Author: Gary Latter
Publisher: Pesda Press

With the current climate of financial uncertainty and subsequent ‘belt tightening’ making the UK – and for that matter global – consumer more likely to arrange trips closer to home and not want to outlay large sums on numerous volumes, the selected rock climbing guide becomes a more attractive proposition than ever before.

It seems therefore apt that the most eagerly awaited selected guide of the year should touchdown just as the purse strings tighten and the good weather seems set to make a resilient last stand before winter takes hold – Indian summer anyone?

With an eighteen year gap since the release of Kevin Howett’s seminal Rock Climbing in Scotland the Scots were well due a new guide(s) to their glorious highland, lowland and coastal crags. Gary Latter’s Scottish Rock is a well produced and illustrated two-volume labour of love, purveying both traditional and sport climbs. It covers all the key regions, from the Southern Highlands to the Outer Hebrides and Orkney Isles.

The guide is particularly clear and concise in layout, managing to get a good balance between the in-depth knowledge and personal touch of an independently produced guide and the ease-of-use of the more generic Rockfax guides. The A5 portrait format offers plenty of space, and the author has used this well; giving the text layout an uncluttered look and utilizing a cool colour coordinated browser window-like tab format. The crag photos are, on the whole, shot in good light and the lines are easily identifiable. The action shots offer a good mix of styles, location and grade; and feature some awesome panoramic views. That said the reproduction quality of both the crag and action shots is, in some cases, a little blurry and this does take some of the sheen off the overall aesthetics of the guide.

The route descriptions are detailed, appear to have been well researched and average between two and four sentences per route! Another useful feature of the descriptions is the colour-coded numbering system (similar to that pioneered by Rockfax) for routes according to their grade. The system uses four colours: green for routes from Moderate to Severe, orange from VS to HVS, red from E1 to E3, and purple for E4 and above. This makes for an easy method of scanning the guide for crags with a grade range appropriate to the individual climber.

Click the sample page thumbnails for a larger view.

The well drawn overview and approach maps have an immediate appeal to the guide book connoisseur and the obvious accuracy points toward the use of OS/Harvey’s maps as a template; thus giving the user an instant feeling of confidence when considering a previously un-visited crag. Combine this with the lucid array of symbols (explained via a legend on the page marker flap of the cover), route quality stars (1 to 4) and back page train spotters tick list and you have one heck of a guide.

Purchase Scottish Rock here.