UKC

I was just wondering if anybody knew if either Hard Rock or Extreme Rock were/are ever going to be reprinted?
If anybody has a copy of either for sale I would be very interested.
Thanks.

In reply to mikekeswick:

I think the copper printing plates no longer exist so it's not going to happen. I believe that there have been some threads on this matter before

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Is that the case with Hard Rock too?

It certainly is with Extreme Rock, but Hard Rock has has previous reprints I believe, so to lose the plates for HR would just be careless.

In reply to Blue Straggler: Surely it's not beyond modern technology to produce the book again without the copper plates, or would it be too difficult to get the same quality on the photos?

In reply to Southern Man:

Oh I thought it was both but it sounds like you are better informed and I am just muddled!

In reply to deacondeacon:

I think on one of the many earlier threads on the topic, many people stated an assumption that page-by-page scanning should suffice, and that suggestion was kind of shot down possibly for cost reasons.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Ah ok. I hope they haven't lost the plates for HR anyway as I spilt tea all over mine!

For the OP. You could still buy Hard Rock new a few years ago, so you'll likely find a second hand copy that doesn't cost a fortune I'd have thought.

There was talk of a facsimile reprint of Extreme Rock (mentioned in the inside cover of the recent reprint of Classic Rock) but it doesn't seem to have happened.

Hard Rock is the better book anyway imo.

In reply to Blue Straggler: I'd quite like to see a kindle or similar version of it (or even the scans online) It's such an iconic book but alas, I couldn't justify spending £200 on it so it's unlikely I'll get to look through it.
Actually Sheffield Library has a huge climbing/ mountaineering collection so I think I'll enquire down there.

In reply to deacondeacon:

It's not beyond modern technology at all. A good repro house could get the photos in a decent state, but the limiting factor will always be the quality of the original printing, which wasn't that great, I don't think.

For the publishers, I think one of the problems would be that the book has great rarity value, but would be less attractive as a new edition, without that rarity value. Given the nature of the routes featured in the book, it is no longer quite so representative of the state of British climbing at that level, so it's definitely a piece of its time.

I still reckon one option would be to make it available as an ebook, with a print option at a premium price.

In reply to Southern Man:
The Baton Wickes homepage is still showing Extreme Rock as reprinting in 2009, which obviously hasn't happened. I did once email Ken Wilson about this, but he hasn't done anything about it.

A "facsimilie reprint" of extreme rock is stated as in the works in my reprint of classic rock. But that was produced years ago.