I know which one of the two guides I'll be buying.....
Is there room for two guides, what with the Rockfax one too?
So, it is correct to say that Ground Up is a significant contributor, but it is not a Ground Up book.
A lot of businesses benefit from the presence of bolted climbs and free access to crags. It is the responsibility of everyone in the industry to do something towards funding these aspects that make climbing possible. As an individual I also acknowledge my personal role in doing volunteer activity where possible but by necessity, these tends to be restricted to one's local area.Guidebooks are not a very lucrative target for bolt funding though since the amount of money in a guidebook is tiny compared to the amount of money in outdoor gear and outdoor retail, but that doesn't mean to say that guidebook producers shouldn't do their bit, and this is something that Rockfax acknowledge.Donating the proportion of a cover price to a bolt fund is a poor way to make contributions since you need to put the price up significantly in order to get a small contribution hence the buyer will be paying £3 extra in order for £2 to go to the distribution chain, and £1 go to the bolt fund. If you control the retail outlets and get them to include their cut as well then you could boost this amount but then you wouldn't be able to distribute the book widely and you would get the problem you get at French crags - nowhere to buy the book.There are some really good ways a guidebook can support a bolt fund though, as well as the obvious financial donation (not tied to the cover price). Publicity in the guidebook, and raising awareness of what climbers who use the areas can do to help, and making those in the trade aware of their responsibility to support access and bolting.Rockfax and UKC will be doing this for the North Wales Limestone guidebook and other guidebooks that we publish. Last month we registered the domain http://www.ukboltfund.org and contacted all the uk bolt funds to get their co-operation in setting up a central web site linking the 'Donate Now' buttons for UK Bolt Funds. I am also writing an article on UKC about bolts and we have other ideas about how to continually publicise bolt funds.Alan
So now there are going to be TWO new guides to North Wales Limestone competing for our custom?
[It's an inescapable fact that, without the re-bolting efforts of the North Wales Bolt Fund, there wouldn't be anything worth writing a new NW Limestone guidebook about.
more money going directly to the Bolt fund from the sale of guidebooks
Local guides will always be most accurate, but as many will know they require a massive investment of time and effort for little (if any) monetary recompense.
how many visiting climbers ever pay into the bolt funds of the places they visit? Guidebooks are a way of balancing this out. Climbing maintains its communal and grassroots feel still and people are keen to put something back, aware that they have got so much from the activity over the years.
The Moorland grit guide is actually going to be printed very shortly and on sale in a few of months
Guidebooks are not a very lucrative target for bolt funding though since the amount of money in a guidebook is tiny compared to the amount of money in outdoor gear and outdoor retail, but that doesn't mean to say that guidebook producers shouldn't do their bit, and this is something that Rockfax acknowledge.Alan
Ben, what I meant was: I was looking at doing a printed Lancs bouldering guidebook but predicted demand/ costs meant it'd probably cost me a couple of grand to do it, so I had to shelve the idea and go for PDFs instead.