stele1 is a foundation for organizing and publishing climbing data
stele1 has a two-part core: a visual editor and a stable, transparent format for your data.
The editor has a map, search, and pages for managing each route, area, approach, photo, etc. You enter routes, areas, and photos in the editor without writing code.
The format is the source of truth: portable, inspectable, and built to outlast any single tool.
The editor lowers the contributor barrier, and the structured data raises the reuse ceiling. This core stays small so the ecosystem can develop naturally in any direction.
Supporting tools build on top: area operations lets you split and merge stele1 catalogs. importers (e.g., from Mountain Project URLs), exporters build static sites, PDFs, Word docs, or Excel spreadsheets from your data.
stele1 also ships JavaScript and Python libs for reading and writing to the on-disk format. The Python library ships with a CLI for exploring and prototyping from the shell.
The 1 in stele1 is a compatibility commitment:
any stele1 catalog will always load in stele1 tools.
stele1 defines a spec for climbing data
the goals of the specification are simple. It's …
- approachable — climbers with various backgrounds don't need to learn new software
- simple — straightforward data is easier to understand, maintain, and build upon
- durable — time-tested formats guarantee the data will be just as accessible in 25 years.
The documentation is good.
Familiar data
stele1 uses familiar formats that have been widely deployed for decades. stele1 defines folders, JSON files, and images.
You can also review a minimal example catalog
for a local authors
The editor runs in your browser, so you can start building a catalog on your laptop right now.
the editor supports fully describing an area without writing code. The data lives on your computer, in a folder you own. (phones and tablets don't have the required features).
for software developers
Modeling climbs, areas, photos, etc. is a near universal requirement.
stele1's format is well-described and stable. A team building regional coverage, a publishing pipeline or a different editor can adopt stele1 as the data layer, freeing effort for unsolved parts.
stele1's editor to build a seed dataset for early development.
Stable data for a changing community
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 guidebooks that climbers can't find anymore. There's no shortage of them.
stele1 can't stop this from happening, but it's a transparent dataset that the community can share. Starting with a stele1 catalog skips the grinding required to build a new guidebook source from nothing.
For our community to always have access to the info, we'll need to keep the info itself.
A stele1 catalog would have been easy to use 20 years ago: it' very likely that stele1 catalogs will be equally accessible in another 20 years. (seen the Lindy effect)
- manage routes, areas, photos, approaches, etc.
- draw proper topos where the lines on photos actually link climbs
- lean heavily on gps coordinates for climbs and areas to help with searching and organizing areas
- maintain control of your climbing data
- works off your own computer so loading and saving is instantaneous
- the folder structure allows syncing across devices via iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive
- works with version control if you're so inclined (git, fossil, etc)
- straightforward, durable storage for climbing data
- for human-sized catalogs: optimized for knowledgable climbers maintaining an area they know well
- simple format lets you work how you want
- addresses community strengths (and weaknesses) / built to last
A Tool to Organize and Publish
In short, stele1 helps you organize climbing info, share it, and generate guidebooks.
Document a Climbing Area
The hardest, moste tedious part of building a guidebook is keeping the data organized. stele1's editor brings some sanity to the process.
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.