This Month's New Mountains

This Month's New Trip Reports

This Month's New Routes

This Month's New Areas & Ranges

This Month's New Images


(This Month = Last 30 Days)

Thanks Sisyphus for doing such a good job maintaining this thread. Thanks Andy for taking it over!!! Holy shit Andy, what the hell did you do to set it up that way?

Dude is a web programmer monkey after all. Our Andy is mighty crafty, yup.

Seriously, this is some cool shit.

His momma didn't raise any fools...

WOOHOO!!!

Great work, Andy.

Andy, did you see Scott's idea to create a custom object for this? Then we could have a page that we could always go to with these links that you've created, without having to search for this soon-to-be-buried thread or without creating separate bookmarks for all the different object types.

Ryan Schilling wrote:Andy, did you see Scott's idea to create a custom object for this? Then we could have a page that we could always go to with these links that you've created, without having to search for this soon-to-be-buried thread and without creating separate bookmarks for all the different object types.

I am hoping that the powers that be will make this a "Sticky Topic" soon (i.e. it will always stay on top of the Colorado Board). I think this would be best so we'll all always know where it is.

At first I didn't understand what you guys were talking about related to the custom object, but now I do. I'll make one. Although you're still going to have to search for this custom object when it gets burried by other objects.

I was thinking of keeping a bookmark to the custom object, but you're right, a sticky object in the forum would be much better and much more visible. Good call!

Josh says that the sticky feature of phpBB is broken right now. When he gets it fixed he will make this topic sticky. In the meantime here's the What's New In Colorado? object.

http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.php?object_id=171580&confirm_post=7

OK, so I'm finally ready to launch my Elk Range page. It took me 4 days to write-up this son-of-bitch. I tried to add as much useful info as possible. But I may have added too much. <b>The key is to utilize the Table of Contents.</b> I recommend using this feature when it comes to Group pages. It makes it easier to get around long pages like this one.

It also took a while to get used to the new SPv2 editing tools, most of the tools are very useful and innovative, but a few tools seemed to actaully cause more work for someone who has some preschool level html code skills, like me. These over kill tools are too few to complain about, I just won't use them. I like the UNDER CONSTRUCTION feature a lot.

I tried to be innovative in two different sections, the Monster Maps and the Super Hikes. Most of my 4 days of preparing this page was on the Monster Map section. Gridding and cropping huge maps off my TOPO software, scaling them down to about 6.5 megabytes and submitting those huge files took forever. But at least i have a template for future topo projects if these things go over well. I predict a few of you will not be into them because they take 10-15 seconds to upload with highspeed. Once uploaded they are much easier to manage.

The idea behind these maps was to allow uninterupted, fast, USGS map viewing over large sections of interesting(mountainous) terrain within the entire Elk Range. USGS topos are the best, I think we can agree on that. I don't think there's a feature like this on SP or for that matter, on the internet. All three wilderness's are available (Maroon Bells-Snowmass, West Elk, and the Raggeds) I cut the maps into quads, and all of them can be viewed at <b>TOPO Level 5 viewing,</b> that's why they take so long to upload.

I hope you like it. I would like to hear your comments.

Looks great so far, Kane! I need more time to review it before I can give any thoughtful comments.

I wish you had mentioned you were working with these maps this way. I could have saved you some time. There's a much easier way to export maps to files than the copying, cropping, pasting method that it sounds like you used. Using the Print Tool and selecting the Custom option (and then picking the 'Magnify or reduce selected map to fit exactly 1 page' option from the dialog box that pops up), you can then drag the red print box's borders to select the full area you wish to include. Then you simply select 'Export Map to Disk' from the File menu! TOPO spits out a bitmap, which you can then convert to a JPEG for uploading to SP. With this method, you can export large maps in a matter of seconds. It even puts the coordinates and scales on the borders for you.

Let me know if you'd like some help turning that Overview map into an Imagemap with links.

Looks good Kane. I couldn't see the page before. It only takes a second to load under my high speed connection.

Well, Erin's on a few calls before we leave, so I had some time.

I really enjoyed the page, Kane! The overview text was concise and to the point, and the inclusion of the wilderness areas is a nice touch. I think the map feature is a good idea. I'm considering something along those lines for the Sangres, but I'm trying to come up with a way to highlight the peaks, and I haven't come up with anything that I like so far.

A comment about the photos. I like how you added new photos that are exclusive to the page (that Castle Peak pic is fantastic!). Have you thought about adding some choice existing pictures as children to the page? I'm currently working through this for the Sangre page. Right now I've only gone through the 14ers, and I've already attached too many. But I have to start somewhere before I can begin to whittle them down to a more manageable count.

The skiing information is another great idea that's well executed.

One thing I think is missing is some historical information. The Elks are ripe with great stories. Percy Hagerman comes to mind.

Way to go for being one of the first to step up and show us what a Colorado group page can be!

Darn you Kane. You rasied the bar on the area pages! Nice work.

(By the way, your link includes the "The page was successfully edited" message. You might want to change the link to just the main page.)

Ryan Schilling wrote:Looks great so far, Kane! I need more time to review it before I can give any thoughtful comments.

I wish you had mentioned you were working with these maps this way. I could have saved you some time. There's a much easier way to export maps to files than the copying, cropping, pasting method that it sounds like you used. Using the Print Tool and selecting the Custom option (and then picking the 'Magnify or reduce selected map to fit exactly 1 page' option from the dialog box that pops up), you can then drag the red print box's borders to select the full area you wish to include. Then you simply select 'Export Map to Disk' from the File menu! TOPO spits out a bitmap, which you can then convert to a JPEG for uploading to SP. With this method, you can export large maps in a matter of seconds. It even puts the coordinates and scales on the borders for you.

Let me know if you'd like some help turning that Overview map into an Imagemap with links.

Hi Ryan, I transferred the maps the way you explained. I just don’t have those topo CD’s cached on my hard drive. I spent a lot of time going from one disk to the other to get the exact quad I needed to stay consistent with the grid on the Elk Range map. You still have to scale those original maps down from around 15 megabytes to 6.5 without losing to much detail. Submitting a 6.5 image takes about 8 minutes each. And submitting 15 of em, certainly takes its time.

BTW- this is my last Group page. Quite honestly, for a lot of reasons, creating this page has sucked the life out of me. And, I'm glad its over. Hopefully I did Colorado and the site well. Maybe its just a SP thing or an SPv2 thing.