Guidebook ideas

[layton]

Since I've scrapped my idea for writting a guide, here are my ideas for other to pick up where my ambition left off.

 

1. A coffee table book of the ultra-mega classics of the North Cascades.

-Big Colorful spreads of the peak/route

-History and accounts, epics, anticdotes from climbers

-A detailed topo

-Including the big, important climbs, traverses, etc...

 

2. Ice guide that also includes SW B.C.'s alpine ice routes, like the Sumallo Cirque and Cheam Range!@!!

 

3. A "locals" guide to routes that either

A) didn't make the beckey guide, nelson, or kearney cut

B) are only given brief mention/beta in the becky guide

This was my "unselected" guide I was thinking of doing. As many photos, maps, and topos as possible, stories, etc

 

For #2 Here is the list of climbs that people have emailed me and I've thought of in no particular order. And, yes, I've included my routes too.

-Elephant Head

-Ptarmagin Traverse (w/maps,pics)

-+New routes on Baring

-Infinate Bliss

-Davis Peak Routes

-+S.Picket's Traverse

-NF of +McMillan and *Inspiration

-SW Pk Bonanza Russian Rt

-+*Goat Wall Routes in Mazama

-Burgundy +NE & *E face routes

-*Chablis E Face

-*WA pass traverse

-*Mox

-*Back of Beyond Buttress

-+Darin Berdinka and Dru's routes in the Anderson Range

-*Mythic Wall in the Sisters

-*Boola Boola Buttress Routes

-Lots of the shorter routes in the Enchantments

-*Acid Baby on Asguard Pass

-+NE side dragontail new routes

-+Gato Negro on Silverstar

-*Mox E.Face

-*Carlos Rossi Memorial Tower

-+Bomber Buttress in Cuthroat Lake

-State Crag routes

-+The Snout

-Routes on *+Illumination Rock and the +Black Spider on Hood

-NE Buttress on Dragontail

-+Routes in the Cathedrals

-The colorado route on Castle Peak

-+Tokatie Lake Wall

-Swiss Peak skoog rt

-*Davis Holland/Lovin Arms Index

-*Beacon Rock-young warriors

-Memorial Pillar in Neswatcht

-Routes on Judge Howay

-+Yellow Brick Rd-marble canyon

-Routes on pt 7002

-Rampage on

-+Stellar Eclipse on Silverstar

-N.Ridge Mt Blum

-N Ridge mt Cheval

-N.Ridge on that granite peak just next to Buck Mtn

-+Twin Sisters Travese

-Stuart Range Traverse

-+classics on Exfoliation Dome

-Route on Squire Creek Wall

-+Green Dragon at Index

-Forbidden pk NW Face

-Dragontail Gerber/Sink & Boving, & Dragonfly, +pete/rolf's route

-North Ridge Eldorado

-Mt Olympus

-Whatcom Peak

-Columbia, Keyes, Monte Christo

-Entiat Traverse

-+Heavens Gates 5.11b Index Upper Town Wall 4-6 pitches

-Upper 8-mile buttress

-Condomorphine

-+Entiat Icefall

-+NE Face of Mesachie glacier/icefall/4th class ridge

-+Backslide Buttress on Gamuza

-+W Butt of Old Settler

-+Index Golden Arch

-*Zig Zag mt Eerie

-East Face mt Colonol foster on van cuv island

-+Labor Day Rt on NEWS

-McNaught Pk N.Face

-Victory Ridge Mt Adams

-Mowich Face and Curtis ridge Rainier

-*Yak Check

-*zebra zion, wherever i may roam, w.face var monkey face, smith rock traverse, christian bros traverse, aid line on picnic lunch wall at smith rocks

-*Castle Dome NF, Eface, Mt Hubris rts, and Plumbline at castle crags

this was just a list of some of my ideas, and some emails I've gotten. I starred * routes i've been on if you want my input for questionable beta, and put a + on routes I can fwd you leads on.

 

Now somebody get to work, or I'll do it if I get paid.

Edited May 26, 2006 by michael_layton

[mattp]

You've got some deserving routes on your list, Mike. I'm not kidding. However, maybe there are some themes you've overlooked:

 

How about "50 biggest chest beats on cc.com" or "100 gaper routes that nobody will admit climbing," or maybe "My Favorite Sheep-Infested Climbs?"

 

You could rake in a ton if you hit that special niche.

[willstrickland]

Coffee table book is WAY niche, a regional one even more so, requires top notch photography, and realistically it would take 5+ years to shoot enough for such a book. Go in a big box book retailer like B&N sometime and look at the blowout aisle...about half are coffee table books...Ireland, Classic cars, etc.

 

Ask Harrison Shull about his last one. Fantastic project, but probably sold barely enough to break even on publishing costs.

[G-spotter]

Mike, what about a Stone Nudes style calendar, but with all the photos of you, naked, on a different route each month?

[jordop]

Coffee table photo book wouldn't get off the ground. "Poets on the Peaks" and "Mountains of the Coast" I've both got for $10.

 

The Select Guide would work I think, but you should take a different approach than Kearney or Nelson so you don't just do the same thing. I like your ideas of stories, as in the Indian Creek guide or 50 Favourites Some high quality overlooked classics specific to the northwest. Probably won't make any money on it but I'd read it on the shitter

[DirtyHarry]

How about including some of the recent winter snow/ice FA's, like Colin and Dave's route on Chiwawa and / or the routes on the N Face of Summit Chief.

