Online declaration of passes

Overview

Members of the Club des Cent Cols make an annual declaration of their new passes by sending a list to their territorial delegate (DT). This is traditionally done by sending a written list or, to simplify processing, a computer file such as Excel or Calc. Now, members can also enter a list of new passes directly onto the club website. This article explains how. A short tutorial for declaring passes is also available. Instructions for new members are set out at the end of the article.
Members can also register the passes they have already officially declared, before the introduction of online declarations, on a new indicative list. Specific documentation is available for this.

Preparation of a pass list

Most members are used to keeping a list of the passes they have climbed in the form of a spreadsheet. If this is not already the case, simple ODS (Calc) and XLSX (Excel) models are recommended. From such a list, declaring your passes online can be done by a simple copy and paste process. The following data must be set out in column form:

1. Pass code: this must always be given. To find codes that you don’t know, download the necessary catalogues. The country code (ISO 3166 two-letter code) must always be present at the beginning of the pass code.
2. The name of the pass, or one of its names if the pass has more than one name.
3. The altitude of the pass. This can be omitted, but then the name given must really correspond to the code. Indeed, if the altitude is missing, it cannot be used to confirm doubtful cases where the spelling of the name is too approximate. Two details: do not use a thousand separator, i.e. 1234 and not 1 234 or 1’234, and do not add the unit (m).
4. The date you have climbed the pass: this entry is optional. The date can be given by the year, the month and year, or the day, month and year, for example: 2020, 8-2019 or 25-6-2017. For the months, you must use their number and not their name or an abbreviation. This date does not necessarily correspond to the year for which a pass is counted, in particular for passes recognised at a later date.
5. Other comments for the attention of the DT are possible.

The order of the columns is not essential but to avoid any confusion the altitude should precede the date and the name should precede the description. If your own file has too different a structure, you are recommended to use the ODS (Calc) or XLSX (Excel) model to prepare your list for submission. It may also be a good idea to add an extra sheet to your Excel file in order to copy just the desired columns (see above) and set them out in the right order. You can further use a CSV (plain text) format, for example for those who have a database from which to export their list.

Entering your pass list

On the club website, the relevant page for entering your list is:
https://www.centcols.org/membres/cols/
You must log in as a member to reach this page. In the menu that appears, there is a section for the official declaration of passes. Within this section is a large box in which you can paste your list of passes. The data must be in columns as explained above (points 1 to 5). The data must be separated by commas, semicolons, or tabs. If you copy them from a spreadsheet, the data is automatically well separated.
At the bottom of the page, you need to choose whether your declaration is partial or final. The difference is that a partial declaration is one that is not direrctly sent to your DT. The cols on it are registered, but are still awaiting submission. It is when a final declaration is sent that the delegate will receive all the lists (partial + final). Alongside these options is a button which allows you to send your list. Your list will automatically be analysed to see whether the submitted passes were found in the col database and whether the names and altitudes match. This analysis leads to a classification by categories. You will see a table of these categories shown above the table of submitted passes. Attention, at this stage, nothing is yet registered. Your first step is to check whether the data provided has been interpreted correctly. Errors or simple inaccuracies can easily occur, and you must then go back to the previous step to correct the list. When in doubt, please refer to the list of frequently asked questions at the end of this document.
Please note that passes that are deemed invalid will not be registered at all and therefore not submitted to the DT. These are for example those classified as category 3 (incomplete or inconsistent data) or category 6 (pass already declared, exclusion, or duplicate). As a reminder, exclusions are passes with two coded passages (often a tunnel and a pass on the ridge). According to the rules of the game, only one can be declared. For border passes, it is only possible to declare them once, even if there are two codes.
To make it easier to check your list, you can click on the column headers in the table to sort your columns by code, category etc.

Sending your list

After everything has been checked, and, if necessary, corrected, your list may be registered (button at the bottom of the page).
If the list contains invalid records, a warning will be given. There will also be a warning if passes are declared which had already been registered as indicative. It is certainly not forbidden to register a pass as indicative and then declare it later. However, in most cases, members who have registered passes had already declared them by sending a list to their DT. These passes were then already counted and it would not be permissible to re-declare them.
In the case of a final declaration, members should send a short message to their DT, who will be alerted automatically.

Validation by your DT

Your DT will see the same category classification as you do. This classification will help him decide which passes can be accepted or not. If he deems it appropriate, he may add comments concerning certain passes; and you will be advised of his decisions in an automated message. In this message, there will be a link that allows you to see how your declared passes were treated by the DT: https://www.centcols.org/membres/cols/cols.php?andec=ancc

New members

For the moment, it is not yet possible to register the passes of a non-member. When a candidate
presents his initial list of passes, he or she must first be registered as a member. The person responsible for registering new members can then make an initial declaration based on the list they have received from the applicant. They can then also accept the valid passes and enter their number on the new member’s form.

Questions and answers (FAQ)

Question: Why ask for the name and the altitude of the pass, when the code should suffice?
Answer: In theory, yes. But in practice it is too easy to make a small mistake on a code.

Q: I have correctly entered the code of all my passes, but one of them is shown as “code not found in the database”. Why?
A: This is probably a typo. Or it is a code which was present in an old regional catalogue of Italy or Spain and this code has not been included in the national catalogue.

Q: A pass I made in 2021 appears without a date but with an altitude of 2021 m. Why?
A: By itself, 2021 can represent both a year and an altitude. To make this distinction, you should always put the altitude before the year of passage.

Q: One of my cols is classified as “already declared or duplicate”. How can I check if is that the case?
A: The first thing to do is to check your list. Don’t forget that the same col can be present under
different codes if it is on the border between two countries. Otherwise, you will have to open the next page and see if the col is already there as “new”, “accepted” or “refused”:
https://www.centcols.org/membres/cols/cols.php

Q: Can I resubmit a pass that was refused but is now in the catalogue?
A: Yes.

Q: Can I submit my passes in multiple instalments?
A: Yes. Use this for the partial declaration option. And keep your final declaration for the end of the year.

Q: I’ve made some partial claims and would now like to finalise my claim. But I haven’t any more cols to add. What ca I do?
A: Simply tell your DT and he will process all the cols that you have already claimed. See the address on the https://www.centcols.org/contact/ page of the website. It is also possible to make a final declaration without any pass.

Q: In a road brevet, I have two mutually exclusive variants of a pass. I can have the brevet with only one of the variants, but I’ve passed them both and I’d like them both to be displayed. As I can only declare one of them, what do I do about the second?
A: Once a variant has been declared, it is always possible to register the other variant as indicative:
https://www.centcols.org/membres/cols/enregcols.php

Q: In my list of passes made, what are the so-called “indicative” passes?
A: Refer to the documentation on the list of members’ cols
https://www.centcols.org/membres/cols/

Q: When I enter my official claim, some passes show up with the word “indicative” in red in the column present state. And this triggers a warning before I can submit the claim. Why? What can I do?
A: You had registered these passes with the tool Registering other cols. Now, you have to review your claim according to the recommendations given in the tutorial about “double entries”.