BOOK REVIEWS
The Pyrenees: The High Pyrenees from the Cirque De Lescun to the Carlit Massif
By Kev Reynolds
Published by Cicerone Press. 2004. Paperback. 448 pages. ISBN 1852844205
Pyrenean Haute Route By Ton Joosten
Published by Cicerone Press. 2004. Paperback. 160 pages. ISBN 1852844264
These two books from Cicerone both cover the Pyrenees, the chain of mountains separating France and Spain and stretching 400km from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. The range provides a spectrum of opportunities for walking, skiing, climbing and backpacking and is easily reached from Scotland. Climbing in particular is diverse including the airy conglomerate towers of Riglos in Spain, the granite Pic du Midi d'Ossau, the limestone faces of Vignemale and the ice falls of Cirque de Gavarnie amongst many others.
Kev Reynolds's book acts as an excellent information source for mountain activities in the range with details on classic walks and climbs, accommodation, travel options from the UK, and region by region coverage. As well as being informative as a planning and travel guide, there are inspirational photos and the book is well worth getting if you are only even contemplating a visit to the Pyrenees.
At least three long distance hiking routes traverse the mountain chain from west to east; GR10 sticks to the northern French side of the mountains, GR11 the Spanish equivalent along the southern side of the range and the Pyrenean Haute Route, the most challenging, is a high-level traverse often along the frontier crest.
Ton Joosten's guide to the Haute Route offers detailed day-by-day descriptions to the hike described in a west to east direction. Split into five sections of 7-10 days each, there is guidance here for hikers attempting either a complete traverse or a smaller section. In total it's a 800km hike split here into 42 days which in places requires good navigation and general mountaineering skills.
Both books are packed with quality colour photographs, well illustrated with maps, clearly laid out and do great justice to a fine range of mountains.
Brian Dickson
TrackLogs 25k
1:25,000 Digital Mapping Software (Version 2)
Review Map: Helvellyn, Lake District
www.tracklogs.co.uk
TrackLogs provide a series of 1:25,000 OS Explorer maps covering the whole of Great Britain with associated PC to view maps, plan routes and visualise maps in 3D on screen. Installation of the review software for a single map covering Helvellyn in the Lake District was straightforward and the interface was easy to use and intuitive.
The routes facility allows the ability to trace a line on the map and save it as a route to be reused. The route can be annotated with waypoints and you can display route length, time, elevation gain and elevation profile graph (the route time is based on settings that you can amend- for example I set up speeds based on Naismith's rule, mountain biking and fell running).
There is the expected support for upload to and from a GPS and a rather fun 3D option. This 'drapes' the 2D map over a 3D frame based on contours and gives the ability to fly over the map or stay on ground level to view the terrain. There is a function to walk along a chosen route and you can see both the 2D map and 3D view change on the screen as you move along your route which I found excellent. As well as being enjoyable to play with the software could prove useful for teaching purposes providing a 3D visualisation of contour lines.
Overall an excellent package which costs £24.95 per OS Explorer map so might be best for an area that you visit often.
Brian Dickson
North Wales Bouldering
Bowldro gogledd cymru
By Simon Panton
Published by northern soul. 2004. Card Backed. 303 pages. Numerous black & white photos, 6 Colour. ISBN: 0-9546697-0-3.
I lived in Snowdonia for several years in the 1980's when the new route boom was in full swing (Ormes, slate and all that). With such a vibrant new routing scene you might have thought that few of us were interested in bouldering. Indeed Simon's introduction in this, the first dedicated guide to the areas 'true art', makes little reference to anything before the 'revolutionary summer of '97', which is a neat way of rewriting history! Many inhabitants including John Redhead, Martin Crooke, Dave Towse, Big Jim and Mark Lynden were all regulars at a variety of bouldering venues such as Braichmelyn Boulder near Bethesda, various Llanberis Boulders including the Cromlech collection, the RAC Boulders and particularly Carreg Hylldrem dwelling of the power machine that is Stevie Haston.
It was good to revisit some of these recently, with this book as my guide, inspiration and Bible. My only criticism was that identifying individual boulders or sections were at times confusing and could have been better arranged. It was also sad to see the Fachwen area demoted to an 'oddity' because its crimp nasty style is out of fashion? The traverse of Yellow Wall, by Llyn Padarn created steel fingered E7 climbers! It is still a 'must have' book.
Kevin Howett
Stone Country, Bouldering in Scotland
Edited by John Watson
Published by Stone Country Press. Card Backed. 144 pages.
Numerous black & white photos, 20 colour plates. ISBN 0-95-487790-X
Bouldering in Scotland has come of age with the publication of this guide-cum-narrative! The explosion of activity in ascending and documenting an array of new (and sometimes old) boulder problems over the last few years has been almost unprecedented. There have emerged a dedicated group of climbers whose main focus has been the search for small bits of hard rock. Some effort at documentation has been attempted by the SMC as their new series of Climber's Guides are published and so areas like Dumbarton, Arbroath, Portlethan, Luath's Stone and even Cummingston has been covered to some extent (although it has to be said in a very unfriendly format). But anyone really wanting to get information has had to rely on the web, particularly the on-line guides on scottishclimbs.com, but even this cannot keep pace of everything.
