Build Climbing Guides

stele1 is for managing climbing content and building climbing guides.

  • manage routes, areas, photos, approaches, etc.
  • keep your data on your own computer
  • generate guidebooks that are ready for manual refinement

Most of all, stele1 is designed to serve as a long-lived record of a climbing destination.

The role of stele1

In short, stele1 helps you organize climbing info, share it, and generate guidebooks.

diagram showing workflow

tools to help you organize and build your guidebook

Document a Climbing Area

The tedious, error prone part of building a guidebook is collecting the info and keeping it organized. stele1 helps you keep the record of a climbind area consistent, and organized, consistent, and complete.

Kickstart a Guide(book)

Generate a jumping-off-point in any format you want. stele1 will handle all the repetitive, tedious work. The creative work is left to the author.

Prepare the Future

stele1 prioritizes simplicity and compatibility. In 20 years, when you (or someone else) wants to start a new guide, you can pick up where you left off.

Our community issues

Climbers will always benefit from climbing guides, but guides don't always stay available.

Organizations Fall Short

We're in the 2020s and recently MountainProject confirmed that they didn't want community-contributed content reused by the community. A once dominant platform, RockClimbing.com, recently fell into disrepair. And an attempt to bring back the shuttered Dr. Topo has run out of steam.

Climbers Retire

Recently (early 2020s), on the west coast, ClimbingToposOfSanDiego.com was abandoned and across the country HarpersFerryClimbing.com succumbed to the same fate. Individual climbers shouldn't need to single-handedly prop-up community guides.

Guidebooks Go OOP

Out-of-print guidebooks leave the community hanging. If you've been climbing outside for a few years, it's likely you're aware of that aware of guidebooks that climbers can't find anymore. There's no shortage of them.

For our community to always have access to the info, we'll need to keep the info itself.

Is it for Me?

This project is designed for outdoor free climbing.

I develop software (and climb)
What is stele1?
How does it compare to ...?
stele1 could be considered similar to LaTeX or a static-site generator. You define your data and content in a human & computer friendly format, then generate a user-friendly document.
What can it do for me?
It's straightforward, open source software, built to be mantainable by just 1 person. The barrier to use is as low as possible (while still being practical). It's all yours; use it as you please.
How can I help?
I maintain climbing areas
What is stele1?
How does it compare to ...?
What can it do for me?
A well-organize record of an area makes everything easier. If new route is climbed and added to at stele1 project, then it'll be easier to make it's way into a guidebook in the future.
How can I help?
This was built for you: just use it, tell people, and share the guides you create.
I'm a community organizer
What is stele1?
It's a tool to help your community build high quality climbing guides with relative ease. The more people in your community that are aware of, and use, stele1, the easier it is for people to build on each other's work.
How does it compare to ...?
What can it do for me?
Do you need to… identify climbs affected by a closure? generate a score-card for a local comp? share better approach info with the community? stele1 works well for each.
How can I help?
I write guidebooks
What is stele1?
How does it compare to ...?
There's little else like stele1. Some aspects are similar to TopoCreator or BetaFlash; it lets you build climbing projects on your own computer. Other aspects are similar to MountainProject or TheCrag; there's support for whole areas. It's also a bit like your current publishing software; it helps you get from a draft to a publishable result.
What can it do for me?
How can I help?
Just use stele1 — it was built to work well for authors like yourself.
I climb
What is stele1?
It helps people write better guides.
How does it compare to ...?
What can it do for me?
stele1 benefits you, but not directly. You might already be using a guidebook that was built with stele1.
How can I help?

Designed to Last

Designed for the community today and in 20 years.

Past & Future

stele1 has been a volunteer-only project for years; it will remain so into the future.

Contributing

Tell People.

The future of stele1 is reasonably secure. Aside from some catastrophe, it'll be maintained for the next couple decades.

There's one big way you can help stele1 today: share it with people who care. If you know someone who could be interested, mention it in person; they care about your opinion.