Required Fields
Complete every field on the Add Route form that is marked required. Required information gives reviewers and future climbers enough context to understand the submission.
The Cairn Catalogue Field Guide
Chapter 07
Adding Routes
What qualifies for the Catalogue, what a submission needs, and how the route review process works.
Route Submissions
A route should be clear enough for someone else to climb.
Cairn Catalogue is a community-built record of routes, not a rulebook for how you have to climb. These guidelines exist so that submitted routes are understandable, repeatable, and useful to other climbers.
Unusual and creative routes are welcome when their intent is clear. Every submission is different, and the guidelines are not an automatic pass-or-fail checklist.
The Core Rule
Clear, intentional, and repeatable.
A Catalogue route should describe a clear climbing line that another climber can understand and attempt. The route should feel like a climb through the environment rather than a shape drawn onto the wall.
The Submission
Fill out everything marked required.
The Add Route form tells you which information the Catalogue requires. If a field is marked required, it needs to be completed before the route is ready for review.
First Ascent
FA information is required when submitting a route. The submitted ascent should show that the route has actually been established and is ready for another climber to attempt.
Proposed Grade
Submit the grade you believe best represents the route. It is a useful starting point, but the final Catalogue grade is determined during administrator review.
Video
Video is never required for a normal route submission. You can provide one when it is useful, but a route does not need video simply to be considered for the Catalogue.
The Line
Show where it starts, where it goes, and where it finishes.
Routes should generally progress upward or make a purposeful traverse through the terrain. Routes whose intended progression is primarily downclimbing are not accepted.
Long zig-zags, loops, repeated backtracking, and unnecessary wandering may be declined when they make the intended climb difficult to understand.
Traverses are completely valid when the line remains intentional and understandable.
Route Documentation
Let the game show the route.
Cairn gives you the tools needed to create clear route documentation without drawing over the screenshot afterward.
Use Photograph Mode
Cairn's built-in Photograph Mode is the easiest way to capture a clean view of the terrain and intended route.
Choose a clear time
Use the recommended Morning, Midday, or Afternoon settings. Clear weather generally makes terrain and route details easiest to read.
Keep editing minimal
Avoid changing brightness, contrast, filters, or other Photograph Mode settings unless necessary. The goal is to show the route clearly with almost no visual alteration.
No outside markup
Do not draw route lines, text, arrows, labels, or other third-party effects onto the screenshot afterward.
02
Action Image
Show the climb at its best.
The action image should either be a beautiful image of the climber on the route or a clear start-to-finish image of the completed route line.
When using the completed route line as the action image, show it as it naturally appears in Cairn after the route has been climbed. It should follow the same documentation guidelines as the rest of the submitted images.
Make it immediately readable.
Another climber should be able to look at the documentation and understand what route is being presented.
Route Images
Document the complete climb.
The submitted images should make the route easy to identify from its starting point through its finish.
Ground to top-out
Show the complete intended route from its starting point at ground level through the top-out.
Multiple images are fine
A long route does not need to fit into one photograph. Use multiple images when necessary.
Overlap the terrain
When several screenshots are needed, include enough shared terrain that it is obvious where one image continues into the next.
Keep it readable
Avoid unrelated route lines, excessive fall markers, or other clutter that makes the submitted route difficult to distinguish.
First Ascents
Establish the route before you submit it.
The submitted FA should show a reasonably controlled ascent through the intended line. The route should appear ready for another climber to attempt and repeat.
Falls can happen while discovering and working out a line. Repeated falls throughout the submitted ascent, however, may indicate that the climb is still an unfinished project rather than an established route.
New Routes & Variations
New climbing should be distinct.
A route that is already established will not be approved again as a new independent route.
30%
30% or less shared climbing
A route may qualify as a variation when it branches from a parent route, branches into one, or shares no more than 30% of the parent's meaningful climbing moves or line.
>30%
More than 30% overlap
A submission that climbs more than 30% of an existing route is too similar to be accepted as its own Catalogue route.
Aid Routes
Required pitons are part of the route.
Aid routes are welcome when the pitons are genuinely required to complete the climb. Cairn Catalogue uses A1 through A4, representing one through four required pitons.
A route requiring more than four pitons does not qualify as a Catalogue Aid route.
Read Chapter 03 · Routes & Styles →Route Review
Submission is the beginning of the review.
Every submitted route is checked before it becomes part of the public Catalogue.
Submit
Complete the Add Route form and send the route to the review queue.
Administrator Review
Catalogue administrators examine the route, its documentation, grade, records, tags, images, and other submitted information.
Corrections
Administrators may change anything they see fit before approval, including the route name, description, images, records, tags, grade, and other listing information.
Decision
The route is either approved or rejected. You will receive a notification with details about the decision.
Administrator Review
The submitted version is not necessarily the final listing.
The information you provide is a starting point. Catalogue administrators may edit any part of a submission they believe needs correction before the route is approved.
This includes descriptions, images, records, tags, grades, names, and any other information associated with the route.
03
If a Route Is Rejected
Correct the problem and try again.
Every route is different. A rejection means that one or more parts of the submission could not be accepted as presented.
Breaking the route, documentation, variation, or other submission guidelines can result in rejection. Staying within the guidelines improves the chances of approval by a lot.
Everyone is welcome to submit the route again if they believe the original issue has been corrected.
A rejection is not necessarily the end of the route.
Cleaning up the documentation, developing the line further, or correcting the way it was submitted may be all that is needed.
Before You Submit
Is the route ready?
Have you completed everything on the form marked required?
Can another climber tell exactly where the route starts?
Can another climber clearly follow the intended line?
Can they see where the route finishes and tops out?
Has the route been climbed in a reasonably controlled and repeatable way?
Is the route genuinely new or correctly submitted as a variation?
Are the images clean Cairn screenshots without manually added lines, text, arrows, or third-party effects?
Does the action image clearly represent the route or the climber on it?
Remember
Make the route understandable to the next climber.
Clear climbing, clear documentation, and a submission that follows the Catalogue guidelines give reviewers the best chance to understand exactly what you created.
Next Chapter
Cairn Projects
Learn how Cairn Projects work, how to prepare for competitions and Jams, and what to expect from registration through the final result.