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Rock Climber's Guide to Skyline Boulevard



Bruce Morris (2000) MorComm Press; 0-9650234-1-9
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A good book on the Skyline and Castle Rock areas.

Areas Covered..
Castle Rock State Park
Skyline Slabs

Rock Climbing the San Francisco Area



Teresa Black (2002) Falcon Press; ISBN: 0-7627-1143-4
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Teresa Black

Areas Covered..
Beaver Street Wall
Castle Rock State Park
Cragmont Park
Indian Rock
Mickey's Beach
Mount Diablo State Park
Mount St. Helena
Remillard Park
Table Mountain
Sunol Regional Wilderness
Ring Mountain
Mount Tamalpais
Dry Creek Sea Crag
Fort Ross

Rock Climbing Lake Tahoe



Mike Carville (1999) Falcon Press ISBN: 1-57540-088-X
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There are tons of routes in this book, and most of his drawings are quite good. Unfourtunately, there are many areas that the bolting information is inaccurate. Expect many of the dirt access roads in the guide to be closed to cars, and often this makes the approach times twice as long. This book could use an update, and the South Lake Tahoe book and Big Chief book do an excellent job replacing Carville's book for the areas covered. which is concerning because it was published quite recently.

Areas Covered..
Donner Pass
The Emeralds
Truckee River Canyon
Christmas Valley (Luther Rock)
Echo Pass
Lover's Leap
Phantom Spires
Eagle Creek Canyon
Indian Springs

Rock Climbing Tuolomne Meadows



Don Reid, Chris Falkenstein (1992) Chockstone Press 0-9346414-7-1
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Rock Climbing Yosemite's Select



Don Reid (1998) ChockStone Press; ISBN: 1575401150
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A fairly good compilation about Yosemite's "favorite" climbs. Unfourtunately, this also usually means that you'll wait in line on most of the lower difficulty climbs. The information in the book is concise and accurate, though often approach information is a little cyptic.

Yosemite Topropes



Rob Floyd (1999) Sharp End Publishing; ISBN:
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Now you too can bring your kids to the rocks. Floyd takes a unique approach to climbing books, using interesting little icons to represent information from the slope of the climbs to whether or not to bring your children along. An interesting book, though a little bit too small for a climbing region (Yosemite) containing thousands of routes.

A Climber's Guide to the Sonora Pass Highway



Brad Young, Hope Wolf and Jim Lundeen(2001) YoungWolf GP;
A Great book describing climbs along highway 108. They have gone to great detail to ensure that their topos are excellent, their information is correct, and their ratings and climbs are fair. A good resource associated with this book is their website which contains many updates to the book, as well as new climbs in the area.

Areas Covered..
Herring Creek Dome
Table Mountain
Potter's Rock
5N06 of Sonora

Classic Rock Climbs No. 18 Castle Crags California



Laird Davis, 1997. Falcon Guides
A small sampling of routes in the park (there are a lot!). Very useful to have, but a little route-finding is definately necessary!

Areas Covered..
Shasta Cascade

Bouldering Guide to the Castle Rock Area



Bruce Morris, 2002. MorComm Press
An update to Bruce's A climber's guide to Skyline Boulevard. This book contains a ton of updated information mostly consisting of bouldering in and around the Castle Rock State Park area, but also some updates to climbing rocks and routes from his book. This is a shorter guide, so if there is a debate between his two books, get the climbing guide unless you're a boulderer. The book is still recommended though!

Areas Covered..
Castle Rock State Park

Climber's Guide Pinnacles National Monument



David Rubine, 1995, 2002. Globe Pequot Press


Areas Covered..
Pinnacles National Monument

Bay Area Rock - 2001



Jim Thornburg (2001) Potlicker Press;
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An annually updated book containing somewhat up to date information on many areas in the San Francisco immediate areas. There is lots of beta on many climbs, but sometimes the topos and directions are a little evasive.

Areas Covered..
Beaver Street Wall
Cragmont Park
Dry Creek Sea Crag
Goat Rock State Beach
Grizzly Peak Boulders
Indian Rock
Mount Diablo State Park
Mickey's Beach
Mount St. Helena
Mount Tamalpais
Panther Beach
Remillard Park
Ring Mountain
Sunol Regional Wilderness
Table Mountain
Fort Ross
Lake Temescal Park

The Wine Country Rocks 2003



Rock Climbing and Bouldering in Northern California
This smaller book is written by Santa Rosa local Chris Summit specializing in the climbing of Sonoma County. While Chris does need to work on his grammar, this book offers an excellent assortment of climbing in areas that aren't listed in any other guides. Chris's book also offers a better variety of bouldering problems than all the other bay area books combined.

Areas Covered..
Salt Point State Park
Fort Ross
Goat Rock State Beach
Mount St. Helena
Squaw Cliff Area
Sugarloaf Ridge State Park
Super Slab
Twin Coves
Dry Creek Sea Crag

South Lake Tahoe Climbing



Chris Macnamara (2004) Supertopo; ISBN: 0-9672391-7-6
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Chris' Macnamara and company at supertopo have put out an excellent book on climbing around the Southern Section of Lake Tahoe. While the topos often leave some things to be desired, the books plethora of pictures picks up the slack.

Areas Covered..
Christmas Valley (Luther Rock)
Echo Pass
Lover's Leap
Phantom Spires
Wright's Lake

The Wine Country Rocks - 2004. Rock Climbing and Bouldering



Chris Summit (2004). The Wine Country Rocks.
Chris's new version is quite similar to the previous version, though he has fixed up many of the unclear or erraneous sections of the book. If you own his 2001 book or don't own one of his books, this is definately worth checking out. If you own the 2003 version, you might want to wait until the next version comes out.

Areas Covered..
Salt Point State Park
Fort Ross
Goat Rock State Beach
Sugarloaf Ridge State Park
Squaw Cliff Area
Super Slab
Twin Coves
Mount St. Helena
Dry Creek Sea Crag

Rock Climbs of Placerville, CA



William H. Cottrell (2003) El Dorado Publishing; ISBN 1-891119-03-6
This excellent book describes two areas around Placerville, and is by far the best resource for both areas covered. Excellent overhead views and detailed topos leave little desired, except more pictures perhaps?

Areas Covered..
Cosumnes River Gorge

Big Chief Area Climbs



Marek Hajek (2005) Maximus Press; ISBN: 0-9676116-7-9
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A new book for Big Chief, finally answering my rantings on the current published information on Big Chief. This book has it all, photographs of almost all the rocks, excellent topographic information on approaches and wall locations. Edited by Marty Lewis (I know him from his Owens River Gorge books, though he has another on Mammoth Area climbs), this book keeps with his style, which is the more information, the better! This book lacked in only one area: it is so narrowly focused, since there are other walls quite closeby... But maybe that

Big Chief Area Climbs



Marek Hajek (2005) Maximus Press; ISBN: 0-9676116-7-9
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A new book for Big Chief, finally answering my rantings on the current published information on Big Chief. This book has it all, photographs of almost all the rocks, excellent topographic information on approaches and wall locations. Edited by Marty Lewis (I know him from his Owens River Gorge books, though he has another on Mammoth Area climbs), this book keeps with his style, which is the more information, the better! This book lacked in only one area: it is so narrowly focused, since there are other walls quite closeby... But maybe that's a good thing!