UKC

Hi all

I'm fairly new to trad climbing only been doing it about three years but I have a question about guide books if anyone can help.
I mostly climb in the peak and wale and have several CC guide books and one or two rockfax. I like the CC ones because they're the comprehensive but the Rockfax (now this is personal preference) I find easier to read.
My question is why don't Rockfax do comprehensive guidebooks?

In reply to ArranChild:
Alan can answer this for Rockfax but basically, I think it's because the "franchise" for each area's definitive guidebooks is effectively "owned" by someone. So:
- Peak District - BMC
- Lakes - Fell & Rock Climbing Club
- Scotland - Scottish Mountaineering Club (or whatever it's changing its name to)
- Wales (and lots of other bits) - Climbers Club

This is historical although it has changed slightly in recent years; e.g. Gogarth definitive now being commercial rather than Climbers Club.

It takes a lot of work (mainly from volunteers) to do a definitive guide and commercial producers such as rockfax are usually unable to concentrate this amount of resource on such a small area. Also there is the question of being in direct competition with the existing producers (usually clubs) where the profit (if any) goes back into the club to (hopefully) the benefit of all its members.

In reply to ArranChild:

I suspect it's just down to money and the market for books.

Why compete with CC for example when you can do something a bit different.

Comprehensive and selective guide books appeal to different people.

Be thankful for how good guide books are these days, the CC type ones have come on leaps and bounds, thanks partly to the competition from Rockfax. Used to be a mission finding some routes struggling to find a boulder in a boulder field when looking for "start at the obvious boulder" with no pictures!

In reply to ArranChild:

The Dorset guide is probably a comprehensive guide for the sport on Portland at least; possibly also comprehensive for the other areas (but again only for the sport). Probably the exception that proves the rule though.

In reply to ArranChild:


Alan will be able to answer this way better than I can but I'm afraid he's on holiday for the next couple of weeks.