UKH

Has anyone got a copy of Franco's new North York Moors guide? Any good or a collection of green sandy esoterica? Is it trad or does it also cover bouldering? the only info I can find so far us on Francos blog

Cheers

I have it. It also includes bouldering, and its a work of art. 

Oooh sounds like a late Christmas present

Have a copy. Franco put 5 years work into this guide so it was not just thrown together willy nilly, its as good a guide as the rock fax ones if not better it covers trad and bouldering and is in my oppinion well worth buying as it is not just a updated version of the old guide but a all singin all dancing total revamp including many crags which have not been covered before. If you read this and think the Moors are a small backwater of climbing think again this is a destination that is well worth traveling to for a weekend/week it has climbs to suit every taste and grade. Buy it, i promise you will not be disapointed with either the guide or the climbing when you visit, which equipped with this guide will be a real treat.

I've got a copy. It's great. I'm stuck living in London and it's a bit far for a weekend but I've checked out the crags I've been to before and they look as great as I remember.

It also contains Whitestone Cliff which is obviously a contender for one of the best inland choss fests.

Five star publication

Got a copy from Santa, it’s ace. Well done Franco.

It’s one of Rob Greenwood’s books of the year: https://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/publications/other_publications/christmas_b...

Copy purchased, I'm moderately familiar with the rockfax bits of the moors and some of the bouldering and have been wanting to explore further afield for a while, this might give me an excuse to visit the in laws in Sedgefield more often!

Amazing! Thanks everyone! It's hard to get a gauge on people's honest view of the guide, so it's really nice to see people saying nice things about it. 

I've been really encouraged by the response to the guide. There seems to be a real sense of excitement and interest in the area. There's a great mix of those who've been climbing there for yonks who are now discovering new places, relative newbies going to the first few crags and then of course loads of people buying it from further afield.  All this whilst the weather has been shocking. Can't wait for spring! I think the most impressive use of the guide so far was Mr Henderson getting the classic E5 Ivanhoe done the other day at the ultra quick drying, bombproof venue of glaisdale rigg. 

I think there's actually more bouldering than Trad in the guide, but it perhaps looks like a Trad guide to flick through. There is the odd boulderfield like Kay Nest or Clemmitt's, but a lot of the best bouldering in the Moors is crag based (not all highball, but climbing little buttresses). I had to be pretty selective with the bouldering, as there's just so much of it, but there's still the duck boulders, wainstones, capt cooks, cold moor, tranmire, ingleby, nos boulder, roseberry, westerdale view, round crag, fairies stones, Fryr's Nab, bridestones, stoupe brow, thorgill, ravenswick and then all the class font 5 - 8a highballs. So it's not like flicking through a font guide, you have to search out a dozen problems here and there, but there's a decade's worth of bouldering in there. And the vast majority of the trad is in there. My test was 'if someone drove from sheffield to this problem/route would they be disappointed.  If the answer was yes, I'd either not include it or make it clear it was of local interest only. We managed to fit a lot more per page than previous guides, so the huge growth the area has seen, didn't mean largescale omissions. The guide is also over 400 pages, which helps.

To try and make it economical to produce, I've written,  published and am now distributing it myself, which is why you probably won't see it many places. It's gradually filtering its way out. There are some at climbing walls in the NE and madvolume hull, some with the BMC, some more floating around in manchester, one at Eden Rock Carlisle (free to peruse - probably jiggered by now), some in Castleton, some in Faceby and Sam Marks has a load in the Leeds/Pickering lake area. There was one at nesscliffe too, but I think that got sold. If none of those are any good for you, you can buy it here:

http://francocookson.blogspot.com/p/paypal-safer-easier-way-to-pay-online.h...

So there you go, my life's work! Thanks again to all those who've bought it and thanks to UKC for tolerating this thread. The Moors season is nearly upon us!

Is it on sale anywhere in the North York Moors area.

Rock Antics in boro, faceby, castleton or Pickering. Send us a message on Instagram/ Facebook

Good effort Franco, nice to follow your interest in the area over the years. When "Smartboys" wanted to produce a guide for the area, we had little support or interest, and as you are doing, we published and distributed the first edition  ourselves. Im sure some of your books would sell in the Lakes shops such as Needle sports. For the last guide we wrote, Cordee was very helpful in distribution and sales. Hope it goes well!

The one at Eden Rock is holding up well even with many fingers and thumbs going through the pages. Thanks Franco

Thanks Bob. It was well worth your effort. Those guides certainly inspired us. 

Excellent.  I look forward to hearing of some cumbrian raiding parties then! 

Ordered a copy the other day.

Hope it is better made than the Betaguides NYM bouldering guide which fell apart after one weekend...….

Mad Volume in Hull have some copies.  Are you still in the area? 

Mick

Not this week, been living in North Yorkshire for 2 years. However we are moving back to East Yorkshire in a month or so.

I've paid for it to be stitch bound (in portrait) in the UK, so it should be the mut's nuts of guidebook quality. It certainly seems well robust. To be fair to Betaguides though, barring the bind quality and the lack of starring (which now seems common place for bouldering?!) , that guide was an absolute bastion of psyche. Especially considering it came from a base of absolutely nothing, the cataloguing that Lee did was the equivalent of about 3 generations. 

I got mine at the Valley, not ventured down yet though. Sam Marks was funny as f*ck!

Hi Franco, is there anywhere in Leeds (or maybe Sheffield) that may have stock?  I'd like to see how useful it will be for me, as an intermediate boulderer (on a good day).  Thanks.

Oh absolutely!

Certainly not disputing that. It has given some great days out. the new guide does seem better constructed and looks superb.Thanks for your work.

I was in Rock Antics in M'bro on New Years eve and half expected it might be for sale in there, thought I'd check it out if so, but didn't see any evidence that it was for sale. Might have been under the counter or suchlike and I didn't ask but I'd have thought it should be prominently on display.

Perhaps they've sold out already?

Mine came through the post yesterday, with a handwritten love note from Franco.... 😆

Looks really good, looking forward to finding some time to making a summer wish list. 

There’s a great tick list that was compiled by Dave Warburton 

The Best of The North York Moors

https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/set.php?id=236

They should still have some. I left loads with them, but it is selling very fast. If you ask at the desk, they should be able to sort you out. Thanks everyone for the continued support! 

No. 
my wife bought it for me for Christmas , on the good recommendation of a friend, then  lost it somewhere in our ( rather messy) house.  Should find it in time for the summer !😀