UKC

Normally I just go for a rockfax :P for trips or definitive guide for local areas i'll be visiting more than once. Unfortunately, rockfax havn't managed to crack the states yet. Does anyone have recommendations for which guidebook is best? I'll ideally be doing a few classic aid routes but would like to focus on free routes. (obviously the easy ones!)

In reply to Kemics:

Supertopo. Rockfax of the USA.

In reply to Kemics:

Yosemite Big Walls - duh!

In reply to Kemics:

try and avoid the supertopo they are awful! think there might be a more definitive falcon one?

In reply to Kemics:
The definitive guidebook to Yosemite has been out of print for over ten years.
Incredible when you think this is probably the greatest climbing area in the world.
Rockfax get on the case!

In reply to Duncan Campbell:

I'm intrigued, why awful? I've used the big walls book (2 editions) and free climbs as well as their Red Rocks. Sure, they have some minor mistakes which all guidebooks suffer from but they are a huge improvement on the old-style definitive guides like the guide to the valley from Falcon IMHO.

In reply to SteveM:

because the free climbs book has such a limited number of routes?!? Its frikking YOSEMITE VALLEY and it probably has less described climbing than the main cliff section of North Wales Rock!! This causes major queuing issues and does what is obviously an amazing climbing area a dis-service. plus those line drawings can be a right ballache to use.

I liked the history bits on each route but realistically they are over-indulgent when more routes could be fitted in instead.

In reply to Kemics:

Supertopo guides are fine for the well trodden classics.

Yosemite Big Walls is an amazing geeky directory with a lifetimes worth of climbing.

The definitive guides by Don Reid and Steve Roper are out of print and a new free climbs guide is apparently in the making from http://www.yosemitebigwall.com/

In reply to Duncan Campbell:


That seems unjust.

IME Supertopo offer pretty good selective guides. The Falcon guide looks dated and as far as I know they haven't been in print for some years?

In reply to Kemics:

I'm pretty sure that the last time I rummaged through the sale box at V12 (wales) they had the Falcon guides to both Yosemite and Tuolumne if that’s any use?
For what it’s worth the Supertopo guides take a little getting used to when compared to your average UK guide book and the amount of climbs that are not included is staggering, but when you consider the size of the place that’s hardly surprising. It can however be a little confusing when you follow a line and then a random bolt you weren’t expecting appears and makes you question if you have wandered off route. They do try to mark lines that are not fully described that you are likely to encounter but the sheer volume of rock makes this a herculean task.
All in all the Supertopo guides are very good and if you download the mountain project app as well that can help fill in some blanks and point you at other great lines that do not have a que of climbers on them.
Ps – take care with some of the pitch lengths…..they can and do stretch a 60m rope.

In reply to SGD:
I have the Falcons and Supertopos for the park and still use Mountain Project for background as its full of information, including grade votes and latest condition details. The existing guides are fine unless you need mollycoddling ... when arguably you shouldnt be climbing in the valley anyhow. The new valley guidebook is well underway (I saw box files of detail 3 years back at Facelift).. yet its a herculean task compared to the guidebook work in the teams I've worked in.

In reply to Kemics:

There is no good, readily available, guide for Yosemite at this time. The only readily available guide for general rock-climbing (rather than focus on big-wall routes) is the Supertopo select book. The major problem with this guide is that it is a select, so has a limited number of routes, and that it is the only readily available guide book, therefor the routes in this guide get a LOT of traffic. This means likely crowding on the routes, line-ups to get on the routes, and often a lot of polish on the routes as well.

There are older, more complete guides that have been out of print for a decade or more.

There are rumours of a couple of up-coming more-complete (a fully "complete" guide may not be truly possible), but none has a solid availability date at this time.

In reply to Kemics:

The supertopo guides are good and will see you through a first trip atleast. Generally they have a great selection of routes and the topos are easy to follow. I've probably spent maybe 5 weeks total in Yosemite over a few trips and i still haven't bought the comprehensive guide. I seem to recall that we didn't find the yosemite supertop the best for locating some of the smaller crags, unless you've been to them before.

In reply to dagibbs:
They are available:

http://www.amazon.com/Yosemite-Climbs-Free-Don-Reid/dp/0934641595

As the Supertopo routes tend to be a best of the range they cover I suspect much of the traffic is because of that... not because of the availability of guidebooks. I've also queued on starred routes not in Supertopo. I think part of this is the increasing use of Mountain Project. Most people we met in areas with no available guides on Amazon, like Needles and Sequoia/ Kings Canyon areas, were using their phones. I've always climbed in the Valley at pretty much peak time on the Sept/Oct border and the queues have never been that bad (and always good natured, unlike in continental Europe) : nothing like as busy as UK 3 star mountain punter routes on a good summer weekend. The park limits pretty much mean the climbing can never be rammed, like say a peak weekend at Stanage.

Thanks everyone for the response. Looks like super topo is the way to go, though I might get the falcon guide too just to cover as many bases as possible. (I did buy a guide for arizona from falcon...it was fairly limited)

It seems mind blowing that the supposedly the best climbing area in the world doesn't have 100's of guide books. I'm only there for a few weeks so I'm not too worried about honey potting as i'll probably only get a limited number of routes done...unless i go full dirt bag and dont come back for work