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alpinerockfiend
Jul 14, 2003, 11:00 PM
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Registered: Feb 3, 2003
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In "Beginners", this subsection of the RC.com message board, there are many posts asking questions like, "What is sport climbing?", "What is big-wall climbing?", and my personal fave, "What is trad climbing?". There are also many questions regarding rappel/belay techniques, protection, ropes, etc....
The responses to many of these posts are dubious and debatable at best! It seems like there are too many neophytes living on this board who post their misconceptions and downright poor and dangerous info in an eager attempt to offer assistance to someone even greener than them.
Nothing substitutes time spent with an experienced climber, but books can help aid the learning experience with safe and correct techniques. Here are a couple:
Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills ISBN- 0898864275
Advanced Rock Climbing 1575400758
Eiger Dreams 0385488181 (While not instructional, it is a great compilation of climbing essays that are all very accessable to those not that familiar with climbing.)
These are just a couple of titles that I (and the majority of people on this site) have read that supplemented climbing with an experienced elder. Everybody feel free to add to this list. Hopefully it will become a great reference for those looking to learn more about our sport.
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alpiner
Jul 14, 2003, 11:33 PM
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Registered: Feb 23, 2003
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For this group in particular, I'd also recommend Climbing: From Gym To Crag also by the Mountaineers Books. It's arguably the best beginners book on the market for rock climbing. Well thought out with good exercises and solid information.
Freedom is great (new edition due out soon) but is overwheming for many. Advanced is great but too advanced.
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pico23
Jul 15, 2003, 4:27 AM
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Freedom is a great book and I guess I'm smarter then most ( :oops: ) because I didn't have a problem understanding the techniques (for the most part). However, I have had many people say they felt it was not a good beginner book and I'm inclined to agree that someone with no experience would have a problem with that book alone. I believe the book assumes you are beyond beginner in it's writings. It's sort of a like a 200 level college text book vs. a 100 level that many of the other instructional books written like. That said I still think it should be one of the first books you buy because it really does cover virtually every aspect of climbing and is a useful reference.
The John Long series is good. I hadn't read climbing anchors till I was climbing for a few years and all my less experienced partners always talked highly of it. So when I finally got it I assumed it would be a life altering experience!!! It wasn't but it's a good book even if you've been climbing for a while. More climbing anchors was less impressive but still good. I enjoyed the breakdown of the merits of each anchor and it will give you an idea of anchor possibilities beyond what most books cover.
I've browsed Rock Climbing a Trailside Guide by Don Mellor quite thoroughly at a bookstore (i pretty much read the whole book) and I thought it was good. Possibly one of the better beginner books I've seen but there were a few things I thought were wrong or even unsafe (such as the overhand figure 8 for a 2 rope rappel). Overall it's a great book and pretty to look at as well.
Even for rock climbers I have to say the best book I've ever seen was How to Ice Climb by Craig Lueben. Craig seems like a sensable author and the book is well written for both the neophyte and the experienced climber. It explains many aspects of climbing, the pros and cons, annectdotes from real climbers, and in a good fashion
Knots for climbers by Craig Lueben covers all the knots you really need to know for climbing and a few that you don't.
Ice World by Jeff Lowe is probably the best ice climbing book around. It covers everything and is a well written book on par with Luebens book but much prettier to look at.
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alpinerockfiend
Jul 15, 2003, 6:19 PM
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Registered: Feb 3, 2003
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In reply to: It's sort of a like a 200 level college text book vs. a 100 level that many of the other instructional books written like.
I believe that it compliments experience very well, though. Once you have the idea, taken from practice, of the concepts illustrated in Freedom of the Hills, it becomes much easier to understand the diagrams in the book. In this sense I think it is a very good book for beginnners.
John Long's book How to Rock Climb serves as a great entry-level text.
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