Climbing Books

I am an experienced world traveler and mountain climber who used this book in 1999. I must say, I have never been so disappointed with a travel book in all my life. A few points: in the little town of Tlachichuca, Secor leads you to ONE person for climbing assistance. Knowing that, they take FULL advantage of climbers, grossly overcharging for services. Two: Secor's route descriptions are seemingly detailed but upon use are revealed as painfully inadequate. For instance, at Citlaltépetl, Secor makes not one word of mention regarding "la lengua", the tongue of the glacier, which turns out to be the most difficult part of the whole ascent. Finally, and this is the most personal and non-important point to a casual reader, I don't like Secor's decision to follow the poor precedent set by the Mountaineers of favoring non-indigenous peak names. Thus as Tahoma and Koma Kulshan became Rainier and Baker, the majestic Citlaltépetl is reduced to Pico de Orizaba. All in all, this is a good start (given the lack of anything better) but definitely make sure that every piece of information used from this book is followed up by a second source to avoid certain rip off and/or disappointment.

RJ did a great job with this book. I used it way back in 1988 to climb the 3 big ones and found it absolutely accurate. He's got some great tips in there too!

The book has a comprehensive list of routes for each mountain, it also provides good advice for begineers. However, there are two things I don't like form this book: 1) Need an update to reflect latest changes (Popo for example) 2) The book looks too simplistic, the format is ver bad for the type of information. The book has very few quality photos and the routes are difficult to follow.

I wish I could find a more up-to-date book about these beatiful mountains

I just read the only other review available for this book and felt a 2nd opinion was worthwhile...

Eldo is a worldclass climbing destination. This means that the place is changing. The book is a few years old so yes - some of the data about raps and fixed gear(for example) isn't completely accurate. (but then no climber should rely entirely on any guidebook!)

However, this guide has an incredible amount of information about the incredible number of climbs. The route descriptions are excellent and the maps more than suffice. Eldo is a big place with a ton of routes. I'd like to see someone try to better organize and describe the routes - I don't think it can be done. The book IS organized well, it just takes some time to get oriented to the canyon and it's MANY formations.

Any place as big and historic as eldorado canyon is going to be very hard to cram into a single guidebook. Rossiter does an exceptional job. Any experienced climber will find this book to more that suit their needs for a trip to eldo.

This is an excellent book, invaluable for serious Eldo climbers. Whoever wrote that first review probably didn't read the intro to the guide where it describes how to use the book. People who know how to use guidebooks to confusing climbing areas should have no problems.

This guidebook is not only confusing, it is downright DANGEROUS to depend upon. The tragedy is that it is the only guidebook devoted totally to Eldo.

Why this book [stinks]:

1. There is no logic to the formatting. Seems totally random. Is it north/south? east/west? You can't tell! Therefore you cannot just walk along the cliffs & flip pages SEQUENTIALLY to figure out where the [devil] you are. No attempt even made to match text descriptions of routes to the topos on opposing pages. Nor to place trail maps in logical places in relation to routes/parking areas. He counts each section's routes from "1" again, so you have route numbers repeated all over the place. (You can't just say, "Look up route #16." There are SEVEN route "16s".)

2. Topos are a joke

3. Book lacks USEFUL photos with route ID lines

Lots of pretty pictures of elite climbers doing 11s - 13s, but rarely a photo to help the mortals of us find moderates or ANYONE to even know where he is. (Many pretty photos though of the author and his friends being rock jocks.)

4. Rappel locations & escape routes NOT clearly indicated.

5. Book weighs a TON. Would have been better to break this anvil of a book into sections for each area, that you can clip to a harness. (Like the guides for the Gunks).

6. . It was not just us -- for 3 trips we were constantly running across people there who had the same book, and cursed it up and down just like we were. Even people who had been climbing there for many seasons.

Rossiter's other guidebooks are plagued by the same lack of organization. He needs to grasp the, "newcomer to the area" perspective, which is the TARGET AUDIENCE for a guidebook, after all.

This man obviously did not have an editor who (ahem) really tested the guidebook by going there and trying to USE it. Which is the only way to judge such a book. Perhaps he did not have an editor at all.

Use at your own GREAT risk. Please supplement with other general Boulder Area guidebooks to get some sanity into the equation.