[John Frieh]

Alan and especially Jim produced an excellent selected climbs guidebook(s).

 

Yes they didn't cover the "unselected or unknown" routes of the cascades but that's okay as the bulk of climbers in the NW aren't interested... in fact I would say even a percentage of the "selected routes" that appear in their guidebooks hardly ever get climbed.

 

With that said some new cool routes have been climbed that will likely be incorporated into future editions just like Hardy Disappearing Floor was incorporated into Jim's 2nd edition of Vol 1. I would hope and expect that Intravenous and other deserving recent ascents find there way into future editions.

 

But I am highly suspicious as I would expect any publisher would be of the potential returns for "unselected climbs" in an already saturated market (I can think of 10 WA guidebooks currently out).

 

PS: Please remind me to never tell you about anything I am considering, saw in the back country, have pictures of, or even heard about.

[billcoe]

Mike, what about a Stone Nudes style calendar, but with all the photos of you, naked, on a different route each month?

 

I think he would be looking for a larger market than just you and archenemy.

[jordop]

Mike if you're really itching for something to do, how about updating the Complete Coast Mountains Guide. It's only 40 years out of date

[G-spotter]

in fact I would say even a percentage of the "selected routes" that appear in their guidebooks hardly ever get climbed.

 

Wow. really? Do you think I can go for Hummingbird Ridge on Logan without a 10 party lineup? After all it's in 50 Crowded Climbs, and Royal Arches and Liberty Crack are pretty damn busy.

[Alex]

There are alot of guidebook ideas floating around, but we probably don't need another Select Guide for Cascades alpine climbs. No author is making money off these books at any rate, the audience is just so small. The Select Guides - I've always found their usefulness more in introducing one to new areas and new types/genres of climbing than just more "classic" climbs - Jim and Alan's books have been good for this, better than Beckey, primarily because of the pictures.

 

There are some ideas for guidebooks

 

* Pacific Northwest Aid Routes - wilderness wall routes and the stuff at Index and Squamish

 

* High Alpine Traverses: I think the Ptarmigan and Bailey Range routes are very well covered on the Internet. This type of trip is very appealing and approachable by a large® user group (you can sure imagine alot more East Coasters would come to try the Ptarmigan if they knew it was here) but so far these trips have remained low-key mostly "local knowledge" things judging from the people I've met out there. There are doubtless other great alpine rambles that are not crowded that might warrant some type of book. The Isolation Traverse, the Snowking Buckindy Group traverse, and so on. Alot of these things are already covered in some forms, such as Ira Spring/Harvey Manning books, Lowell's online trip log, Martin's ski tours book, etc. but having one person do all these trips and piecing it together in book form complete with maps and pics might be very compelling.

[cappellini]

what about a guide to the first crowbar ascent opportunities appearing throughout wa, particularly in the icicle..removing thoughtless bolts on lead while free climbing with adequate natural and gear protection..now there's a necessary evolution pathway for our sport...

 

or maybe a guide to all the free fixed hardware easily removable while protected by the adjacent, natural or gear protection, there's hundreds of dollars worth of this junk littering the icicle alone, just waiting for an industrious sohl...like the unsung hero (or should i say "arshole" who has removed some of the more tacky botchjobs around here...thank you and keep abusing whatever substance motivates such righteous behavior)...

 

or how bout a guide to the neglected classics which have now been resurected from the filth and down bolted, disregarding the existing protection and the boldness of the original ascent..

 

ive got it, a guide to all mike's routes with a correction factor for exaggerations, grade inflation, and the general fiction in his descriptions making them so enduring..like that super sick 5.10+ grade IV acid baby line he reported, which actually took 3 (1 lame, 1 old, and 1 fat) guys a mere half day from the car on their ground up questionable fa..hmmm

 

i would be happy to contribute to any of these

[cappellini]

one more idea...a guide that somehow frequently includes pete's name...like what dirty suggests

[DirtyHarry]

Only as long as I get royalties.

[cappellini]

how bout a retainer

[DirtyHarry]

My teeth are fine, thanks.

[G-spotter]

we can fix that!

[DirtyHarry]

How 'bout: DIRT ROCK: The Dirtiest Climbs in Washington, a guide to Dan Cappellini's routes in the greater Leavenworth Area, Volume I.

 

Or: UNINSPIRING: Obscure Rambling Alpine Moderates, a guide to Drew Brayshaw's routes in the Coast Mountains.

 

[G-spotter]

WEASEL WORDS: How to get your partner to lead the hard pitches but write a TR like you did. By Peter Hirst. $14.99 on Amazon

[DirtyHarry]

Act now and get a free supplement on how to effectively claim the R / X grade and get away with it, my Michael Layton.

[cappellini]

its called, "the exhumed classics"..its with the publisher now..look for rat's "pantera pete" pitch on the cover

[layton]

how about your stupid and your mom is stupid mr. "i'm stupid"

[EWolfe]

Wow. You guys are so awesome! You should publish this rad banter!!

[Stefan]

Mount Triumph North Face Central Rib.

 

Still looking for a low IQ person for a FWA?

 

http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/57035177

[layton]

yeah, it's a bad idea. stay off it that in winter please.