| A Walking Guide to the Massif de la Chartreuse |
| A Walking Guide to the Massif de la Chartreuse |
One of the problems with the web is that the quality of information is variable, and it is necessary to give sites a "credibility check" before placing too much confidence in their contents. This section is intended to provide the reader with some of the background to the development of the site, so that he may make his own judgements.
The author first visited Chartreuse in 1968 as a member of a university caving expedition to the Cirque de St. Même area. His second visit was in 1985 when he went caving within the Dent de Crolles massif. Since then, he has visited the area every two or three years for two to three week long holidays, mainly walking but also including the occasional caving trip. He has probably spent a total of ten months in the area. Visits have been confined to the period between late May and September.
This site was first developed in 1998, and has since been continually reviewed and enhanced as a result of further visits to the area, feedback from readers, and the availability of enhanced technology (of which there have been quite a few since 1998!). The last major update was in July 2011.
The author is confident in the accuracy of most of the information contained herein. The walks on the hills don't change much, but the Regional Park Authorities are investing in new car parks, and sign-posting, so that level of detail can change from year to year. Forestry is also on a more industrial scale than it used to be, and some of the traditional paths on the lower slopes of the hills have been ruthlessly destroyed by forestry tracks. Readers are often kind enough to let him know of any inaccuracies or ambiguities they find.
The availability and prices of maps and literature is checked as often as is practical from web-based sources, and all hyperlinks are checked regularly using an in-house developed PHP transaction.
The following sites local to Chartreuse provide a link to this site, without comment.
The following are some of the sites that link to this site with comment:
Comments from readers may be found in the Guest Book.
This site uses XHTML and makes extensive use of Cascading Style Sheets, and hence assumes a reasonably modern browser. The site has been checked for compatibility with MS IE V5.0 and later; Opera V6 and later; Netscape V6 and later; Mozilla 1.3 and later; Google Chrome 1.0 and later; and Safari 3.2 and later - all under MS Windows.
The CSS and HTML code is validated using the W3C markup validation service. This is made easier by using a batch interface developed by the author in PHP. Links are checked regularly using another tool developed by the author.
The Guest Book was developed by the author, and is written in PHP and MySQL, and has had to feature strong antispam measures. The Photograph Album software was also developed by the author using PHP and XML
The site is best viewed with a minimum screen size of 800*600 pixels (although the Photograph Albums require a somewhat wider screen to display to their full advantage). Some use is made of JavaScript, but the site does not rely on it. Session cookies are used to help ensure that a guest book entry is not being submitted by spamming software. The pages are designed to be printer friendly, and only the main content part of the page will be printed - without the title bar and the menu bar. A PDF file (3.16 Mb) of the print version of the web site without and photographs, is available for download. A version compatible with the Amazon Kindle (3.11 Mb) is also available. A new edition is produced once a year.
I would like to thank Dave Checkley and Peter Monk for the use of their underground photographs taken in the Grotte Chevalier, the Guiers Vif, the Trou du Glaz, and the Guiers Mort, and also for their company in those caves. I would also like to thank John Sellers and Peter Schuller for the use of their photographs, and a number of correspondents who have been kind enough to comment constructively on the route descriptions. Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Mary Carlisle, to whom this web site is dedicated, who has been the perfect companion on our walks, and who loves the area as much as I do.
John Gardner owns the copyright in the computer files that comprise this publication.
Additional copyright in the text, photographs and images may reside with other authors as indicated. The copyright owners assert their Moral Rights under the Design, Copyright and Patents Act 1988. Reproduction of part or all of the contents of any of these web pages is prohibited except to the extent permitted in this notice unless prior agreement has been obtained from the copyright owners.
You are welcomed to download these web pages onto a hard disk or print them for your personal use. You are NOT permitted to use any of the pages or parts of pages in any other work or publication in whatever medium stored. No part of these pages may be distributed or copied for any commercial purpose.
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