International Climbing Web Network

15 online editors representing ten climbing web pages from all over the world have met in Catalunya from May 21st until 24th. Between going climbing in Siurana, Margalef and Montserrat, the team members discussed new ideas and intensified cooperation between the sites.

It all started with a couple of webmasters who wanted to work together: In 2007 the Climbwebnet (CWN) has been founded. Today, ten climbing webpages are part of the group, and more are interested in joining. The group is based on the idea that friendly cooperation and the honoring of authorship would promote fairness and traffic for all member sites. Today the group of members is also and largely based on mutual understanding of respectful conduct, friendship, and of course the passion for climbing. This year's meeting was very successful: New ideas have been discussed, already existing tools and methods have been improved, and, most importantly, everybody had lots of fun climbing in some of the best crags in the world. The member webpages from the CWN have already been exchanging content, pictures and contacts in the past. At the meeting in Albi, decisions were made to improve and facilitate this exchange. The South African site www.climbing.co.za has been accepted as a new member, and with the British site www.ukclimbing.com a very popular climbing webpage has entered the group. Other important decisions that have been made were to optimize the covering of international climbing events like festivals and competitions, to better communicate CWN as a group towards the climbing world and work out further integration of the members. Hubert from www.belclimb.net has been assigned the first chairmanship for the group for one year and he will also host the next meeting, which is planned for 2010 in Belgium. While it started all to improve work in the virtual realm, a very real and tangible group of climbing friends has grown out of it. "Thank you for friendship" said Standa from www.lezec.cz when the Czech team was about to leave - and this certainly is a defining quote for the CWN cooperation. Written by Sarah Burmester.

Current members of the CWN

• Artrosisclimbing.com
• Belclimb.net
• Climbing.co.za
• Lezec.cz / Czechclimbing.com
• Kairn.com
• Klettern.de
• Mutante.com.ve
• Nice-climb.fr
• Revistakooch.com.ar
• Ukclimbing.com