Favorite Guidebook Features?

Pages in a binder, good topos on photos, gps location. , not wierd ones like Adirondack rock has that needs their app to translate

JonasMR wrote:

GPS coordinates. This is the 21st century and you're trying to convey location information.

Pages in a binder. I generally cut out the pages I want for a day, even cragging. Then shove them back in the book. Less weight, less wear/water on the pages not in use, but doesn't look great on the bookshelf. A binder would fix that. 

This is the 21st century and you don’t just snap a pic of the guidebook with your phone?

Eric Marx wrote:

This is the 21st century and you don’t just snap a pic of the guidebook with your phone?

Not after the first half dozen phone screens I replaced. 

Paper is good tech: sunlight visible, high resolution, low cost, light, foldable, always charged...

june m wrote:

Pages in a binder, good topos on photos, gps location. , not wierd ones like Adirondack rock has that needs their app to translate

Gotta ask...what‘s weird? And what app?

JonasMR wrote:

Not after the first half dozen phone screens I replaced. 

Paper is good tech: sunlight visible, high resolution, low cost, light, foldable, always charged...

Been climbing over ten years and never had any issues, and all my guidebooks are intact   

Eric Marx wrote:

Been climbing over ten years and never had any issues, and all my guidebooks are intact   

Nice! It took me more than a decade to return to the paper fandom (be a paper pusher?), but I'm a slow learner. If something works for you and the stuff you're doing, keep doing it!

Jim Lawyer wrote:

Gotta ask...what‘s weird? And what app?

I tried to use the  gps coordinates from your first book once, and it didnt work with the free gps app on my android device. Don't  remember the details, but it worked  with The coordinates in Maine and nh. Overall  I think your books are great, very Reasonably  priced but too big to carry around.  I love the section in the back appendix b cliffs by category . (I am somewhat Of a luddite so that may have been the problem)

june m wrote:

I tried to use the  gps coordinates from your first book once, and it didnt work with the free gps app on my android device. Don't  remember the details, but it worked  with The coordinates in Maine and nh. Overall  I think your books are great, very Reasonably  priced but too big to carry around.  I love the section in the back appendix b cliffs by category . (I am somewhat Of a luddite so that may have been the problem)

Ah. I’ve used a couple different gps devices and apps, and they all work with UTM, but some require a settings change. I find UTM easier to use—no negative signs or decimal places. And you can do the math in your head when computing distances between coordinates. 

But I hear what your saying. Each coordinate system has pros and cons. 

I really appreciate an index of routes/problems organized by grade and star rating. Makes it way easier to seek out the best routes within my ability, without having to scour every page of the book.

Super minor nitpick, but I really hate it when guidebooks include an action shot of a given climb without telling the page number in the guidebook where you can find that climb.

There's also a short section at the beginning on local crag ethics (how do you reserve a spot in line for a route, what a red tag means, etc.) which I think should be in every book.

A handful of features I especially like from the books I have:

Detailed drawn topos that show depth and detail using shading, color, etc. The Watts Smith Rock and Kramar Leavenworth Rock guides are great examples of this. I prefer drawn topos to photos with routes overlayed, but including both is the best.

I really like advice on places to camp or cheap lodging, food and drink recs, nearest groceries, climbing gear, guide service, nearest hospital, swimming holes, "rainy day" activities. Maybe some becomes outdated in a few years but I prefer curated recommendations in a book to random Google results. And MP pages only include this kind of thing sporadically.

Routes-by-grade index that separates out R-rated climbs--nice feature for new trad leaders :-)

I'll echo everyone else and say good overhead perspective maps showing the overall layout of the whole area with all the crags, and approach maps showing trails, landmarks, shape of cliff line, and distances, plus a narrative description. The single most useful thing a book can offer.

Agree with @Chuffy Chaser on including beta on "time to dry" and crags that stay dry in rain (ha!). Also noting cracks that tend to collect a lot of gunk.

