Organ Pipes Pass - Camel Route

I have given some thought to the issues and suggestions raised in this thread. I have also had some input from a group of people who assist me as an advisory team in VE-related matters (these include diverian, tonymarshall and domsmooth). Here is a response that I would like to put forward for now:

1. The prime responsibility to be informed and prepared for the mountains, ultimately always rests on those venturing into them, regardless of what form the information is available in. KZN Wildlife also bears a responsibility in keeping their visitors informed and in keeping their existing leaflets on trails updated, relevant and available. I would like to believe that VE can assist and play a role in this regard, but only in such as way as to keep the responsibility where it should be, and not to take it onto our own shoulders.

2. We do have a concern about the amount of time it takes to produce and maintain such a system. We are all people that do this in our private capacity, and VE is currently not commercially driven. In addition, VE's current capacity is pretty much fully given towards other projects (over and above the substantial amount of time it takes just to keep the site running). Personally, I may one day have more time and head-space to write this kind of material, but currently my struggle is that I easily spend more time and energy behind a computer doing things FOR the Berg, than actually being IN the Berg. So personally I don't have the capacity right now for committing to this kind of project. These ideas may benefit a lot of people, and are very noble, but the reality is the work all too often falls on the shoulders of a few individuals.

3. For some time we have considered a kind of wiki, whereby short, salient, factual information on things such as passes, caves and peaks can be posted. Even trail conditions can be covered. Its a kind of catalogue, which is in addition to (and summarises) all the information which is already available in the forum. Various members would be able to contribute. This would basically answer a suggestion already made earlier in this thread. Some may recall that we already tested a Wikipedia type set-up previously, but I put it on hold because it was too much to maintain at the time. This idea is still under consideration however, and may be re-implemented in a different form in the (hopefully near) future.This would be the place to nurture and develop any sort of document. If we can get enough such wiki-references for a given area, then these can form the basis of such a document, and only then will I consider taking it forward. We can then consider a pilot area, and identify which trails and passes would even be suitable to include. And all of this assumes an interest and support from KZN Wildlife, as well as proper consideration of any liability issues.

4. Nothing is stopping anyone from doing longer and more detailed write-ups on their own accord. We are happy for these to be published on the site in order to give it exposure. Many will know that Stijn used to have his own site and submitted all of his pass write-ups for republishing on VE. We can do the same for anyone that wants to write more. It will be screened and checked as much as possible, but ultimately publishing it on the site does not mean we fully vouch for the accuracy of the information. It merely means we consider it acceptable enough and that it should be scrutinised by VE members. Just a note specifically on relative ratings of passes (eg giving it a difficulty rating and that kind of thing): this is something that VE currently does not want to be the judge of - until such time as we can work out a good way of doing it. If we publish your information and it contains ratings, it does not mean we have deemed the rating accurate. The topic is good one for healthy debate on the forums, but until we establish a reliable framework for working out such relative ratings, any official info from VE will seek to steer clear of it.