A guide to guides! Probably only of interest to those who collect climbing guidebooks rather than climbs, but a painstaking work detailing every single edition, reprint and minor variation of every guidebook published in English to climbing in Europe and the Alps. Possible monotony is relieved by numerous colour illustrations of... guidebooks!
The history of Alpine climbing guidebooks is as long as the history of climbing itself. The early pioneers of the sport, the tweed-clad Victorian cragsmen, were as concerned about recording their activities as they were about doing them and thus began the climbing guidebook. There are now one hundred and fifty years of the finest guidebooks in the world, a written heritage second to none.
To celebrate the Sesquicentennial anniversary of the first guidebook to the Alps, John Ball’s Western Alps, we now have the ultimate ‘guidebook of guidebooks’. Alpine and European Climbing Guidebooks 1863 to 2013 lists over 700 guidebooks, from the incredibly detailed case bound recordings of the earliest pioneers through the minimalist years of the 1960s and 1970s to the latest photo and topo-filled blockbusters. Front cover images and publication details for each title show the development of climbing guidebooks over the decades in a unique format.
This volume also tries to document the recent growth in 'Sun Rock Climbing'. Initially a small number of English language guidebooks were produced by UK Publishing houses. These have now been replaced by multi-lingual guidebooks produced by a wide range of European publishing houses.
This bibliography is for anyone with an interest in how our sport has been recorded, from casual history lovers to serious collectors.
By Alan Moss, Peter Haigh and Nigel Baker.
Hardback, 24cm x 16cm, 208 pages.
Published 2014.
ISBN: 9-780956-145321.
A PDF supplement to Alpine and European Climbing Guidebooks 1863 - 2013, A Collector's Guide is available as a Free Download.