New Guide for Shelf Road - Off to the Printers!

Ciao Shelf Road Junkies & Newbies!

My new Shelf Road rock climbing guide - Shelf Rock Rock - published by Sharp End Publishing, went off to the printers yesterday! Next week you'll be able to purchase "on line" version, which you can download to your smart phones. The print version will be available in three weeks (last week in March). Here's a brief blurb on it:

It’s been a decade since the last Sharp End guide to Shelf Road was published, but the wait has been worth it! This impressively thorough guide features 1150 routes – an increase of almost 300 routes over the previous edition – scattered throughout the remarkable limestone canyons of one of America’s leading sport climbing destinations. It features sport climbs from 5.4 to 5.14 and reveals the personality of the routes through artistic, entertaining route descriptions, gear recommendations including bolt counts, long overlooked historical first ascent information, action shots galore, and is presented for the first time in full color. This is the most complete guidebook ever published for Shelf Road, and will guide you to countless, incredible days climbing in this magical limestone paradise.

And it's PRINTED IN THE USA!

Sale price is a modest $28 and it will be available in top retailers and climbing gyms! I will be doing a book signing at EVO in Lafayette on April 8th at their Grand Opening, check their website next week for the time. Dates to be determined, but I'll also be doing book signings at Earth Treks in Golden and Neptunes in Boulder! Buy your signed copies just in time for the Spring Shelf Road climbing season!

cheers,
rick thompson

Awesome. Thank you Rico!!

Wally

Glad to see it finally happening. I am sure the wait will be worth it.

Can't wait Rico! I can get my copy signed by you, right?

Just got my copies in the mail. Nice looking book. Very few ads. Looks pretty easy to follow overall. 

I was supprised by the recommendation to rap off the routes vs lower. 

Wally, glad you got yours, you're welcome! 

Brett, just bring it to EVO and I can sign it there for you! I've been nursing a torn rotator cuff and haven't been there lately (except for the book signing I did Tues.) but should be starting back next week (May 1st).

Parker, the repeated wear and tear on anchors from lowering off creates grooves in the steel and they quite quickly wear out, demanding replacement. The idea is to reduce that wear and make the anchors last as long as possible, thus the recommendation to rap off. If you're setting up a top rope, please use a pair of quick draws to run the rope through, then the last person can thread the rope, pull the draws and rap off. 

Hope everyone enjoys the new guide, it was a ton of work, but the Team at Sharp End did an outstanding design job and it's chock full of route info!    

Lots of errors even including basic approaches to the cliffs. 

Ken Duncan wrote:

Lots of errors even including basic approaches to the cliffs. 

Geeze Ken, did the Easter bunny skip your house this morning? 

Ken Duncan wrote:

Lots of errors even including basic approaches to the cliffs. 

Might help to include them so Rico can fix them.... I noticed an incorrect bolt count here and there that were wrong, but going to blame that on retrobolting, re-bolting, or adding bolts. 

The book comes with an errata now so yeah... Major issues. 

Parker Wrozek wrote:

The book comes with an errata now so yeah... Major issues. 

Mine did not come with one...anyway I could get a copy of it somewhere online?

mediocre wrote:

Geeze Ken, did the Easter bunny skip your house this morning? 

I was actually at Shelf for Easter. I’ve used the guide ~10 days at Shelf now and have found significant errors every day. This weekend ran into some folks from Wisconsin who had spent a half day trying to get to Cactus Cliff. The guide still describes approaching via the road that has been closed for at least 10 years. The approach info for the Piggy Bank is wrong too. It has the trail coming up to the cliff ~25 routes left of where it actually does. The corrected topo bookmark continues to have errors. These are in addition to lots of inaccurate bolt counts and typos in the descriptions. The guide appears to have been thrown together in a rush and not really proofread. 

I don’t have the errata either. Would be nice to get it. 

Here's where to get the bookmark, but be aware that it too has errors.   stores.sharpendbooks.com/bl…   Silverado is shown ending half-way up the cliff.  In reality it joins Renaissance and shares the anchor.   I haven't looked for other errors on the bookmark - we just happened to do these two again last weekend.

Other big errors:  The approach described for Cactus has you parking on the dirt road (now gated).  Folks are parking illegally? by the gate on the four mile stretch of 'no parking'.  Access to the Piggy Bank is wrong as well.  The book describes the old trail coming up mid-cliff (pg 114).  The actual trail comes up right of what they call Piggy Bank east.  This means someone who comes up on the trail and tries to figure out which climb is in front of them - is off by ~23 routes based on the book description.  We were finding many of the bolt counts off - especially in the one and two star climbs, but we never depend on the book for bolt counts anyway.  

We appreciate the newer routes/areas in the book, but maybe a little more time could have been taken to ensure accuracy.  If/when this is updated again, please, PLEASE order the routes from left to right.

edit:  I did contact Sharpend about  the above errors.

I am curious how the other book is that came out at the same time. I like sharp end books so I went with that one... I have had to use mountain project to get things right when using the book at times. The parking for cactus is just hilarious as I never saw that (since I already knew the road was closed). 

Guy H. wrote:

If/when this is updated again, please, PLEASE order the routes from left to right.

I SECOND THIS.  Myself and friends found the route order very confusing.  I mistakenly got on the wrong route 4 grades harder that I was wanting..  TOPO maps could use some improving.

Rico,
I already have the digital version on my phone.  Are there corrections that can be uploaded yet?  If so, how do I do that?

Love the new book, BTW!  Thanks for the great effort!

The lines for Sleeper and Mighty Aphrodite on 2150 Wall were both too far to the right. I’ve listed these errors in the route pages, but thought I’d update in here as well.

I can attest to the piggy bank approach error as well it caused a bit of confusion at first, but I figured it out before hopping in a route thankfully.

I’m really glad I didn’t plan to park at Cactus Cliff, because I definitely didn’t know the road was closed prior to my trip! In my opinion, access issues are one of the major things I look for and expect in a guidebook, so I hope all of this gets corrected soon.

It would be great to get a list of revisions to guidebook once the new edition comes out, or, even better, a hefty discount on the revised edition if we purchased the first.

EDIT: I'd like to add that I do appreciate all of the work that went into this guide. I believe Version 2 could be an excellent guide, and I'm providing some feedback that I hope can lead to a better product that I can recommend to others! I believe that's all of our hope in replying to this thread. So, congrats on the book, and I hope the revision process goes smoothly!

Why are these major issues coming out a year later?

K Weber wrote: Why are these major issues coming out a year later?

Summer isn't prime season for Shelf (too hot.)  I'm guessing many of the folks who climb regularly at Shelf already know the approaches and the location of many/most of the classic climbs.  They bought the guide for the new info, and didn't bother reading the old info.  We saw a lot of first time visitors in March and April who were there for Spring Break.  First time visitors needed that information, so the errors were brought to light.

Since this has come up again, I'll point out some issues I found; for improvement, not criticism.

The Good:
-New routes included
-Updated information on which routes have been re-equipped
-Includes info on first ascentionist

The Bad:
-Topo for some areas reads Right to Left, and some areas read Left to Right. Very confusing to follow cliff line page to page.
-Route descriptions are often on a different page than the topo
-Pictures often appear on a different page from the routes they show. Confusing.
-Route numbering issue at Contest Wall (Ex: Little Mecca is #39 in one topo and #49 in another topo.
-Larger areas (ex. The Bank) not labeled by subsection (ex. 2150 Wall) at top of the page. Tedious to flip through.
-No index of routes by grade and stars/quality (not an error, but definitely nice to have).
-Many pictures are blurry, making it difficult to distinguish routes.