Yosemite guidebook recommendations

What guidebook would you recommend for moderate climbers visiting Yosemite, grades in the range of 5.8ish trad leads, 5.10 TR, no aid, no giant walls, no epic long approaches. Would like a book with really good descriptions of the routes as well as how to find them and descend. I heard there's a new book coming out soon but we'll be back by then. I have the old 1994 Don Reid book.
Thanks!

If you plan to do the moderate classics like Nutcracker, Snake Dike, Royal arches, super slide, central pillar etc. the Supertopo book is just fine.

If you can wait a couple weeks, get the latest one! Great beta, photos, and tips for climbers new to the valley~ rockclimbyosemite.com

The 1994 Reid guide may seem old, but it has 95% of the best routes and the most free routes of any Yosemite Valley guide.
It sells for $60+ used on amazon, as it's out of print.
If you want color photos and more details for the most popular routes, the supertopo guide mentioned above is best.
Unfortunately there are not a lot of great 5.8 and under climbs in Yosemite Valley, unlike in the Gunks.

Yo CliffMama,

The ST guide to the Valley is super outdated, and inaccurate. A group of us have been working on a new guide, which is on the boat to Oakland as we speak. You can preorder here:

RockClimbYosemite.com

We're hoping to release the App, which comes free with the book purchase, before the books arrive.

Woot!
Erik Sloan
Rockclimbyosmeite.com, owner

Erik Sloan wrote:The ST guide to the Valley is super outdated, and inaccurate.

The reed book you have combined with mp.com (printouts or the app or both) will be more than enough for a visiting climber.

The MP free app is decent.

If you buy the new guidebook, you get an app version with it free too.

Weather is so perfect right now. Go For It!

I got me a book. I couldn't review my order to make sure the address was correct. I guess you'll have my it when you check PayPal.

I bumped into Erik in the Mountain Room Bar on Friday night (never met the guy before, just recognized him and the book sitting next to him) He let me have a look through the new book and I think it looks great. I generally use SuperTopo guides and they definitely do the job, but I liked the detail and overall quality of Erik's book.

I'll be buying a copy for sure.

Thanks Bill and Chris!

It's looking like the books will ship around June 18th, so unfortunately until then there is just a copy in the Yosemite Mtn, Shop that you are welcome to check out and take photos of with your phone.

You can still preorder for 25% off!

Woot!
Erik
Rockclimbyosemite.com

Erik Sloan wrote:Thanks Bill and Chris! It's looking like the books will ship around June 18th, so unfortunately until then there is just a copy in the Yosemite Mtn, Shop that you are welcome to check out and take photos of with your phone. You can still preorder for 25% off! Woot! Erik Rockclimbyosemite.com

Erik Sloan wrote:Yo CliffMama, The ST guide to the Valley is super outdated, and inaccurate.

Yo Gang,

The App is being made by the Italian company Vertical Life. On the inside cover of the book is a scratch off sticker with a code, which you put in at the app store to receive the app for free. VL is working hard on the app, and we're hoping it will be done any day.

There is an advanced copy of the book at the Yosemite Mtn Shop now, for folks to check out. FEel free to take copies with your phone of pages you want to check out.

I'm really sorry the books are coming so late. We tried as hard as we could to get it done earlier, but just missed our deadline for a pre-season item. The good news is I think you will all be very impressed with the content and quality of the book.

Thanks!
Erik

Erik Sloan wrote:Yo Gang, The App is being made by the Italian company Vertical Life. On the inside cover of the book is a scratch off sticker with a code, which you put in at the app store to receive the app for free. VL is working hard on the app, and we're hoping it will be done any day. There is an advanced copy of the book at the Yosemite Mtn Shop now, for folks to check out. FEel free to take copies with your phone of pages you want to check out. I'm really sorry the books are coming so late. We tried as hard as we could to get it done earlier, but just missed our deadline for a pre-season item. The good news is I think you will all be very impressed with the content and quality of the book. Thanks! Erik

Oh Yeah - the app will be sold at the regular app store and will be both apple and android.

That new book looks really nice! Will it have information on sport routes in the valley as well, or just trad? My friend and I are making the trip out to Yosemite in the end of June, but neither of us trad climb yet. I've been trying to find a good guidebook that has info on the Valley's single pitch sport routes.

Hi Ari,

The new book has all the sport climbs in the Valley! That said, there are not a bunch of easy sport climbs. There are many 5.10 - 5.12 sport climbs, but very few at the easier grades.

Look forward to meeting you when you are here!

Woot!
Erik
Rockclimbyosemite.com

Great!

Looks like I'll be grabbing a copy :) I climb 5.11-5.12 and my friend climbs 5.12-5.13 so I'm hoping there will be plenty to keep us busy for the week. I'd love to come back for another trip once I learn trad and multi pitch.

Thank you all for the guide book beta!

Back from a fun trip to Yosemite. I was lucky enough to get to test drive Erik's new guidebook when someone with an advanced copy lent it to us for the week.

It's absolutely beautiful, quite heavy, and full of fantastic pictures. That said, I must admit there were some shortcomings, especially for visiting climbers like us who aren't as familiar with Yosemite. Most of the areas have no descriptions. There are route topos, but in some cases, we didn't have enough information for the approach, descent or where to find the start of the climb. We found the old SuperTopo book was much better for that beta. Also, one minor annoyance was when looking at the glossy photos showing the route lines on the rock, the grades weren't included. So we had to go back and forth between the pictures and the grades listed on the topos to see which lines were within our abilities.

The best thing about the new book was the fold out map in the beginning. It shows you all of the crags along the valley with page numbers, so we used it quite a bit while getting familiar with each formation. Having the route lines drawn on sharp color photos was much better than the black and white images in the SuperTopo book. The map of each section of the Nose was quite nice - I'm not up for big walls, but we used it while viewing climbers on the route, and were able to match familiar names to features.

The book is really heavy. Too heavy to put in our packs to take with us. We took pictures of the pages we needed and had our camera with us to reference them. Because it was an advanced copy, we didn't have access to the phone app, so perhaps that will resolve that issue.

Our take? The new book was good for pictures and research on what to climb, and Reid's old Supertopo book was good for more detailed descriptions. We used both books, neither book did it all for us. But as relatively new visitors to Yosemite, we relied on the Supertopo book to get us to the base of the climbs and back down, as well as the Mountain Project app for beta. We might have been lost with only the new book.

I suppose as you get more familiar with a place, it's not as crucial. But for those who are new to the area, you may spend some time getting a little lost with only the new book. Part of the adventure, yes... But I could have done without the descent down a "death chute" when we chose the wrong way down. (Luckily we weren't the only ones who went that way, we found a friendly tree with rap slings that helped us down). We're now back in familiar territory, the Gunks, where all the climbs are in a row and the guidebook has lots of detailed descriptions. Maybe we're just spoiled.

Anyway, it's a gorgeous book, I enjoyed looking through it, but new visitors may need more information.