Adding and Editing Areas

Despite the fact that theCrag holds over 170,000 climbing areas you might encounter the need to add new or missing areas, restructure an existing one or at least complement existing area information at one point in time.

Adding and editing areas is very easy and mostly self-explanatory. This article describes the details and provides guidance on structuring climbing areas.

The climbing community and the team of theCrag count on you to contribute whenever you can and to complement missing and correct wrong information for the sake of everyone. Thank you!

PermissionsBack to contents

This article assumes that you have sufficient permissions to perform the described tasks, please refer to the User permissions article if you lack them.

Area TypesBack to contents

In order to structure regions, climbing areas and crags theCrag allows you to select from different, hierarchically organized area types.

While theCrag typically already provides structure on country and region level you might structure a climbing area in multiple ways. How you do that is vastly dependent on the climbing area itself, the way it is geographically structured, how it is approached and how developed it is. That being said, how a climbing area is organized on theCrag might change over time. Same as climbing areas change and develop over time.

The following table provides a list of available area types on theCrag and provides a short description of their intended use.

Adding AreasBack to contents

Adding one or multiple areas is as simple as clicking the 'Add Area(s)' button located just above the list of existing areas. Click on the button to add one area or on the arrow next to it to add multiple ones.

Adding area(s)

Select the area type of choice and fill in as much information as you have. Refer to the table below for detailed information on each data field. Fields marked with a '*' are mandatory. Be aware that not all fields are available for all area types (see Inheriting for details).

Once you are done just hit Save and verify the information you entered.

Adding areas to a list of routesBack to contents

While not a preference, in some rare cases it might be desirable to add areas to a list of routes. In order to do so click on the 3 dots next to Edit Area (top right) and select the menu item 'Add a sub area'. An example is El Arcotete which is the main crag but has a small cliff with slightly different approach nearby.

Adding AnnotationsBack to contents

On top of the different area types, theCrag allows you to use annotations to provide additional structure to a list of routes or areas.

Annotations are great to use to create separations between routes on the same cliff or sector (e.g. left of the crack, right of the crack) or to distinguish between boulders in a small boulder area where you do not want to create individual boulders.

You may add an annotation to a list of routes or areas by simply clicking on the 3 dots next to the 'Edit Area' button and selecting 'Add an annotation'. Annotations may either be added with or without title. If you enter a title, the annotation is automatically added to the clickable table of contents above the route list for easier navigation. Without title it is only a textual separation in the list of routes.

Use the reorder function if you want to move the annotation up or down in the list.

Adding annotation

Structuring AreasBack to contents

Probably the best approach in structuring a climbing area is by splitting it up geographically and by approach. A great example of structuring a climbing area is the area of Viñales on Cuba.

The region of Viñales is comprised of just a few crags and cliffs. Some cliffs such as Mogote Palmarito just hold a handful of routes while others such as Mogote del Valle are made up of multiple cliffs and sectors with hundreds of routes. One of the cliffs is Guajiro Ecológico which as such is structured into several sub-sectors using annotations.

There would be, of course, many other ways to structure this area but the following generic example of two cliffs on a single mountain might help you in structuring a climbing area, small or big:

• Is there common geography? E.g. are 2 cliffs on the same mountain? Then, most likely they belong to the same crag or at least the same area. Refer to the geo-location if in doubt.
• Do the 2 cliffs have the same parking but different hike ins? Then, they are most likely part of the same crag but are different cliffs (or crags) on theCrag. This allows you to record the same approach info for the main crag and individual hike in information for the cliffs, including separate info for cliff orientation etc.
• Are the 2 cliffs in the same crag next to each other, just separated by e.g. a gully? Now it is up to you, they might be just 2 different sectors of the same cliff, still allowing you to record independent information for them or you record them as one cliff and separate the routes by using a simple annotation.

As you can see, there is no right or wrong, just multiple options to do the same. Even if you decide for one option today, you can switch to a different one later, theCrag gives you this flexibility and thus allows to reflect the changes and developments at a crag as they occur.

Sorting AreasBack to contents

Same as for structuring areas, ordering areas can be done in multiple ways. While parent regions and areas are often sorted alphabetically (e.g. countries, states), climbing areas are typically sorted by geography. Meaning they are sorted as you approach them on your hike or from left to right along a valley, etc. A nice example is the Miller Fork Recreational Preserve in the Red River Gorge where all cliffs along the small valleys are sorted left to right as you would hike along them if you were to visit all of them.

InheritingBack to contents

As mentioned above, not all area types provide all data fields for entry. Also, some of the data fields (and structured tags) are inherited from higher levels to make them visible at the levels below unless more specific information is entered at a lower level.

For example, Access Issues entered at crag level also appear on cliff and / or sector level or text entered in the field Ethic for an area is showing at all levels below.

The following table gives an overview about the data fields available per area type and their behaviour. 'Yes' stands for available, 'Inherit' for inherited from a higher level.

Editing AreasBack to contents

There are two ways for editing existing or adding missing information for areas. Provided you have the correct permissions, you may change and add all the information described in the chapters above.

Simply click on the 'Edit area' button on the top right to edit the area you are currently in (incl. its sub-areas or routes) or click the 'Bulk Edit' button just above a list of areas to do the same.

Editing and Removing AnnotationsBack to contents

To edit an annotation simply click on 'Edit Item' next to the annotation of choice. In order to remove an annotation completely, edit the annotation and delete the title, description and potential alternative names (AKA’s) and click save.

Further readingBack to contents

• User permissions
• Adding and Editing Routes
• Gym Solution by theCrag
• Formatting Text
• Structured tagging
• PDF Crag Guide
• Searching

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