South Devon offers a wealth of varied climbing. This sister guide to Dartmoor (2017) covers all the climbing outside of the granite mass. Whilst the main attractions for visiting climbers are the adventure routes and Deep Water Solos on Torbay limestone, there are enough sport climbs, boulder problems, and trad climbs to keep locals busy for years. Now THE comprehensive guide to climbing in South Devon; with details of 74 crags and over 1800 routes, including recent developments.
- South Devon by Pete Saunders (2018)
- Editor Ian Smith
- Design, page layout & typesetting/pagesetting by Pete Saunders
- Photo diagrams by Pete Saunders & Simon Wooster
- Map artwork by Don Sargeant
- 504 pages of text and photodiagrams
- ISBN 978-0-957281-57-8
Comments
I should be receiving my copy later today, will post some initial impressions as soon as I've finished my first pass. A more detailed review will be published within the next few weeks.
Very excited to see this one!
The photos look superb in this!
I'm going to keep this short, simply so that it's very much a 'first impression' and not an actual review, but here's my opening gambit: what a lot of routes!!
In fact, I should really qualify that, as there's not just routes, there's boulder problems, sport climbs, DWS, and just when you think you'd got it all there's even an alpine grade or two thrown in for the various sandstone monstrosities at Ladram Bay (a nice tip of the cap towards the obscurity of the old Nick White guide).
As a result of the sheer quantity (it's just over 500 pages) this is not a guide you're able to digest within a single session. I barely feel like I've scratched the surface and am looking forward to days/weeks of pouring over the pages. There's pictures aplenty, not to mention the sexiest front cover of any guide in recent years (Ben, you look fantastic), and all-in-all it leaves me very excited about the 1st August.
Still, White Rhino Tea - 6c/+???
;-)
The best sport route in the country.
The best dws route in the country (and therefore by extension the world).
The best flowstone in the country.
I bloody love South Devon
On that note, it's probably about time to air the following article written by the guidebook author back in 2011: https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/britains_finest_climb-3218
Having done this route, I really can't think of many that compare...
Finally, we've got a South Devon destination article coming out within the next week or two (again, written by Pete - what a hero), so keep your eyes peeled for that.