Dennis has done what a lot of folks have thought about doing, but never quite gotten around to it - a comprehensive guide to the state of New Mexico (Texas is in there, too, but I haven't climbed there, so can't judge that part). It is a very useful book for those of us who live and climb in NM, but as might be expected of a first effort, is incomplete and inaccurate for many areas. Still, having some information is a lot better than having none, so I recommend buying it. Hopefully Dennis will proceed with a second edition, but I doubt it, because there is a limited market, and it's a huge amount of work.

for texas, it is not that great. The enchanted rock guide is all but worthless. Reportedly inaccurate in other areas as well. For an enchanted rock guide, check out erockonline.com

Having put up hundreds of routes in New Mexico, I was expecting this book to be an updated collection of all the new routes that have been going in in New Mexico. It's not. It's a collection of routes from very old sources. Let's hope Walt Wehner or Luke Laeser get their guides done soon!!

A thorough survey of the exploration and first ascents of Colorado's diverse mountainscape. If you want a history of how Colorado's key ranges and the mountains within them were "conquered" by miners, Indians, surveyers, hikers, and gutty climbers then this is the book for you. It gives a great feel for the challenges faced by early climbers and the wonder of adventure in the Colorado high country. Highly recommended for climbing buffs. Not a technical or "beta" book -- this is a very readable survey of a wonderful state.

Some truly fascinating stories here of climbing in the Colorado Rockies with a lot of historical photos. You'll come away with appreciation of the achievements of the old timers. With footnotes, sometimes it seems a little too dry but overall I enjoyed the tales of first ascents, tragedies, legendary figures, and what must of been, great fun. This new edition carries the story right up to this year.

This is a great book if your really into the history of mountaineering. It gives detailed information on the trails of all the Colorado fourteeners and how they have been climbed in the past. The description of the climbs are interesting when reading it from the view of the first climbers of the mountains. A Good Buy For All Peak-Baggers!

I found this a great and interesting book. Messner accounts of his solo ascent with chronicled journal entries and excellent photo's and maps of his route. His story and struggle to solo a high peak like Nanga Parbat is enthrawling in the face of most mountaineering feats. I found myself baffled that Messner has lived through all of his attempts and victored in the face of loneliness and without the apparent safety of an expedition team. This climb never ceases to blow me away!

Right after Messner summited Everest without supplemental oxygen, he went back to Nanga Parbat to solo a new route. I found the book a good read. I was particularly amazed at the difficulty of climbing he attempted while soloing: especially downclimbing a new route after his route was destroyed by an earthquake when he was still on the face!

I read this book years ago and was much more impressed with Messner's feats than with his writing. He succeeds in giving a sense of what it's like to climb a Himalayan peak sans bottled oxygen, and it is fortunate to have someone who can tell us firsthand about Nanga Parbat's Rupal Face, but the writing (unlike the sheer faces Messner has climbed in record time) is of a low grade. If there is anyone in the world who needs a detailed biography written on him, it is Messner. He is indeed the Michael Jordan of climbing; no one is in his league. But man do I wish some good, talented, informed writer would do a bio on this guy. No more bios on Lady Di and Donald Trump--please! Messner is a subject ripe for someone willing and able.

We had a copy of this book and took it with us to the Strawberry Lodge last week.
What a mistake. Just go ahead and write 'sucker' on your forehead and get it over with.
First off, the author has changed information about the climbs, not to mention re-named some. This made the long-time locals of the area really mad and we found out how much.
We had the book at the Lodges' bar, and did we hear about the author and his dubious ways of earning a living.
After hanging out in the area for a few days, we got all of the beta we needed about the local routes.
I would not recommend this book to anybody. The only people who do, are friends of the author, so I don't expect unbias opinions from them.

This guide isn't as comprehensive as the Falcon guide. But what is there is very detailed and accurate.

Worth every penny and then some.

Don't let the personal grudge posted above sway you from purchasing a very helpful resource for climbing in the South Lake Tahoe area. I happen to know this is SuperTopo's best selling guidebook. There's a reason for that.

I have the older Carville guide which is still handy for finding some obscure gems but for most cragging trips it's the ST guide that goes in my pack.

I know why Fleming's readers stay found: after they set up their maps to take a bearing they are reluctant to move again.

Friends of mine use Fleming's method of laying their maps on the ground and orienting everything just so before they transfer bearings to the map. It's time-consuming and they often goof up because the darned map moves around. (Fleming suggests putting rocks on the map edges.) My objection is that there is a much quicker, easier and foolproof method and other map and compass books (and compass manufacturers' handbooks) that I've seen use it: Use a compass with settable declination and when you transfer your bearing to the map, align your compass's meridian lines with the map's grid lines. You don't need to orient your map; you could be standing on your head and it wouldn't matter. This method only takes a few seconds to accomplish (as long as you don't stand on your head). To be fair, Fleming includes this method in an appendix for people who can't find a flat place (and people who maybe don't have all day to take bearings).

