Bivouac is the most comprehensive website for Canadian Mountaineering info. The site has profiles of 25,000+ North American mountains, as well as a discussion board, equipment reviews, GPS data, photos, guide books, trail descriptions, trip reports, maps, etc, etc, etc. It basically has everything you could possibly need for mountain information.
There are thousands of high quality trip reports and photos in the encyclopedia. These come from a network of authors and editors across the country. The important point is that the articles are catalogued, indexed and cross referenced so they are useful. A huge amount of work goes into making sure the site has the supporting infrastructure for every article.
The encyclopedia is a permanent resource, with a permanent plan to stay in operation. Which means a permanent plan to pay ongoing expenses. So it is worth your time to learn how it works. The website is not a simple wiki. It is a geographic information system, organized by lat-long. This means searches are not based on placenames, they are based on geographic proximity. This is important, because hundreds of the articles involve mountains that are unnamed. Every trip report and photo is indexed by one or more lat-long waypoints, and the system is capeable of searching for them using this information. If you want to see the overall scope, see the Mission Statement.
The basic mountain information is free. I hope that after you come back a few times as a free member, you’ll become convinced that it is worth supporting as a paying member. Being a paying member gives you access to a huge amount of additional information. It costs $25 Canadian dollars per year or $50 for 3 years. Because we do not receive any government grants, this money is essential to keeping the encyclopedia running.
You can become a new member for free, and then convert to a paid membership for unrestricted access to the database.
