California Guidebooks

[Alpine_Junky]

Like to get a list going of the best Cali guidebooks.

 

Ideally I'd like something like a Beckey Guide for Northern CA and/or the Sierra Nevada.

 

The name of the climbing region (N CA, Jtree, the valley, sierra, 14ers etc) and the ranking of the books.

 

I've spent way to much money on lame guidebooks. Any and all parts of Cali welcome, I'll get to wherever eventually.

 

Thanks,

 

-Scotty

[jshamster]

Moyiner (sp?) guide to the High Sierra, and R.J. Secor's Peak's, Passes & High Routes are the closest you'll find to Becky.

 

I like Chris Mac's SuperTaco books, but others find them to have to much hand holding beta. These cover Tahoe, Yose, High Sierra, etc.

 

JTree = Vogel

 

Cheers

Jimbo

[layton]

croft's book ain't no beckey guide, but it's the best one hands down.

[Chriznitch]

the Croft book is good, as is the 4-book eastern Sierra climbing series (it's book #4). Moynie & Fiddler's Sierra Classics is now a differently titled Falcon Guide, and it looks like they've added more routes to the 2nd version.

Climbing Californias Fourteeners is a nearly complete guide to the 14ers, and Moser's trio published by chockstone press covers lots of climbs in the southern sierras.

[roboboy]

Secor's Peak's, Passes & Trails is the most like a Beckey guide. It looks good at first glance but is a bit lacking in climb details, descent routes, etc. and it's hard to do climbs with it alone.

I think the best choices are the Peter Croft book and the Falcon guide by Moynier (Climbing California's High Sierra) which cover plenty of the best routes in decent detail.

 

[jshamster]

Doh!

I'm not at home looking at my library, and the brain cells are lacking.

Croft's book is definately the best for Sierra alpine goodness.

 

Thanks for the reminder Mike.

 

Cheers

Jimbo

[Chris_McNamara]

Their aint no big California guide because there are just too many areas.

 

In general the Falcon books are the most comprehensive but are not always super up to date.

 

Maximus Press publishes the best guides for the East Side. Their Mammoth Area climbs book has tons of goodness and the Croft book has every route that Croft thinks is worth doing in the HIgh Sierra, and i always trust his judgement (he is the jedi master of climbing). http://www.maximuspress.com/

 

I (SuperTopo) publish a bunch of select guides for a handful of cali areas and even if you dont want to buy them you can download free topos for some of the classic routes and get free travel info here http://www.supertopo.com/freetopos.html