Best Topo book series
The SuperTopo series of books is really well organized and presented. I purchased most of its books, including Yosemite Valley Free Climbs, Red Rocks Climbing, South Lake Tahoe Climbing, High Sierra Climbing, Yosemite Big Walls and Tuolumne Free Climbs.
As of today I cannot comment on the accuracy of the topos themselves, as I will be using the books to plan a climbing trip I intend to take later this year. I won't be going everywhere, but I wanted the books to help me decide which places were better suited for my tastes and hability and to inspire me. But the information provided does seem very complete, with lots of attention to detail. There is a supporting web site where they provide updated information on changes to the routes and where climbers can make comments to the topos. This is nice.
That said, I do have some comments on things that could be improved. First of all, Yosemite Big Walls is the only book in the list that comes with color photos. It is in its second edition, and is the last one published. So maybe future editions of the other books will also include color photos (color photos do inspire me a lot more). One alternative is to order the e-book versions, all with color. The publisher sells them at its web site, but there is no discount if you want to purchase both e-book and print. They both cost the same price. Another advantage of the e-book is the possibility of printing just the routes you will be climbing. This way it is less weight to carry, and your print copy is preserved.
In the future it would be nice to see both versions bundled together. I tried to contact the author about his thoughts on that but unfortunately never received any comments back.
Great book
I am currently working on lead the 5.11 range and helps me a lot to stay out of trouble and know what to expect in the routes that I attempt. In example, Butterballs, Waverly Wafer and Red Zinger are extremely well described. Whoever says something different is not climbing close to their limit in the valley!
useful
useful for the first visit in the valley, good topos, easy approaches, correct ratings . obviously far from complete: why don't add west face of cap and other V grades thet can go free?. interesting historical notes by steve roper on every route.
I spent money on this?!?
Terrible, terrible book. This is lazy, unstructured and devoid of any sort new information of old routes. It reads like a series of set pieces thrown together without any overall narrative structure - it's like the authors wanted something immediately to capitalize on and rushed this out. The occasional original thought is swamped by the general literary mediocracy and lack of focus. Very disappointing. And a real case of the Emperor's new clothes.
