Guidebook Recommendations for the East Sierra

I am interested in guidebooks for mountaineering/alpine routes located near Bishop, CA. Are there any good resources out there that you could recommend?

MP has some guidebooks listed on the High Sierra page under (drum roll),,,"Guidebooks"

mountainproject.com/books/1…

I think the best are the High Sierra Supertopo, Climbing California High Sierra and Croft's book. Secor's book has a ton of info with little detail, but is still a good reference.

If I had to pick just one, it would be the Supertopo, although there are way less climbs in that book compared to Climbing California's High Sierra.

Edit:

For cragging and rock routes in the frontcountry, there is "Bishop Area Rock Climbs," which is an excellent book with a lot of great climbing. Not mountaineering, though.

Frank nailed it. Same 2 suggestions

The Good, the Great, and the Awesome (Peter Croft's book) is your typical collection of history, areas, and topos. Secor's Peaks, Passes, and Trails is more of an almanac / reference index for the sierras. It has pretty much every peak, pass, and trail indexed, but there are very minimal descriptions and no topos like in other climbing books.

Supertopo actually does not have that much information about alpine routes (and by that I'm not sure if you mean snow and ice or pure rock). It's good for the routes included, but it's a pretty limited number of climbs given what's spread out across the range. I'm not sure if Moynier's 100 Classics is still in print, but if it is, I'd recommend that. Supertopo and Croft are mostly rock routes, the most popular ones, so they'll also be the most crowded. The Secor guide is good but does expect people to exercise some routefinding skills, which many appear to have an issue with. I think the biggest issue with Secor is that takes a fair bit of sifting through the guide to figure out what's there, almost as if you need some familiarity with the range or a particular part of it if you want to be efficient with it.

Fat Dad wrote: I'm not sure if Moynier's 100 Classics is still in print, but if it is, I'd recommend that.

The second edition of this book is now entitled, "Climbing California's High Sierra."

http://www.mountaineersbooks.org/The-High-Sierra-P390.aspx

Anything else is just a "select" book that glances over a lot of great stone. In terms of scope is probably one of the grandest climbing guidebooks ever written. Buy it and then photocopy whatever pages you need for the trip so your not lugging the whole 500+ pages up the mountain.

And already mentioned, for front-country cragging the Bishop Area Climbs and Mammoth Area Climbs by Maximus Press are two must-have books for any Eastside climber.

+1 to the above. I'd add that if you're coming into town and visiting, then grabbing a select guide like Supertopo is going to give you some of the best climbing and do a great job of introducing you to the area. Secor's book is to the Sierra what Beckey's Cascade Alpine Guides are to the Cascades - its meant to be as comprehensive as possible, and therefore has to be a little bit short on description. Croft's select guide is another good resource - you've got to believe that anything cross-referenced in ST and Croft's guides must be worth doing.

And another heads up - by this time of the year, the snow and ice routes have almost entirely melted out to the point of constant rockfall. The one exception I can think of right now is the North Couloir on North Peak.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I don't know the area well, so a book with details would be benifical at first. I am strictly into rock climbing mid grade 5th class, no ice. It's hard to judge a book by it's cover. (pun intended) I feel that the SuperTopo book sounds like it is going to be what I am looking for.

Climb safe!