[lagerstarfish]

Everyone sounds very positive about this book, so I feel I should wade in with some whining for the sake of balance.


Nope. Can't think of anything.


(Good effort everyone)

[Will Hunt]

Bump 

The book is due at the distributor on Friday so if you're wavering on whether to buy the greatest climbing guidebook the world has ever seen then you've got till then to take advantage of the pre-order 15% off.

As you were.

[Will Hunt]

In case you're waiting by your letterbox with bated breath, we had a little issue with the covers and the printer has had to redo them. Books now expected at Cordee on the 14th. It does mean that if you haven't bought it yet there is a little longer to get a cheap pre-order.

[Catcheemonkey]

What a lovely surprise to find my copy waiting on the doorstep today.

Looks mega! Well done to everyone involved.

[Wood FT]

  I await mine too

[Will Hunt]

Cheers Catchee. Pre-orders should be with people now or after the bank holiday depending on how fast your post is.

[Fiend]

Great stuff, I was just running low on bog roll.

[Fiend]

I can confirm that 1. This should become the default guide for any outsiders visiting the area / the UK for the first time. 2. It's some feat to fit in grit / lime / northumberland / north york local crags for desperate people / and lancs in one tome and do them all justice. And 3. It's not absorbant enough and now I've got dung everywhere.

[Wood FT]

Nice one, Will et al. Great guide and covers so much.

[Will Hunt]

Thanks, both of you 

[Steve Crowe]

Northern Rock Typos:

Cover to Cover First Ascent by Dave Birkett Circa 2006

[Will Hunt]

Not sure how that happened. Give me 50 lashes (and 5 for Jim).

[Duncan campbell]

Crazy!!! I thought only RockFax books had mistakes!?

[Will Hunt]

I'm not going to be drawn into comparing the mistakes per square inch between Northern Rock and Northern Limestone. Firstly because I will let the quality of our book speak for itself; secondly because I recognise that, despite the many years of effort that go into these things, total perfection is impossible.

[andy popp]

Northern Rock Typos:

Cover to Cover First Ascent by Dave Birkett Circa 2006

What did you think of the rest of the book?

[Steve Crowe]

Northern Rock Typos:

Cover to Cover First Ascent by Dave Birkett Circa 2006

What did you think of the rest of the book?

Very well produced, 600 pages crammed with classic climbs however Blue Scar, Goldsborough and Crag Willas are missing.

[spidermonkey09]

Blimey Steve, focus on the positives!

[Duncan campbell]

I'm not going to be drawn into comparing the mistakes per square inch between Northern Rock and Northern Limestone. Firstly because I will let the quality of our book speak for itself; secondly because I recognise that, despite the many years of effort that go into these things, total perfection is impossible.

Sorry Will that wasn’t what I had wanted, and wasn’t a criticism of your book (which looks like a nice book from what I’ve seen)

More just a comment on how everyone slags rockfax off for having mistakes and yet as you say it is impossible to create a guidebook with no mistakes.

Something I am interested in though and maybe you could answer… what is the craic with these “Wired Guides”? What actually is Wired? Seems like FRCC did the Lakes one, the CC/Emma and Paul did Pembroke, did Niall and the BMC do the Peak? Did “Wired” approach you and ask you to do a guide for them?

[Steve Crowe]

Blimey Steve, focus on the positives!

I've written a short comment/review here https://climbonline.co.uk/2022/05/06/northern-rock/

[teestub]

Climbonline typos:

This impressive tomb describes all the best trad & sport climbing along with a selection of the best bouldering across Northumberland 

😄

[Will Hunt]

Thanks Steve.
I don't mind the feedback. In this case I'd defend the decision not to include those crags. Goldsborough and Healaugh sit somewhat outside the areas covered.

We were going to include Blue Scar (Steve and Karin were down to write it up and the plan was just to include the trad given the access situation at the time) and I actually have all the base topo photos shot from a beautiful early morning (when a flock of zombie sheep nearly ate me and Daisy alive, but that's another story) doing the rounds of Littondale. When Steve and Karin could no longer write the script it prompted a rethink. The scale of the book was becoming clearer and you have to draw the line somewhere. Although the crag is obviously very good, the trad is almost exclusively hard and seldom traveled.

