UKH

Why aren't topos used in British climbing guides?

Are you only using guidebooks from the '50's?

Nit quite sure what you mean by this, I am struggling to think of a guidebook published in the last 20 years that didn't contain quality photo topos.

edit: deacondeacon beat me to it

What, like these you mean?

https://rockfax.com/wp-content/uploads/intros/NWClimbs-sample.pdf

https://rockfax.com/wp-content/uploads/intros/eastern-grit-sample.pdf

https://rockfax.com/wp-content/uploads/intros/WestCountry-Preview22.pdf

Chris

I just flicked through the ops logbook and they all have topos in my guidebooks.

I was referring to North American style Topos using symbols to illustrate rock features.

'Symbols ' not of the Rockfax repertoire. E.g. a pictorial diagram outlining rock architecture for the entirety of the route; an example would be Eric Sloans Yosemite guide books.

Our crags tend to be a wee bit smaller than those in the States, e.g. Yosemite (I'm assuming this is what you're thinking of going by your username...) so it's possible to use photographs, though it doesn't always work too well on our bigger mountain crags. 

Using photographs for some of the routes in the Valley would be a bit tricky.

Besides, we like surprises on mountain trad routes in the UK! ;p

It's just the way climbing guides have developed in the UK with our geology, ethics culture etc etc. Same as not using Yosemite grades, Alpine grades or sport grades on trad routes etc etc etc.

If we all did things the same it would be horribly generic and dull as dishwater.

Because, for shorter crags, photo topos are generally much clearer? Even on bigger routes (e.g. 200 to 400m), I think I would prefer a photo topo (cf. Morocco guidebooks).

They used to have those in the days before cameras were portable and printing pictures was affordable. You're the first to ask for them back.

Photo topos are obviously the business for short crags (nearly everything in the UK), but for certain types of route a pictorial diagram is better.

I've found the Rockfax topos for longer (400m+) rock climbs in Chamonix a bit poor. You just can't see enough detail in the features (especially if the photo was taken in sub-optimal light), or the line is so fat relative to the features that it obscures them. If it's a case of following bolts then it doesn't matter, but for traddier routes a simple well-drawn topo with the main features and junctions would be more useful.

Likewise perhaps crags that are obscured by trees, or ones where for whatever reason it isn't possible to get the panoptical viewpoint that the photo shows.