Jon Nelson

Up at K-Cliff, only rise pumpkin rise, turkish heels, and go! had moist parts. Most routes were nice and dry. Jon

As a follow-up to Selkirk, the detergent lowers the surface tension of the water, so it might help the water flow into the tight spaces around the axle. I just tried the method on several of my cams, and found a lot of small particles in the pan. I removed the cams after about 10 minutes in boiling water, let them dry out a bit (which was fast because they were still hot), and then sprayed with WD-40. The WD-40 that dripped out was pretty dark and grimy, so it does seem to help with the cleaning. Jon

I guess that makes sense for a small crag, where one can easily look over most of the rock before starting out. There are so many guidebooks out there, I wonder if any have a 'reviewer system' like that I described. I have a very interesting guidebook for Elbesandstein in the former East Germany. It doesn't include route reviews as far as I can tell, and does not have any stars, but it has various accounts, old handwritten letters, and copies of newspaper clippings. These are mostly to give a historical perspective on the area, but they also give the reader a feeling about some of the routes, which is a little bit like a review. The photographs serve a similar purpose. I like reading reviews of movies and books, as long as the writer is good. It helps to have several reviews to consult, as there are usually several viewpoints. So, if I ever write a guidebook, I might try such a system and see how it goes (probably badly, as most of my efforts go...) Jon

These are good questions. Unless the system for giving stars is defined clearly in the guidebook, then it will be hard to know what a star means. One would also need to know who gave the rating, or whether it was an average rating by some (given) number of raters. So, instead of stars, maybe a guidebook could have a section at the end in which some people review the area, mentioning which routes they like and why. It would be a bit like reading some film reviews before deciding upon a movie. So, if you liked a route that reviewer "X" recommended, then you can try some of the other routes he or she recommended. The guidebook author has the power to choose the best reviewers, and could make this clear to all possible reviewers: make your reviews concise yet as complete and helpful as possible. This 'reviewer system' is a bit like your 'word of mouth' system, but has the advantage that everybody with the guidebook can get the same recommendations. Jon