Fleming's objection to the faster, easier method is that grid north is not the same as true north. In my area, there's about 1/2 degree difference so big woo. If it matters, draw lines of longitude on your map before you start.

I think Fleming is in love with her "main" method even though it's not very practical for the kinds of people she's addressing. Give it up, June, and you'll have a better book.

I agree, the method of drawing lines on maps is egregiously flawed. For one, you must keep drawing lines on your map every year to change with declination. For every degree of error in calculating declination you can expext to miss your target by 1/60 of your distance travelled. Having said this, Fleming presents the material in an easy to understand format. She will help you to become a more confident backcountry traveller. Better to know what you are doing instead of drawing lines.

Fleming's objective is to provide a way of using a map & compass that is easy to remember as well as being not intimidating, and she achieves these results remarkably well in her book Staying Found. I have been out in the woods backpacking off-trail and have been able to use these techniques successfully, not only "staying found" but also navigating to small hidden lakes. Carol in California is lucky - in MY area, the declination is currently 19 degrees. Considering this value drifts back & forth, and that being even one degree off when you're taking your compass bearing can get you seriously lost, I think I'll stick with June's method rather than draw lines on my map that change from year to year.

Neville Shulman is one of the last of the great British adventurers. He has tackled Kilamanjoro, the Borneo jungle and the south pole -- often going it alone in extremely adverse circumstances to raise money for worthy British charities. His Zen practice keeps him in good stead under often grueling and unexpected circumctances and when he -finally- returns to the comforts of home he manages to capture the excitement, adventure, beauty, and above all the sense of personal challenge -- one man against the elements - that has almost disappeared from out post-modern consciousness. His books are admirable reminders of what the human heart, mind and soul are capable of.

Shulman's book is all together not very good. He relates a story on climbing Mont Blanc with an obviously 'vacation type' climbing group. A vacation package much like one would book to vacation in the Bahamas. He tries to make it seem like it was such a harrowing experience and although it was probably exhilarating to him, most mountaineers would consider it a 'yak' trip. The climbing inaccuracies were astounding. He describes abseiling (rappelling) as the most difficult of tasks where to any climber, it's simply a mode of transportation. Then to find out from the description, he was probably lowered down or rappelled with a top-rope belay. Give me a break! Although Shulman says that Buddhism and Zen mediation helped him with the 'ordeal,' I hardly consider almost getting lost trying to find the tram a situation where one has to dig deep to find the strength to go on. I've had more nerve-racking experiences getting lost in the inner city. He also relates nothing about his teammates, they don't even rate names. It was like he was traveling alone with ghosts in the background. Having what his teammates thought and did would have improved the story. A totally uninteresting book for climber/mountaineers and not much to offer on the philosophy of Buddhism. The only reason I give it a two is because it has two of my most favorite subjects, climbing and Buddhism. If you really want to know what it takes to climb a mountain, read "Beyond Risk : Conversations With Climbers" by Nicholas O'Connell. There are climbers in there that relate Buddhism to climbing such as Reinhold Messner.

What a superb brief description of an awful book. My 5 stars are for the "Gumby" review. I recognize the profile: melodramatist with regretably easy access to word processor gets scared in the woods. Oh, brother.

in the case of climbing you explain your self so it"S easy to understand. you can jump right in and do what you like to do best, experience mother nature at her best! tell me how does it make you fell*

I initially picked up this book to supplement our aging copy of "50 Hikes in Mount Rainier National Park". Accustomed to the detailed descriptions in "50 Hikes...", I found the hiking coverage was disappointingly thin. Of course, this is not surprising considering that the author tried to cram a driving, bicycling, hiking, climbing, AND skiing guide into only 172 pages. More unsettling were the errors I found. The mileages for a number of the hikes were at variance with the distances posted and published by the Park (and verified with my own feet!), sometimes by several miles. It makes me wonder what sort of errors may have crept into the climbing section, where mistakes can have far more serious consequences than tired feet.

The book does contain a bibilography, but no index (which is generally quite useful in a book filled with geographical place names). Interestingly, "50 Hikes..." is listed, but it's the 1975 copy. That's even older than mine!

Also, in my copy the second page of the Preface and the entire Appendix were missing.

If you want a good hiking guide to Mt. Rainier, try the current copy (4th ed.) of "50 Hikes in Mount Rainier National Park" by Spring and Manning.