Intro sections discussing local area history, geology, flora/fauna, climate, and the history and development of climbing. I also like books that feature short essays or interviews with locals and stories about noteworthy first ascents.

Quality ratings, author's top recommendations, and "best of" lists featuring different types/styles

I really like when guidebooks qualify the R or X section of routes. For example a route rated 5.10 R, I’d like to know if the R section is at the 5.10 grade or maybe at a lesser grade, and hence more approachable to a climber whose limit is 5.10. For example, “5.10 G (5.8 R)”.

When the layout is complex (multiple faces and buttresses) having a top down map is amazing for finding the route you want. 

Length of climbs. I’m astounded that a recent guidebook for a large Sierra eastside area does not include this information. I’ve been copying the info from Mountain project, when it’s available, into the guidebook.

I'm a huge fan of guidebooks that show 40+ routes on one photo taken a mile away with a telephoto lens, and then use the word "obvious" as much as possible to describe something like a tree in the woods. 

Sun angles for winter / summer are nice too, as well as information about the grade and gear required. 

Things I like (in rough order of priority): 

• Extensive indexing (alphabetical, by difficulty, by stars, by sun angles, by pitches/length, by approach time, etc). I don't see it done often, but it'd be really nice if these were tabular (ie, when indexing things by grade, include extra columns with stars/location/page/etc, rather than just listing things by grade).
• Lots of photos. It can be really nice to have photos of areas from multiple perspectives. Action shots are fun, too. 
• Overhead maps of areas and approaches are especially helpful. I especially appreciate when there are multiple versions of these (zoomed out / zoomed in / etc).
• GPS coordinates. Not necessary in some places, but incredibly helpful for climbing areas that are large/distributed.
• Color coded pages (the Frenchman Coulee book does this and it makes it really easy to navigate between areas). 
• Clear indications of what climbs start from the ground vs extensions/variations or climbs that are one or more pitches off the ground. (The Snoqualmie Rock guide does a good job of handling the extension/variation stuff.) I've yet to see a guide that does a good job indicating how many pitches are required to get to climbs that don't start from the ground, but it would be really nice for places where that's common. 
• Cover flaps and/or ribbons for bookmarks. I prefer ribbons to flaps, but either is nice. 
• Climbing history and local interest sections. 

Things I don't like: 

• Inconsistency (describing some crags L->R, then others R->L, etc). 
• Anything other than dead-simple color schemes. Color differences for trad/sport are nice, but anything more involved ends up being more confusing than helpful. 
• Drawings. They work well for overhead maps, but I've yet to see a drawing of actual climbing surface that is more helpful than a photo.
• Any use of the word obvious. It's never as clear as it claims to be. :)

But seriously, a photo of climbs from a distance paired with photos of the climb from the viewpoint of someone standing near the base of the wall (looking up) are super helpful together, especially if it is a trad line that might not be an obvious feature that you are following. It doesn't have to be every climb just once in a while to help establish where you are. 

"do you know what route this is? Do you know what crag this is? do you know what state this is? Dude... where the fuck are we?"

+1 on just stick to left to right. Shelf road is left to right then right to left then left to right. I get they ordered it from the approach trail and that shouldn't be super confusing but it still messes with my head. 

Love the use of dashed lines for trad and solid for sport. Colored lines related to grade are pretty sweet too. 

My absolute favorite feature for trad climbing area guidebooks (although I suppose you could do this for any type of climbing, it just makes the most sense for crack routes) is when there is a route index sorted by style of climbing, and then by grade.

I don't have a picture of this, but the voo guidebook has routes sorted by fingers, hands, fists, offwidth, chimmney (I think), scary slab, and a handful of other ones. This makes it super easy to find a few routes that sound like fun AND are the style of climbing you want to do for the day. Honestly I wish this was a filter option for finding routes on MP too.

There's a big difference between 5.9 hands and 5.9 offwidth.

I like when guide books are not printed in China and are priced under $40!