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Back to Annual Meeting Information Rating sessions by experience level. As we have in the past, we’ll be rating each session for beginner, intermediate, and advanced indexers. But people always have questions about what those ratings mean – if I’m a beginner can I go to an advanced-level course anyway? I’ve been indexing for three years, am I intermediate or still a beginner? The truth is, many of the presentations can be enjoyed by people of all experience levels, and much depends on your particular interests and tolerances. For instance, Alice Redmond-Neal, of Access Innovations, will do an all-day session on creating taxonomies. It’s for beginners at taxonomies, rather than beginning indexers. And intermediate and advanced indexers at Margie Towery and Vicki Agee’s program on Creating Elegant Subheadings will come away with different lessons.
Intermediate level presentations will be labeled as Aconcagua. Cerro Aconcagua, in the Argentinian Andes, is the highest mountain in the Americas and the highest peak outside Asia. Also known as “The Stone Sentinel,” despite its height and its rank as one of the seven summits (the highest peaks on all seven continents), the normal route and Polish Glacier Traverse routes up Aconcagua are not technically difficult, although either would be a tough first ascent. The south-west ridge and south face, however, are real monsters and experienced climbers doing the seven summits often pick these routes.
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So, in keeping with our mountaineering theme of Scaling the Heights, we’ll be using different terminologies for experience levels this time around. Courses suitable for beginners will be labeled with the name and/or photo of Ben Nevis. Ben Nevis, a mountain in the Scottish Highlands and the highest point in the British Isles, was the first mountain I ever climbed. It’s a perfect peak for first-timers – there’s even a pony track that goes almost to the top - but it offers many pleasures to the experienced climber as well, including wonderful views and a few fairly challenging faces.
Everyone’s heard of Everest, but apart from the altitude, the Hilary Step, and the Third Step on the North Face, Everest isn’t really a difficult climb. Premier athletes who want to challenge themselves attempt K2, and the key word here is attempt. On the border of Pakistan and China, this second-highest mountain in the world has no easy routes, horrendous weather, and extreme altitude, and requires climbers to navigate alternating fields of snow, ice, and bare rock. In other words, climbing heaven, if you know what you’re doing. Nevertheless, some less experienced Himalayan climbers may profitably scale its lower slopes and ridges.