UKC

Hi all, I am taking my bouldering outdoors this summer and have been looking around for guidebooks for Yorkshire and the North of England. I was just wondering which guides people consider the best as there are a lot to choose from and being a student I can only really afford 1, (maybe 2 depending on the price), so I would like to make the best possible choice. Any help would be much appreciated

It depends where about in Yorkshire you are, but I use the YMC Yorkshire Gritstone Volume 1 and 2 guides and Over The Moors more than the Total Climbing Yorkshire Gritstone Bouldering guides.

I live in the flattest part of Yorkshire (East) so I am looking for anywhere really, I will give those guides a look and see what areas they cover, thanks for the reply!

Where are you based? 

I don't quite get your affordability angle as transport costs soon overtake the cost of a guidebook. The three guides described above (YMC grit and OtM) are quite simply as good as UK guidebooks get and they are great value for money.

If you're out east then it might be that your nearest crags are in the North York Moors, for which there is a fairly new dedicated bouldering guide.

http://www.betaguides.co.uk/home-downloads/north-york-moors-and-east-coast-...

Otherwise you're looking at Yorkshire Grit which isn't specifically bouldering but certainly covers just about everything that you might be interested in. If you've not done much bouldering before then I'd reccommend Volume 1 which covers Almscliff, Caley, Brimham etc.

There's also a free online resource that you can scour for less well-known crags. www.unknownstones.com

Hang on. Just seen that you're based in Newcastle. In which case you may find that Northumberland is equally accessible. There is a dedicated bouldering guide: http://shop.thebmc.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=357_463_289&products_id...

You can also get some free PDF downloads for some of the smaller venues. There's a Facebook group called County Psyche where I think you can find the links to them.

For the north of England, there are bouldering specific guidebooks which cover...

Yorkshire, Peak District, Churnet, Lancashire, Lake District, The North York Moors, Northumberland.

They are all great places, with different styles and several lifetimes of climbing. If you haven't done much outdoors, then you have a whole world to explore. Most people buy guidebooks and keep using them for decades, so if you are a keen climber you won't be wasting money.  But if you can only afford one, get a local one first. Then plan a trip somewhere a bit further away, and get that one. And so on... have fun!

I am based in Newcastle when I am at uni so won't really be up there this summer which is why I am looking around Yorkshire to start with. Thanks for the links, the Northumbria guide will be useful once I am back up there in a few months.

Yeah this is my plan, start with one guidebook to work with for this summer and start expanding to new areas over time!

About 12 miles East of York, the cost of running my van is quite expensive which is why I only want to get 1 or 2 guidebooks to start with, so I can save the money I have for other expenses.

As Will says... YMC grit Volume 1 is probably best then. All the guides Robin listed are very good.