations, maps, photos of the trail and areas. |
Edited by - RGB on 09/08/2011 1:35 PM
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 Outward Bound author of the Seinfeld Thread, who builds his own snowshoes
Troy, MT
USA
3121 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2011 : 06:34 AM
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| No guidelines. Some are just a couple pics or a few sentences, others are multiple posts long. Whatever you feel like. |
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19 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2011 : 11:16 AM
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A trip report should be more than a few pics or a few sentences. When someone views or searches for trip reports they usually want substantial info on the trail or area. I suggest a sticky be attached to include some guidelines.
How do I edit a topic name? |
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Finally stopping that crazy suffering that is ice, climbing to concentrate on great ski tours!
3502 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2011 : 3:17 PM
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If we impose restrictions/guidlines on the TR's, we'll end up with fewer, and less information. Sure, it might be a little waste of time if you're searching for info and find minimal reports, but this is not a commercial site and the content is 100% user driven.
Feel free to post lots of detailed Trip Reports. I see you have one posted, no pics in it, and not much info. Interesting that you should criticize others reports. |
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 Best grilled cheese maker ever
Whitehorse, YUKON
Canada
2142 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2011 : 6:51 PM
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| No. |
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| Eryne
Intermediate Member
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Chilliwack, BC
Canada
569 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2011 : 7:49 PM
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I thought there were guidelines.
All the good trip reports have at least one graph. There should be a description of how many left hand turns you made from your place to the coffee shop before you left Van, including a complaint of the time it took to cross the Port Mann, or Second Narrows, or something like that. Also, put a picture of a dog in there. Or a bear. And a kid.
The really good reports have an inside joke that is so hip even the hipsters haven't laughed at it yet.
The best reports have pictures of people who would be attractive, but aren't in the photo, because of fitovers. |
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map hatin', coffee perc totin', garbage collectin', backpacking, action hero wannabe, who loves to hide out in Garibaldi park and will have his scouts sing if you keep him awake at night
2462 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2011 : 8:41 PM
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Outdoors addicted flyfishing, skiing, snowshoeing, hiking car crooner and resident motormouth
Da'Wack, BC
Canada
5368 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2011 : 10:06 PM
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What Eryne said.
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Happy go lucky, plaid wearin, postholin, safeway gaitor sportin, old-school film shootin, giver of many regards
Abbotsford, B.C.
Canada
13441 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2011 : 10:13 PM
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Skys the Limit to reporting.
K |
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Happy go lucky, plaid wearin, postholin, safeway gaitor sportin, old-school film shootin, giver of many regards
Abbotsford, B.C.
Canada
13441 Posts |
Posted - 09/07/2011 : 12:49 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by TheShadow
What I'd like to see, is more information as to the LOCATION of some of these TR's.
Saying that you spent a wonderful day at Cerise Creek or Mount Hiazcanbee means nothing to me without a bit of a geographical hint.
Just sayin'...
I sometimes wonder the same; see pictures of a great area and the name. Maps would be helpful for those relative unknowns.
K |
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2421 Posts |
Posted - 09/07/2011 : 2:14 PM
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There's already a place for that stuff. Try reading some of the headers on the pages.
When I do a hike that no one has posted a trail guide for, I do a trip report to tell the story, then post a second report in the 'Trails' wiki with all the hard facts such as distance, elevation, route and landmarks, TH, etcetera.
Haven't you guys looked there? If you'd spend more time researching the material that's already available instead of just lurking around the 'Active Topics' board, you'd probably get more out of the site. |
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Hope, BC
Canada
7093 Posts |
Posted - 09/07/2011 : 6:02 PM
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| The only thing I would suggest possibly being forced is to put a Pin on a CT/Google Earth Map as a locator as others are discussing. It would be cool to see a map filled with pins of locations hiked by the users here. If a pin already exists, it doesn't initiate the pin (example 20 cheam reports a year, one pin on the map). |
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Coffee swillin', wine lovin', Owl fearin' Andie McDowell stunt double, who sports retro gear
Vancouver, BC
5464 Posts |
Posted - 09/07/2011 : 11:04 PM
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I look at the trip reports for the stories and pictures, ie pure entertainment when I have a little leisure time at home. If I want trail information I use the trail wiki, a guidebook, maps, or if it's really obscure I may PM someone who has been there.
But I don't expect the trip reports to be useful for my own trip planning. They might be if someone wants to go to that kind of effort, but they don't have to.
I think CT would kind of die if it were suddenly announced, "No trip reports unless you include useful information for others to follow."
