Trip Reports

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Trip Reports are written first person accounts of VOC trips, trips a VOCer did but can also be about outdoor philosophies, ethics, or just expressions of love for the mountains. They can be an instruction guides for how to make some piece of gear, or if you're really into the history of some outdoor sport, an article about it. Everything vaguely about non-motorized outdoor sports is welcome!

VOC members can submit a Trip Report here for publication to the website. If you're unfamiliar with the style of Trip Reports, read a few first and refer to the style guidelines below. Most trip reports also end up as articles for the VOC Journal but not all VOCJ articles are published online as trip reports.

After you have written your trip report, please categorize and complete the trip report tag checklist for your report (see below).

Submit a Trip Report


Trip Report Categories

All online Trip Reports need to be placed in one or more overarching 'Category' based on activity which can further be refined using 'tags'.

  • Hike: day hike, trail running, backpacking, snowshoeing
  • Climb: scrambling, rock climbing, mountaineering, ice climbing
  • Ski: ski touring, ski mountaineering, traverse
  • Paddle: sea kayaking, river kayaking, canoing, rafting
  • Cycle: bike touring, mountain biking
  • Other: socials, esoteric adventures...

Additionally, select if the trip report also falls within the special categories of

  • Accident: trip contains an accident, injury, incident, or near-miss
  • Workhike: trip was a VOC workhike
  • Huts: trip was to one of the VOC huts

Trip Report Tags

Tagging is when submitting a trip report so that readers can explore trip reports by theme. It's an extra 5 minutes to add them but makes the quality and accessibility of the trip reports much higher.

Tagging Checklist

These basic 'Tags' are necessary (where applicable) for every Trip Report and should cover the most obvious ways to organize trip reports. To add tags to your trip report use the "Tags (Simple Tags)" box and go through this checklist.

Trip Details

  • Specific Activities: i.e.
    • Dayhike, Snowshoeing
    • Rock Climbing, Ice Climbing, Alpine Climbing
    • Ski Touring, Ski Mountaineering...
  • Trip Difficulty: Beginner-Friendly, Intermediate, Expert
  • Annual Trip: Longhike, Son of Rock, Banquet...

Location

  • Destination or Landmarks (can be many)
  • Mountain Name(s)
  • Trail(s) or Route(s)
  • Hut Names
  • Province or State (if outside of BC)
  • Country (if outside of Canada/USA)

Logistics

  • Group Size: Small Group (1-4 people), Mid Group (5-14), or Large Group (15+)
  • Transport: Car-free, 2wd or 4wd
  • Duration: Daytrip, Weekend (2-3 days), Multiday (3-7 days) or Expedition (5+ days)
  • Conditions: Winter, Summer, Rainy Day, ...

Additional (Fun) Tags

All trips are different and have things which make them stand out. Try to add at least five keywords which summarizes unique aspects of this trip. Often you can get these from the trip report itself. Be creative and include some emotions. If you're having trouble coming up with some check out the 'Click Tags' box at the bottom of the post page.

Examples

  • First Time
  • Photo Essay (Many good photos)
  • Type 1 Fun
  • Slog-fest
  • Bivvy
  • Bear Encounter
  • Goats
  • Frost Bite
  • Ninja Camping
  • Logging Road
  • ...

Trip Report Style Guidelines

This is just for reference. If you're a kind soul you'll try to follow it, but if you don't it's fine for Trip Reports. The copy editors may fix inconsistencies in editing. But if you try to dispute an editorial decision that's specified on this style sheet, the style sheet will win.

Style

  • write from your own experiences
  • give full names in the first mentions of any people in your article
  • use active voice whenever possible
  • use enough photos to tell the story and no more
  • give photographers photo credit in the caption
  • for VOCJ articles, there is a 2000 word limit

Spelling, Grammar, and Units

  • use Canadian spelling (per Canadian Oxford Dictionary)
  • use metric units; or at least give a metric conversion to any imperial units you use
  • use series (Oxford) comma (i.e., bananas, apples, and oranges. NOT bananas, apples and oranges.)
  • time of day should be written like this, 6:30 a.m.
  • give full names for the first mentions of any potentially unfamiliar acronyms
  • avoid using "this" and "that" as pronouns rather than demonstrative adjectives
  • don't use (many) emoticons and gratuitous exclamation points. If you do they will be unceremoniously eliminated
  • enclose dialogue in "double quotation marks"
  • enclose phrases or words that require definition within single quotation marks
  • words in languages other than English should be italicized.
  • use single spaces after all punctuation
  • use two short dashes surrounded by spaces for dashes separating phrases (phrase1 -- phrase2; will be converted to an n-dash); use one short dash for hyphenated words.
  • spell out numbers from one to ten; use numerals for everything else, and use a comma in figures with four or more digits. (e.g. 2,568). Exception: use numerals when using decimals, metric units (e.g., 400 m, 30 km), and percentages (e.g., 28 per cent—note that "per cent" is spelled out as two words)
  • it's "gaiters," kids—not "gators." Unless you're actually talking about alligators.
  • use "workhikes"--not "work hikes"

Exceptional Trip Reports

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