What is Closed Contour?

Simply put, Closed Contour is my attempt to create modern topographic maps using publically available data. Here's what I'm after:

User-specific data. I'm into peak climbing and I want my maps to be focused on that.
Aesthetically pleasing. A topographic map should look good at every scale and viewing distance.
Editable. Ideally the map should be editable in a wiki style (like openstreetmap.org) but I'll settle for just me being able to make changes.
Consistent. The units, contour interval, typography, coloring, scale, etc. should all be consistent across the entire mapped area.
Printable. The map should be printable at an accurate scale.
Web interface. This isn't too much to ask, there's plenty of good mapping interfaces (even open source) out there and you can already find the USGS topos in them.

There's no single solution that meets all of my needs right now so I'm going to try to build one. This blog will chronicle how that goes.