UKC

Gogarthgate comes to a close as a sea of change sweeps the Climbers' Club that includes a new policy on guidebooks and other issues, and personnel changes.

Read the CC's press release at the News page of UKClimbing.com... http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
"and there have been problems with the PSC/ commissioning author interface" - what's that in English ?

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: Maybe it's jsut me but wouldn't "..the winds of change.." or "..a seachange.." work better? It just doesn't sound/look right.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Sounds a fair and balanced statement to me.

(I have 15 CC guides on my shelf.)

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Pretty magnanamous and sensible response from the CC, hopefully that'll end the criticism and the CC can strengthen their postion in other guie book areas.

In reply to Dave C:

I read it as a sea of champagne! Wishful thinking...

Mick

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: I'm not sure I'd say that it's come to a close - 'We are presently in discussion with Ground Up about the possibilities of collaboration, but no decisions have been made on either side'.

I agree with Tyler though - the CC statement is about finding a way forward rather than attempting to find excuses for the way in which things have developed.

In reply to Tyler:

Being magnanimous is fine, but most of the PSC has decamped to Ground Up as the report suggests, doing something more constructive than that might be tricky.


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs: It's the authors who have decamped, not the PSC.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

And your point is ???

FIVE CC guides due out in the next 18 months. Sounds good to me.

In reply to John2:

Oh aye, sorry.

I guess that just stymies any CC attempt at a Gogarth guide in the near future, I assume that is why they are 'in discussion' with GU then.

Chris

In reply to Jonno:

Five guides in the next eighteen months sounds good to me too. Though I do wonder if they have factored in the time/effort needed to bring the style of these into the 21st century - its not as easy as is oft assumed!


Chris

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
Reading the news item I notice that Mark Valance is going to 'rake over the Chair'.
That's a bit harsh! I'm sure they were all doing their best.

Or could it be the first proofing error of the new era?

So they produced the Llanberis, Cloggy, Tremadog and Cwm Silyn guides...

Of which Tremadog had the misconceived "no stars" policy and also left you unable to find half the crags, never mind individual routes..

And the Llanberis guide has, well, "interesting" photo topos ie. they look like they were taken through the end of a milk bottle.

Cloggy and Cwn Silyn are excellent. But, a 50% strike rate is hardly good.

In reply to JonC: You're hard, man.

Offered the choice, which guidebooks would you take away? The 4 CC guides mentioned or the NWales Select guide from Ground Up?

Which guidebook really does impress you and why?

In reply to JonC:

I didn't like the 'no stars' policy at first when I bought the Tremadog guide but I think it's distinctly preferrable to the 'galactic' approach in the Borrowdale/Langdale guides. I'd much rather see them ditch stars than exaggerate the merit of a moss-and-choss-fest like 'Remembrance' (**!!) on Gimmer.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

I'd hardly describe this as a "sweeping" change. Mike Rosser stepping down to be replaced by Mark Vallance is the only change I can see. Otherwise it's the same - the CC have been planning to change for several years!

The new style will include a less formal look+feel, photo-topos, better diagrams - all the features the climbing public praise the Rockfax guides for. Mick's headline-improving "Gogarthgate" was not the catalyst, the new style was developed years ago by Ian Smith and others - it's just taking an age to get the guides into print.

In reply to rehab21:


I do like the Lakes guides but would agree that the FRCC went OTT with stars in the "new" Langdale (and to an extent Borrowdale) guides.

The guide which I like the best - probably Cloggy. Totally inspiring; from the Indian Face essay to the historical section to the route descriptions themselves. Having said that, I think the guide was allowed to run away with itself and be a bit verbose simply because it's a small guide and padding it out a bit didn't hurt it. Some of the guides to larger areas couldn't take that. But..to be fair, they worked out what they wanted and produced it extremely well.

PGE was a revellation despite the naysayers. Unfortunately the new version is not actually as good, imho, as the old one. Tries to do too much. The old PGE was bang on. The new Burbage area guide is excellent as well.

Other than that, I love my old Buttermere & East guide. I know some people hate it, but whilst using it I have never got lost getting to the crag or climbing the route and, yes, it inspires me over a decade on.