A brilliant guide that covers everything needed!

Posted by Clay C on 26th Jan 2011

Living in the centre of Bristol, this is by far my most used climbing guidebook. It is split into two separate guidebooks, one for Avon and one for Cheddar, which means its possible to carry the guide in a pocket, something that is very useful on some of the wandering multipitch routes found in the Avon Gorge. The front sections of the guidebooks are detailed and well written, giving plenty of history on the area, and also advising about ethics with regards to things like pegs.

The main disadvantage with this guidebook is the difficulty of matching some of the topos to the routes. Whilst I think colour photographs may have helped with this, the main problem is the lack of an obvious line to some of the routes – something that the guidebook writers can do very little about! Having said this, I’ve always found the route descriptions more than adequate, and I’ve never found myself lost due to the guidebook.

Compared to some of the newer Rockfax and BMC guidebooks, this has a very dated feel to it, but that shouldn’t take away from the detail and massive amount of information in this guide. If you are a local, or plan on visiting the area numerous times, I’d definitely recommend this guidebook over the selective South West Rockfax guide. There are a number of great little crags and brilliant routes that would be overlooked without this definitive guide!

Note: If you are planning on just sport climbing at Cheddar, then the new Martin Crocker guide is probably a better guide to get. The Cheddar section of this guide mainly contains trad routes, and since it was written there have been a lot of routes retro-bolted and many new sport routes added.