New Gunks Guidebook

A new Gunks Guidebook based on the Gunks Apps digital guide is now available for pre-sale on the Wolverine website. The book is 468 pages and has the same topos, base photos, descriptions, and numbering but includes other goodies not in the app like detailed history, key figures bios, action photos, cliff line diagrams and more. 

Areas covered:

• Trapps — Keyhole to Slime Wall (21 sectors)
• Near Trapps — right end to Workout Wall (3 sectors)

The book was authored by local climbers Andy Salo, Christian Fracchia, and Eric Ratkowski. If you frequent New Paltz consider supporting a local business by purchasing your copy from Rock and Snow. If you want your copy shipped you can order from the link below. I was told that getting your book shipped from Wolverine will be the same time as the arrival of the book at Rock and Snow.

https://www.wolverinepublishing.com/store/gunks-climbing-pre-order/ 

In the Trapps in certain cases, the GunksApp route descriptions differ from those in one or both of the Williams and Swain guides.  My impression is that the GunksApp edited the routes to minimize congestion, hazardous and grungey climbing.  For example, the GunksApp does not reference Pony Express which traverses popular classics.  Another example is routes to the right and left of Middle Earth P2 are routed, by the GunksApp, through Middle Earth P2.

I understood the new book would be a broader canonical record of the routes which include esoteric and rarely climbed routes.  From the your description, I gather my impression is wrong and the book will hew to the routes as described by the GunksApp app.

How Will the book’s route descriptions differ from those in the GunksApp?

Count me one buyer.  I saw Eric out there working on this project for years and I am grateful for the effort. 

But how will I attach that to my harness?

Live Perchedwrote:

How Will the book’s route descriptions differ from those in the Gunks App? 

The descriptions are identical in the book and app. The book basically is the app just with more history and extras. 

Do you know if Rock and Snow will be doing preorders as well? I couldn’t find it on their website yet. 

Climb Onwrote:

Do you know if Rock and Snow will be doing preorders as well? I couldn’t find it on their website yet. 

I don't think so, I believe they need to get their shipment before they list them on their website. 

Tom Shermanwrote:

But how will I attach that to my harness?

Get Rock and Snow to drill a hole for you.  :-)

Tom Shermanwrote:

But how will I attach that to my harness?

pink tricam

Tom Shermanwrote:

But how will I attach that to my harness?

Wait for the Guide Book Mini, coming out in the fall. Just need to order some good scissors and get organized. 

Tom Shermanwrote:

But how will I attach that to my harness?

I hear there might be an app for it, can't remember the name. 

This post violated Guideline #1 and has been removed.

Saw the staff at Rock and Snow reading a copy, looked nice. 

Aaron Basherwrote:

Great another Sh!tty gunks guide, put out from a bunch poseurs look at me types spray lords.  This guide is even worse than the Z orenzach crap guide.   

Characterizations of the authors are incorrect and misleading. 

Live Perchedwrote:

Characterizations of the authors are incorrect and misleading. 

"Basher" joined MP just to post this comment. Methinks he doesn't like one or more of the authors.

Got the new guide book. Great work on it! It's a beautiful book that I will browse through for many more hours. I have had the apps since they came out and the book is the same content, it still a guide book and far more enjoyable to browse through. It does have more info than the apps with more topos and pictures.

One thing that highly surprised me though and should have been more clear. The guide book is not complete and volume 1. The whole far right section of Trapps (Sleepy Hollow) and most of Nears are not included. It has a tiny note on page 395 that volume 2 is forthcoming. That should have been mentioned right away on front page (more or less), as it gives a little bad after taste to feel tricked.

Ron Birkwrote:

One thing that highly surprised me though and should have been more clear. The guide book is not complete and only volume 1. The whole right section of Trapps and most of Nears are not included. It has a tiny note on page 395 that volume 2 is forthcoming. That should have been mentioned right away on front page (more or less), as it gives a little bad after taste to feel tricked.

Funny, when the app was first released I criticized it for similarly incomplete sections/missing of several standard Gunks routes.  I was told "they're coming", but the app description clearly said 'complete'.  Same strategy different tactics.  I'm sad to see anyone have to bend / omit the truth, repeatedly.  Have to wonder if the troll knows something the rest of us don't about the authors.

To be clear, the “whole right section” that is missing is only what’s right of Rogers Escape Hatch. The book already pushed size limits, and we figured people would rather see the front of the Nears instead of Sleepy Hollow.

Kevin Heckelerwrote:

Funny, when the app was first released I criticized it for similarly incomplete sections/missing of several standard Gunks routes.  I was told "they're coming", but the app description clearly said 'complete'.  Same strategy different tactics.  I'm sad to see anyone have to bend / omit the truth, repeatedly.  Have to wonder if the troll knows something the rest of us don't about the authors.