One of those dedicated men with a big mat and a roving eye is John Watson. Renowned for searching out the most obscure and remote boulders, for this book he has coordinated information and views from a selection of the current activists in different areas. The result is more than just a guide, although it does have excellent topos of the main areas, but a whole philosophy is contained amongst the commissioned articles. John's writing in itself is evocative and obviously born of a passionate love of the sport and its environment, and it acts as a link between the guidebook sections and the articles; threading them like beads with sparkling insight.
Tim Morrozzo has collected an excellent array of images to illustrate the whole effort involved in bouldering and activists have freely given images of their favourite areas. You may be surprised at the extent of what is now documented, including venues such as Loch Morar on the west, Rhiconich in the north and the Cuillin on Skye.
Bouldering is perceived as a preserve of the hardman; the grading systems it uses (and there a quite a few – a subject of debate as to which one is the best for Scotland) being taken from a bygone era to cater for the fact that difficulty was the whole aim of the activity. But one thing this book does well is show what a range of fun (difficulty) is on offer, from problems that suit the average VS climber to the downright silly V15 climber. The inclusion of a chapter on the child friendly bouldering at Glen Lednock by Rory Howett shows that even the under 10's can take part.
There are few faults with this book. It inspires, it gives information and it is for everyone who enjoys climbing. Get a copy, even if you have never bouldered before, and I guarantee you will be investing in a bouldering mat and searching out the tranquillity and rewards of a day spent at one with the rock.
Martin Forsyth
Northern Highlands North Climber's Guide
Published by the SMC. 2004. Soft Back. 496 pages.16 colour photos. ISBN 0-907521-80-0
The scope of this guide is enormous – possibly the largest area covered by any guidebook in the UK? Northwards from a line between Dingwall and Ullapool and including the Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland, it has a large amount of sea cliff climbing contained amongst its covers, much of it for the first time in an SMC guide. From the now very popular (and eternal sun trap) sandstone at Reiff, to the remote gneiss of Tarbert and Shiegra and a host of strange little venues on the north coast; to the now well documented and excellent Caithness sea cliffs south of Wick, which have even seen Edinburgh based climbers motoring up for a weekend! It then jumps the sea to the awesome Orkney and its prize summit of the Old Man of Hoy, but there are numerous amazing sea stacks to go at up here in Orkney and Shetland, as one look at the superb cover photo shows (of North Gaulton Castle – a truly inspiring piece of lonely rock). The very esoteric St. Johns Head takes the prize for the biggest cliff but also for the first time is the relatively recent development (by raiders from southern shores) of the really remote and equally big 1,000ft Foula cliffs.
The main mountain interest is in Coigach, Stac Pollaidh and Fionaven, which offer big rock, some of it a little too 'mountainous' for modern tastes I would imagine and even more impressive winter venues. But the rapid modern development of a multitude of relatively roadside gneiss crags around Rhiconich and Scourie are detailed for the first time for real aficionados of the area (something to do on bad mountain days?). Many a visiting southerner might be disappointed by some of them.
The photos and the diagrams are a slightly mixed bunch – some are excellent and a few are very poor, but you could not visit this area now without this guide to point you in the right direction. And perhaps the secret is now out – that the weather is actually better up here than you might be led to think from forecasts!
Martin Forsyth
Scottish Mountaineering Club Guidebook News
Scottish Rock Climbs
In a radical departure from its current climbing guides the Scottish Mountaineering Club will publish Scottish Rock Climbs, its eagerly awaited companion to Scottish Winter Climbs, in full colour.
Scottish Rock Climbs will detail more than 1200 top quality routes from Orkney to Galloway, supplemented by 65 crag colour photo-diagrams, 25 colour maps and some 45 colour action photos. The overall format and size of the 456 page guide will remain same as the current Climbers' series.
But the adoption of full colour isn't a one off; all SMC Climbers' and Scramblers' guides from Scottish Rock Climbs on will be produced in full colour. The move follows the SMC's first full colour guide in the new Hillwalkers' series, the highly acclaimed North-west Highlands, and confirms the SMC's position at the forefront of climbing club guidebook publishing in the UK.
The bulk of Scottish Rock Climbs has been written and compiled by the indefatigable Andy Nisbet with additional local expertise coming from Simon Richardson, Dave MacLeod, Joanna George, Colin Moody and Stephen Reid.
Needless to say, the guide contains a diverse selection of routes across all of the grades, on many different rock types in a wide variety of locations – characteristics that make Scottish climbing unique. With half an eye on the Scottish weather there is a well-balanced selection of areas from the traditional mountain crags, to the generally quicker drying outcrops and sport cliffs.
Sea-cliffs get a look in too and the chapter on sea-stacks offers a nation-wide hit-list for those with a particular bent for this most esoteric and adventurous of pastimes.
Scottish Rock Climbs should join The Munros, The Corbetts & Other Scottish Hills and Skye Scrambles as one of the SMC's best selling guides, helping to plough cash resources back into Scotland's mountains. All profits from SMC guidebooks goes to the Scottish Mountaineering Trust, which offers grants to mountaineering and mountain-related projects.
A full list of SMC books is available at www.smc.org.uk along with three innovative E-Books and a GPS data disc for routes in The Munros, which can be all be purchased as downloads.
Pre-publication Special Offer
Up until publication, Scottish Mountaineer readers are being given the opportunity to purchase Scottish Rock Climbs at a discounted price of £18 including postage (retail £20). To purchase your copy of this guide, simply log on to www.smc.org.uk go to Publications, then Scottish Rock Climbs and follow the instructions.