What guidebook should I choose?

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cortushka 29 Sep 2014
Hi! I'm from Italy and I just want to ask you experts which guidebook I should buy for climbing in the peak district. I'm interested mostly on trad climbing. I would have the most complete guidebook of the zone. There are so many...
If you want also suggest me another interesting area... I'm 20 and this should be my first visit in your contry. I choose the peak district because it's the most famous, but usually I prefer the more unknowned spot..
Thank you all for the help!
 Duncan Bourne 29 Sep 2014
In reply to cortushka:

I would go for:
Peak Gritstone East (Rockfax)
Peak Limestone (Rockfax)
and
Stanage (BMC)

You have then covered all bases and there enough out of the way spots in the Stanage guide to keep anyone happy for years
 Mark Kemball 29 Sep 2014
In reply to Duncan Bourne:

For a first visit, I suspect the Stanage guide is a bit unnecessary if you have the Peak Gritstone East (Rockfax) - in fact there's probably enough in that for a lifetimes worth of climbing.
 pec 29 Sep 2014
In reply to cortushka:
The Rockfax books to the Peak district are selective books, they choose the best routes on many crags. The other books you have seen include all the routes which is why there are so many books. The Rockfax Books are probably best for what you want
http://www.rockfax.com/climbing-guides/books/?view_type=grid
Eastern Grit is probably the most useful for you.

The other area you should think about visiting is North Wales which has some of the best trad climbing in the UK on Both valley and mountain crags. Its mostly multi pitch climbs on several different rock types. Again, there is a rock fax guide or another selective guide by Ground Up http://www.groundupclimbing.com/newsitem.asp?nsid=268
cortushka 30 Sep 2014
In reply to Duncan Bourne:

Thank you very much duncan.
So you think Rockfax has the best guidebooks?
Because I was thinking about Burbage Millstone and Beyond by Niall Grimes of BMC.
But I'd love to climb either on gritstone or limestone, so I have to buy two guides?
cortushka 30 Sep 2014
In reply to pec:

Thank you very much Pec, North Wales is in my scope certainly.
So you think stanage better of Burbage or Middlestone? and what about Stoney Middleton?
 robin mueller 30 Sep 2014
In reply to cortushka:
> Thank you very much Pec, North Wales is in my scope certainly.

> So you think stanage better of Burbage or Middlestone? and what about Stoney Middleton?

All these places are in the Peak District. If you are visiting you will probably want to sample several different crags, rather than just stick to Stanage or the Burbage collection. Stanage and Burbage are 3 minutes drive apart, so you might want to climb at both on the same day. You might also want to check out Froggatt, Curbar, Cratcliffe, Millstone, Rivelin etc. etc. which is why people are suggesting you buy a guidebook with selected climbs. There is no definitive guidebook that covers the whole Peak District. And you'll need another guide if you also want to check out the limestone.
Post edited at 11:31
 Offwidth 30 Sep 2014
In reply to cortushka:
What grades do you climb? There are a couple of selective guides that cover the whole peak. The older one is On Peak Rock which looks dated but is still the best for a good selection of trad, across the grades. If climbing sub extreme or sports sub 7 the VG guide Peak District Climbing is maybe what you want and it has an introductory selection of bouldering as well. Rockfax cover the peak in four selective guides (two grit, one limestone and one for bouldering) and the BMC definitives have 5 so far (all grit with mixed trad and bouldering) with the limestone still to come so its best to browse them in a climbing shop and choose the style you prefer.
Post edited at 11:53
In reply to cortushka:

Rockfax produce several guidebooks to the Peak District. These books are selected buttress guidebooks and contain arguably all of the routes any occasional visitor would be interested in.

Eastern Grit (2006) - http://www.rockfax.com/climbing-guides/books/eastern-grit-2006/
Peak Limestone (2012) - http://www.rockfax.com/climbing-guides/books/peak-limestone-2012/

It sounds like these are probably the two guidebooks you want.

If you want bouldering then there is:

Peak Bouldering (2014) - http://www.rockfax.com/climbing-guides/books/peak-bouldering/

There is also Western Grit (2008) - covering the western crags but it doesn't sound like you will be over that far.

The BMC produce guidebooks that cover the gritstone areas in more detail.

Burbage Millstone and Beyond (2005), Stanage (2007), Froggatt to Black Rocks (2010). These three books cover the same crags as Eastern Grit in greater detail, and they also include bouldering. There is one BMC book to the limestone covering some of the sport climbing in the quarries called From Horseshoe to Harpur Hill (2004) although this is all covered, and much more, in Peak Limestone.

If you are short of money then the two compact Peak Pokketz (2007) guides from Rockfax may be of interest since you can get the best routes across all the Eastern Grit and Limestone in two books for less than £20. http://www.rockfax.com/climbing-guides/books/peak-ne-pokketz/

Alan

PS. UKC and Rockfax are the same company and I am the director of UKC/Rockfax hence I have a vested interest in this.
 Duncan Bourne 30 Sep 2014
In reply to cortushka:

Rockfax have good overall guide books. Burbage, Millstone and beyond does not cover the whole Peak but only the crags at Burbage, Millstone, Rivlin, Bamford and Wharncliffe. If you are staying close to a particular ares in the peak and are here for a while it might be worth getting one of the definitive guides but for a holiday visit Rockfax will be fine. Do you know where you will be staying?
 pec 30 Sep 2014
In reply to cortushka:

> So you think stanage better of Burbage or Middlestone? and what about Stoney Middleton? >

If you only go to one gritstone crag then Stanage is probably the best one to choose, but Froggatt is also very good and has quite a different character from most of the other crags.

I wouldn't recommend Stoney Middleston. The routes are good but the rock (limestone) is incredibly polished which makes it quite unpleasant to climb on. If you want to climb trad limestone I'd recommend Wild Cat Crags which has many excellent routes up to E1, some of them are multi pitch, and it's much less polished. If you want to climb harder routes then High Tor is probably the best limestone crag.


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