Coopers Rock bouldering guide
October 3, 2007
Dan Brayack recently released his bouldering guide to Coopers Rock, WV. Published by Falcon Guides, the guide contains over 400 problems concentrated in 3 major areas.
As I’m originally from Western PA, I’ve climbed at Coopers numerous times over the years and can tell you that this guide was sorely needed. Using beta from fellow boulderers and hand-drawn guides on the web, I managed to enjoy myself on the nice gritstone. But a guide is a must for the maze-like array of boulders at Coopers.
Make the trip and pick up a guide before you go. It’s about 3-3.5 hours from the DC area and unfortunately 4 hours for me down here in Blacksburg.
Popularity: 8% [?]
New Rumbling Bald Bouldering Guidebook Available This Fall
June 8, 2007
The Carolina Climbers Coalition reports that a new Rumbling Bald Bouldering guidebook will be available this fall at Southeast retailers.
Features include an full color format, nearly 900 boulder problems described, topos and photos of problems, and general area-specific information.
More info can be found here (PDF).
Popularity: 10% [?]
The Boys of Everest
November 30, 2006
Clint Willis has a new book out, The Boys of Everest, which was a finalist for the 2006 Banff Mountain Literature Award.
The Boys of Everest: Chris Bonington and the Tragedy of Climbing’s Greatest Generation is a story of tremendous courage, staggering achievement, and heart-breaking loss. Bonington’s inner circle—they came to be known as Bonington’s Boys—included a dozen of mountaineering’s legendary figures and gave birth to a new brand of climbing. They took increasingly grave risks on expeditions to the world’s most difficult peaks. And they paid an enormous price for their achievements. Most of them died in the mountains, leaving behind the hardest question of all: Was it worth it?
The Boys of Everest, based on extensive interviews with surviving climbers and other individuals as well as five decades of journals, films, photographs, expedition accounts, and letters, provides the closest thing to an answer that we’ll ever have. It offers riveting descriptions of what Bonington and his comrades found in the mountains—as well as an understanding of what they lost there.
From the sample chapter (pdf) you can download on the site, The Boys of Everest looks to be a good read. More info can be found on the book’s website.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Rock Climbing Europe
May 15, 2006
Stewart Green, author of Rock Climbing Colorado and other guides, has written a new climbing guide to Europe called Rock Climbing Europe.
“Rock Climbing Europe” is an oversized, sturdily bound paperback guide that Green finished after 15 trips to Europe for research, climbing and interviews with climbers.
“When I started going to Europe in the 1990s, it was difficult to find information there,” he says. “You had to translate guides from French and Italian, and all you had were hand-drawn topo maps and no photographs.”
Green’s guide includes climbing routes with maps and photos in Great Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Germany and Norway - all places, he says, that are steeped in a great climbing tradition.
The result: a climbing book that is part routefinder, part travel guide and part travelogue, with tidbits about the weather (the best climbing in Belgium’s Freyr is between April and late October); cultural highlights (Gothic architecture abounds in Bolzano, Italy); and food (Provencal cooking in the south of France features olive oil and garlic).
Popularity: 23% [?]
The 10 essentials for emergency wilderness survival
March 28, 2005
The bible of climbing and mountaineering instructional literature is Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills published by The Mountaineers. I’ve read and studied that book cover to cover numerous times and now the experts from The Mountaineers have put out some guidelines for wilderness survival. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a useful article on the ten essentials for emergency wilderness survival taken from The Mountaineers. The article also has a safety checklist that can be printed out.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Peak Gritsone book review
February 28, 2005
Years ago I had the opportunity to do some bouldering on English gritstone while in the Peak District. Despite it being an ugly, rainy, gray day, I had an incredible time bouldering there.
Shady Goings On has a good review of Peak Gritstone: East by RockFax. The RockFax site also has some comprehensive resources for climbing in the area including accommodations, getting around, and maps to both the Eastern and Western Peak gritstone, Peak limestone, and Peak bouldering
Popularity: 100% [?]
Sign up to receive the latest breaking news and headlines!
Advertisement