I asked Dave Musgrove a while ago whether it was possible to walk into Blue another way and he said it would be arduous enough to not seem worthwhile. Jim has since been via an approach which he says is no fuss, parks in the village, and doesn't go over what's-his-name's land. If we can sort the access and someone (Steve and Karin, I'm looking at you) wants to write up the sport and trad, then I reckon we could put together a PDF download in the Wired style. Could pop it online for 50p or something. As I say, I've got all the topo photos with not a drop of seepage on the crag.

[Will Hunt]

Alternatively, we pick a sucker keen young climber (Jim, I'm looking at you) to edit a limestone definitive guide, I'll muck in and provide as much support as I can, and Blue will be in that.

[Steve Crowe]

Thanks Steve.
I don't mind the feedback. In this case I'd defend the decision not to include those crags. Goldsborough and Healaugh sit somewhat outside the areas covered.

We were going to include Blue Scar (Steve and Karin were down to write it up and the plan was just to include the trad given the access situation at the time) and I actually have all the base topo photos shot from a beautiful early morning (when a flock of zombie sheep nearly ate me and Daisy alive, but that's another story) doing the rounds of Littondale. When Steve and Karin could no longer write the script it prompted a rethink. The scale of the book was becoming clearer and you have to draw the line somewhere. Although the crag is obviously very good, the trad is almost exclusively hard and seldom traveled.

I asked Dave Musgrove a while ago whether it was possible to walk into Blue another way and he said it would be arduous enough to not seem worthwhile. Jim has since been via an approach which he says is no fuss, parks in the village, and doesn't go over what's-his-name's land. If we can sort the access and someone (Steve and Karin, I'm looking at you) wants to write up the sport and trad, then I reckon we could put together a PDF download in the Wired style. Could pop it online for 50p or something. As I say, I've got all the topo photos with not a drop of seepage on the crag.

Karin and I would certainly be happy to contribute an up to date definitive description for Blue Scar. You could make it free as a sampler for the printed guide and written in the same style if we could keep the Wired production team together for one last gig?

[Fiend]

Alternatively, we pick a sucker keen young climber (Jim, I'm looking at you) to edit a limestone definitive guide, I'll muck in and provide as much support as I can, and Blue will be in that.

Eagerly awaiting this so I can finally bin Northern Limestone and then I'm down to the two actually valid Rockfaxes in the UK - South Wales Sport Climbs and Clwyd Limestone.

[Will Hunt]

Something I am interested in though and maybe you could answer… what is the craic with these “Wired Guides”? What actually is Wired? Seems like FRCC did the Lakes one, the CC/Emma and Paul did Pembroke, did Niall and the BMC do the Peak? Did “Wired” approach you and ask you to do a guide for them?

Bit more on Wired:

The total market for guidebooks hasn't changed hugely, but a greater and greater share of that market goes to select guides (and also apps now I guess). When you consider the amount of effort that goes into producing a guide, there are a number of definitives which might very well dwindle out as not enough people are interested in buying them.

Wired is something which the definitive-producing clubs and organisations formed together. It's a co-operative that allows them to produce select guides under a common brand and hopefully reclaim a bit of that market share (when it comes to selling books a recognisable brand is hugely important), from which the proceeds can go back into climbing-related projects such as producing definitives.

To say that Wired aims to document the whole of the UK is a bit of a stretch in my view, but most of the UK's major areas are covered in definitives produced by Wired members and thus you'd expect them to feature in a Wired select.

Scottish Rock is just slightly bigger than Northern Rock (by 8 pages I think, I was livid when I found out  ) and will be out soon; Welsh Rock is in production at the moment though I'm not sure how far along they are.

Having access to that network of experienced people was really useful. Steve Scott of the FRCC was particularly helpful, as were Ken Taylor and Al Davis who did a ridiculous amount of proof-reading. They're all FRCC members but they all mucked in and did a tonne of work for our book.