UKC

A friend recently asked what the best guidebook was for the Lake District and I said the FRCC guides. However, I couldn't think of another option...

How come Scotland and Wales are spoiled for choice with a full complement of complete guides and then plenty of independent select guides (two well-known ones for Wales and a few for Scotland) while the Lakes has - to my knowledge - just the FRCC guides and their select guide?

In reply to Mr Fuller:

There was/is a Constable selected climbs to the Lakes. I don't know if it's still in print, Needlesports don't list it.

Slightly (well very) less well known about was a series of three selected guides by Pete Whillance, Dave Armstrong and Steve Clegg. Sufficiently rare that I don't have a copy, also I think that only two of the three were ever printed.

In reply to Mr Fuller:

Although now long out of print, second hand copies of Stephen Reid and Steve Ashton's selected Lakes guide are available for mere pence:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/100-Classic-Climbs-Lake-District/dp/185223055X

- still the most imaginative, inspirational and humorous guide to the best of Lakes climbing for mere mortals there is IMHO.

In reply to Mr Fuller:
It's because the FRCC guides are so brilliant so there's no market for any others!

In reply to Stephen Reid:

Aha! That will do for me then as a decent explanation. I reckon there's market for another, but maybe places like Wales get more traffic and therefore more potential sales.

In reply to Mr Fuller:

Well, the FRCC guides are all produced by a team of local volunteers who really know their areas well. These folk get paid nothing for their work and the bulk of the money that is made goes into ensuring that less popular guides eg Gable & Pillar, Scafell & Wasdale etc can continue to be published. 10% of annual guidebook sales also goes to environmental work in the Lakes to mitigate to some extent the damage that climbers do. Any commercially produced guide would probably jeopardise this arrangement to some extent so I hope that, whether there is a market or not, another guide is not produced, especially as it would almost certainly rely virtually entirely on the FRCC guides for its information.

In reply to Stephen Reid:


I would totally agree.

In reply to Stephen Reid:


Absolutely

In reply to Stephen Reid:

Thanks, I wondered if that might be the case. I know some of the select guides are not well-received by all parties when they rival guides from not-for-profit organisations.

In reply to Mr Fuller:


There's a Lake District Rockfax guide in the pipeline I believe...

In reply to Mr Fuller:

The new Lakeland guidebooks are extremely good.

Easier to use than the CC guides for Snowdonia, and smaller, therefore more user-friendly than the big & bulky Rockfax guides (which are great for single pitch & sport routes, but too big to be carrying on a long multi-pitch).

But more than that, they are inspirational, the detail clearly being a labour of love.