The creators of the App made the editorial choice to leave out some routes that they thought were unworthy of inclusion. When the Trapps App first came out, some accused them of producing a "select" guide, even though the authors listed 99% of the routes that people actually climb. (I personally disagreed with the decision to leave out Sleepy Hollow, as there are some excellent and popular routes down there.) So while there was some kernel of truth to the criticism, the authors were right, I think, to be taken aback at the kinds of things that were being said. And more importantly, they responded to the criticism constructively, by including, over time, every single route. There are some pitches they do not describe, because no one does these pitches. I can't name a single route in the Trapps that should be in the App but isn't. 

The Nears App is less complete. And I remember that they were quite upfront about this when the App came out. There is a lot more unpopular territory to wade through in the Nears, so I can sympathize. I think the App guys would do us all a service by including more of the obscure routes, which could become cleaner and more popular with traffic. Dick tried to do this with his 2008 revision to his guidebook. I'm sure it is a large undertaking. And they have added lots of routes over time-- even just in the last few weeks they've added routes to the Nears App. 

All of this is to say that it takes quite a contorted point of view to present this as some kind of dishonesty. Anyone who publishes a guide (even including Dick), has had to make choices about what goes in and what stays out. In the new book, the authors describe their thought process as to how they selected what to include in the foreword-- right there in the first two pages of the book. I might not have made the choices they made. (And I might have made a far inferior book!) But I think it is ridiculous to accuse them of some kind of disinformation campaign. 

Ron Birk wrote:

Again, It's an awesome guidebook. I keep saying it. But it should have said it's not covering the whole cliff. That is totally fine.. Just be clear about it. I like the Sleepy Hollow section and the first thing I looked up when I got the book only to find it's not there. 

I deleted the comment about the three wheels a minute after posting it, as I realized it wasn't a fair comparison. But didn't delete is fast enough before you could see it. Apologize for that.

Hey Ron,

Thank you for the compliments, they are appreciated. I apologize that the marketing is not clearer about the contents. It definitely was not a conscious effort to mislead anyone. And we did have discussions of what to include. There were suggestions to do an incomplete, select style book after the Slime Wall. Or to hurry up and complete Sleepy Hollow. (although the book was delayed enough as it was, let alone trying to fill in a bunch of obscure/nonexistent/horror show routes.) I think we all agree that there are great routes in Sleepy Hollow- Christian has some premier FAs there.

Ultimately Wolverine was concerned with the length and it felt like the value added from the densest, best section of the Nears was the best idea (as Andy outlines above.)

I fully agree with your decision, given the parameters you had regarding the content. Keep up the great work and I'm looking forward to volume 2 (or whatever is next). Having scoping out cliffs myself, taking photos and writing up descriptions for routes on this site I know how much work is involved to get the quality you have provided.

SethGwrote:

All of this is to say that it takes quite a contorted point of view to present this as some kind of dishonesty. Anyone who publishes a guide (even including Dick), has had to make choices about what goes in and what stays out. In the new book, the authors describe their thought process as to how they selected what to include in the foreword-- right there in the first two pages of the book. I might not have made the choices they made. (And I might have made a far inferior book!) But I think it is ridiculous to accuse them of some kind of disinformation campaign. 

My critique is for the omissions framed as complete-ness, not what's actually there.  My observations are based on recent history of similar actions/decisions.  This is the second time they've published a new guide framed as complete with missing routes, and with a second volume in the planning stages and zero mention of this on their sale pages being a first volume... see where the interpretation of dishonesty arises?

Additionally, I know other guides/publishers will sometimes use the term "select" when describing their guides with omissions.  But if they are selling this as comprehensive, split between two volumes, then they need to at least say that somewhere [website content pasted below].

About the book

The Shawangunks — “the Gunks” to most of us — is one of the oldest climbing areas in the US, with a storied history dating back to the 1930s. Located 80 miles north of New York City, it has long been a focal point of rock-climbing culture, and remains a traditional climber’s paradise. There is no shortage of very difficult routes that will challenge the best climbers, but the Gunks is even more famous for its incredible easier climbs. You could spend several seasons exploring made-to-climb cracks, faces, overhangs, and dihedrals without ever venturing beyond the 5.7 grade! Multi-pitch outings abound, and the graded carriage road at the base of the cliffs allows easy strolls to even the most distant ends of the cliff.
This full-color, ruthlessly researched guide represents the “next generation” of Gunks guidebooks. It covers over 600 routes at the two main cliffs: the Trapps and Near Trapps. Cliff-base photos get you quickly oriented on the ground, and high-resolution aerial images show key features on routes. Detailed area and route descriptions help you find just the right flavor of climb. You’ll spend less time searching, and more time pulling overhangs, plugging cams, and chasing your own piece of history.

Areas and features

• Trapps — Keyhole to Slime Wall (21 sectors)
• Near Trapps — right end to Workout Wall (3 sectors)
• Aerial cliff photos
• Cliff-base photos
• Trailhead-locator photos
• Helpful sector summaries for choosing where to climb 
• Action photography from past and present eras
• Detailed regional and climbing history
• Biographical essays of 10 famed Gunks climbers
• Graded list of routes