UKC

Received John Rushforth's new guide book this week. It has been worth the wait, I am fired with new enthusiasm for my trip in a couple of weeks! Thank you John and Lynne I hope to bump in to you sometime to get it sighed some day.( I'm not connected to Rockfax or the author, just a satisfied customer.)

In reply to Pedro:

I got one by his brother, James. Looks just as good.

In reply to Pedro:
Ha ha Pedro that post promoted a quick and panicked check of the front of the guidebook to check 'John' wasn't written on - heart in mouth moment!

Thanks very much both of you. Nothing more rewarding than a nice bit of positive feedback after 3 years work.

We'll keep an eye out for you on the hill!

In reply to Pedro:

Proves I'm not related, couldn't even get the name right! So sorry.

In reply to James Rushforth:

Got mine over a week a go and I am now very excited about my trip out there at the end of Sept.

Good work James/John.

Martin

In reply to Pedro:

Mine is on order...

In reply to James Rushforth:

Had my copy around a week. Superb looking book. May be a while till I get to use it in earnest, but it's fantastic to thumb through and get inspired.
The usual Rockfax clarity and ease of use, but I feel it has a little more character than many other Rockfax guides, a little more historical information, and the outstanding action photography set it apart in my opinion.
Seems like exactly what you would need on the ground in one volume too - the long trad classics that are the main draw, plus good Sports and Via Ferrata options for those lighter/iffy weather days. Fantastic job James.

In reply to all:

Pedro - No worries! And thanks very much.

mountain.martin - Thanks very much, let me know how you get on / what you get up to!

Oujmik - I hope you like it, let me know what you think...

The Ivanator - Thanks very much for the kind words, I hope you get chance to use it soon. It's always hard to know how much history / culture etc to include as some people love it, others would rather a few more routes were squeezed in!

In reply to Pedro:

I'm moving to Riva del Garda to teach English. I just got the Classic Dolomites guide.It looks amazing. Dolomites have been on my it list for a long time. I haven't climbed much this past year but I usually lead trad in the 5.9-5.10 range. I'm tossing seeds out for partners in the Arco area as well as Dolomites. I know one climber there so far. He's not that available to climb. I arrive the 24th of September. Are you in the area? Or do you know of any climbers in the area? Thanks! Bethan Gilmartin

In reply to bethan27:

Erstwhile who frequents the forums lives in the area I believe. He might know some climbing partners you might be able to tap up.

In reply to Pedro:

Unfortunately it came out just too late for my trip to the Dolomites this year, although in the event it didn't make too much difference as it pissed down all the time and we hardly got anything done anyway.
Had a flick through it in a shop the other day and it looks very good, I shall buy it for next time I go. If I could make one criticism however, it would be the shear size and weight of the book makes it a bit cumbersome to haul up multipitch routes.
I wonder if Rockfax have ever considered a different format as its always a problem with their otherwise excellent guides to any multipitch area.

In reply to pec:

Thanks for your kind comments about the guides.


We have considered all sorts of different formats over the years. Sadly any style with removable pages is either to expensive or too fragile to be workable.

We have developed PDF versions of some of our guides but this has caused problems with copyright since people just passed them around.

For the last three years we have been developing our App version and this should finally provide a long-standing solution to the heavy book problem. All our books will be available in both printed and digital format and you will be able to purchase individual crags as well so that you could just buy the odd crag if you wanted to use the book most of the time.

As a stop gap, you can take a photo of the required page on your phone and use that since you will probably be carrying the phone up the route anyway.

Cheers

Alan

In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:

Thanks for the reply, I know those digital options exist and perhaps I'm a bit of a traditionalist but I don't like to rely on gadgetry, the screens are too small and I personally find screens hard to see in bright sunlight, then there's battery life and keeping it dry in bad weather issues. The picture quality in the book is so good it seems a shame to use anything which reduces that. Route finding in the Dolomites is hard enough without having to squint at a 2" screen!

I realise you have commercial considerations and other people have other preferences but for what its worth, my own preference is for a slightly smaller page size so it doesn't get in the way dangling your harness as much and a 2 in 1 book format like the AC Dolomites or the CC Ogwen and Carneddau guides so you only carry the volume you need.

In reply to pec:

Hi Pec,
I agree re: the size of the guide - we used it for our trip last week and it's just slightly too big to fit into a standard sized guide book cover. Just fits into map pocket of my jacket though! Lack of guide cover did mean it ended up a bit dog eared by the end of the trip - but on the plus side, I do like a guide with duct tape holding bits of it together!

Cicerone's Ben Nevis winter climbing guide is available as an e-book, and I really like this as I can print off individual pages, topos etc it'd be great if more guides went down this route!

The content and setting of the Rockfax guide is really good though - far better than the German and Italian guides my partner had or the Newer Western Dolomites book I used last year for Canazei area.

Topo's are good and clear, route descriptions pretty good and I like the symbols used (first time I've used a rockfax guide).

Good to have a mix of climbing and via ferrata too, and I always like reading the history sections of guides to good to see a reasonable section on that too. Definitely glad I bought it for the trip.

In reply to Pedro:

Just back from the dolomites. The new guide was excellent. Unlike the weather. Once again many thanks to James and Lynne.