And Eryne's guidelines are bang on, except she forgot an additional guideline: there must be a complaint about an inconsiderate group of hikers who made a mess of the hut, or dangerous newbies who stood on the edges of cornices and didn't know what avalanche gear was. |
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 | Dru
Mountain Grammar Police
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Sardonic sandbagging scoundrel, Cascade Climbers lobotomized spraymeister, space blanket flyer, new millennium vulgarian betaboy and friend to all squids
Climbing, a mountain
Canada
∞ Posts |
Posted - 09/08/2011 : 10:41 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by TheShadow
What I'd like to see, is more information as to the LOCATION of some of these TR's.
Saying that you spent a wonderful day at Cerise Creek or Mount Hiazcanbee means nothing to me without a bit of a geographical hint.
Just sayin'...
It must be tough to live in an area where Google and Bing are blocked like that. Fight the firewalls! |
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Burnaby, BC
Canada
1293 Posts |
Posted - 09/08/2011 : 10:53 AM
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| Mount Hiazcanbee is above Lost Lake, part of the ridge extending NW from Red Mountain, Table and Needle. |
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19 Posts |
Posted - 09/08/2011 : 12:36 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by johngenx
If we impose restrictions/guidlines on the TR's, we'll end up with fewer, and less information. Sure, it might be a little waste of time if you're searching for info and find minimal reports, but this is not a commercial site and the content is 100% user driven.
Feel free to post lots of detailed Trip Reports. I see you have one posted, no pics in it, and not much info. Interesting that you should criticize others reports.
Thanks for your opinion. TRs on Summitpost are also 100% user driven, but are more like CTs Trail Wikis: see the one on Harvey at http://www.summitpost.org/mount-harvey/153456. But even this has errors, is incomplete, and it's old.
My one TR was done when I did not have a digital camera, sorry. And I do not believe pics are needed in a TR except in some cases, like of confusing junctions. And even photos of trail junctions for ex. do not guarantee that the signage will be the same forever: for ex., I took some photos of the junctions and signage on my hike to Harvey this week but I'm still debating whether to include them in my TR which I will eventually write. The signs I saw this week were not the same signs the last time I was there.
My Chilliwack Lake and Road report was short because the trail is short. I was writing about access to the trail which is the main issue. Once on the trail it's more or less the same all the way: follows the east side of the river.
I was not criticizing specific other TRs, just making "feedback and suggestions". |
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2421 Posts |
Posted - 09/08/2011 : 1:22 PM
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@ RGB
^^^ That's not what was in your original posting. You said "TRs should include certain items such as explanation of the trail conditions, locations, maps, photos of the trail and areas."
As I explained, there is already a place for that kind of information (the 'Trails' wiki) , and it's a lapse on your part that you didn't look more carefully before posting your suggestion. If you read the instructions for posting a trail guide, it includes instructions to post photos that show trail conditions. A trip report will be more about the scenery than hard facts. Something about "...access to the trail..." would have been better posted under 'Trails' not TRs.
Trails change all the time, so your concerns about the possibility of providing inaccurate information, or a photo of a sign that might be different next time are unimportant. All any of us can do in either a trip report or trail description is offer the best advice we have based on what we saw. A trip report is just that - a description of what happened on the day(s) you went. |
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ass wigglin, cheese lovin, 4x4 drivin, apostrophe hatin, hiking chick who loves camping on snow
spaceship..
Canada
7209 Posts |
Posted - 09/08/2011 : 3:05 PM
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Isn't there a trail wiki for that kind of info... you know, that bright orange button right under guidelines? I think you have to click on it 
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Port Douglas, BC
Canada
430 Posts |
Posted - 09/08/2011 : 9:24 PM
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| i say people just write whatever the hell they feel like writing, people can take it or leave it...this is america baby, rock n roll, freedom of speech, survival of the fittest. |
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2421 Posts |
Posted - 09/09/2011 : 11:39 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Marduk
i say people just write whatever the hell they feel like writing, people can take it or leave it...this is america baby, rock n roll, freedom of speech, survival of the fittest.
Actually, it's not America. If it was, I'd leave.
But I agree that everybody's idea of what constitutes a good trip report will be a bit different, and they should be entitled to post what they want. Some people hike to look at flowers, some go to bag peaks. A trip report is about what's important to the person who did the trip, while a trail description should more concerned with the facts. |
Edited by - peter1955 on 09/13/2011 12:53 PM |
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3022 Posts |
Posted - 09/09/2011 : 4:10 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by peter1955
quote:
Originally posted by Marduk
i say people just write whatever the hell they feel like writing, people can take it or leave it...this is america baby, rock n roll, freedom of speech, survival of the fittest.
Actually, it's not America. If it was, I'd leave.
But I agree that everybody's idea of what constitutes a good trip report will be a bit different, and they should be entitled to post what they want. Some people hike to look at flowers, some go to bag peaks. A trip report is about what's important to the person who did the trip.
I'll remember you said that |
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Guidelines for trip reports
