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What happened to printing out a guidebook?

Original Post
Brian · · North Kingstown, RI · Joined Sep 2001 · Points: 804

You use to be able to print a guidebook out for an area picking which climbs you wanted to include.  This has gone away and now it is only a "printer friendly" view of the page.  This was a great feature that was eliminated.  What was the reasoning behind this?

Nick Wilder · · Boulder, CO · Joined Jan 2005 · Points: 4,098

MP was re-written from scratch entirely over the last two years.  Printing was one of the least-viewed systems we had, and has been mostly replaced with the app.  Print-friendly pages for routes and areas were a compromise, since it's still pretty handy to have a non-battery dependent source in some cases, like alpine climbs.

Xover · · C-Dub Hts, UT · Joined Aug 2006 · Points: 0

Stupidest decision ever!!!  Please bring the feature back Nick ....

Eric and Lucie · · Boulder, CO · Joined Oct 2004 · Points: 140

Yes, I liked and used this feature a fair amount.  I don't use cell phones and find a printed version much more usable.

Andrew Poet · · Central AZ · Joined Oct 2015 · Points: 161

I was extremely disappointed to find this feature missing today. This saved so much time gathering concise beta for last-minute trips.

Ben L · · Las Vegas · Joined May 2015 · Points: 70

Not hating on the people that like to print out, but just to provide another perspective.. I love the app and never print (I regularly pull out my phone on route to help navigate multipitch). Even though I have paper guidebooks I usually leave them at home and rely on apps.

Would prefer to see MP dev efforts go into improving GPS route location than print screens. 

Paul Morrison · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2006 · Points: 55

I don't even know what an "app" is, so I too have missed this feature since it disappeared. On the other hand, the current state of things is in a way an improvement, since one now has the ability to select photos and comments individually when printing.

Forthright · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2011 · Points: 110
Hobo Greg wrote:

If you’re doing backcountry or alpine or otherwise more commiting climbs, relying solely on the app is a very bad idea (though if both climbers have it you do have redundancy). I always have a printed topo for those sorts of climbs in case I ever drop the phone, or if I’m doing multi day trips where the phone battery might die.

Man you don't need the app when you're doing Tenaya car to summit in sub 1hr :P

Ben L · · Las Vegas · Joined May 2015 · Points: 70
Hobo Greg wrote:

If you’re doing backcountry or alpine or otherwise more commiting climbs, relying solely on the app is a very bad idea (though if both climbers have it you do have redundancy). I always have a printed topo for those sorts of climbs in case I ever drop the phone, or if I’m doing multi day trips where the phone battery might die.

Yeah.. maybe that's a diff demographic... and maybe that's the print target demographic. I don't do alpine or backcountry.. at least so far. I do go for redundancy and extra battery though

Andrew Poet · · Central AZ · Joined Oct 2015 · Points: 161

To be clear, I like the new printing functionality and will continue using it. I miss the ability to batch print, but the current state works well too. 

wivanoff · · Northeast, USA · Joined Mar 2012 · Points: 674
Nick Wilder wrote: Printing was one of the least-viewed systems we had, and has been mostly replaced with the app. 

Except the app doesn't update very well

jbak x · · tucson, az · Joined Jan 2006 · Points: 4,626

I'm starting to hate this site.  You want to rely on an electronic device in the back-country ?  Stupid.

Tim Stich · · Colorado Springs, Colorado · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 1,520

What is so bad about printing now? I haven't printed any pages from here in a while, but then the layout as is works fine for me. I usually just need the route description and and a topo, maybe some key route finding photos.

Andrew McQ · · Prescott, AZ · Joined Jul 2017 · Points: 89

Not being able to print is only exacerbating the bug that deletes downloaded photos from the app. I handwrote little route description cards for a backcountry trip I took this summer and it saved us from not climbing. In the middle of the trip this app decided to delete the photos my partner and I had downloaded onto our phones, which left us without valuable route photos. 

Bill Lawry · · Albuquerque, NM · Joined Apr 2006 · Points: 1,812

In case some don’t realize, on my iPhone 5s, it takes about a minute to make a pdf from the printer-friendly view and email to FedEx’s print-and-go service.

I love printed versions too

kenr · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 16,608
jbak . wrote: You want to rely on an electronic device in the back-country ?  Stupid.

Well it's what 98% of climbers under the age of 50 do nowadays.

Even with print guidebooks, most people (under age 50) just photo the pages they might need for the day and view them out there on their phone or pad.
A few climbers over 50 will cut the desired pages out the guidebook.
. . . (Most of us think that hauling the weight of a print guidebook is what's "stupid").

If non-electronic is important to you, can just visit the MP route pages you want on a web browser at home (or work?) before you leave, and make paper copies on your own printer to bring out to the rock.

Ken
JRZane · · Jersey · Joined Dec 2015 · Points: 95

i am all for new technology, reducing waste, etc. but do we really need GPS coordinates that tell us precisely how to get to the base of a route? do we need a line drawn up the side of a cliff to show us EXACTLY where to climb?  I'm a weekender, don't really consider myself a serious climber compared to most of you, but hearing this, it seems like we are only a few steps away from a vendor taking tickets and checking height requirements at the base of a climb while the other Disneyland-going climbers wait in a line that snakes down the climbers trail.  (instead of checking height, maybe he will be "checking racks"....."make sure you have your number 4 kids, as the move above the bulge requires a right hand side pull and that number 4 places perfectly below it.")

one thing I appreciate about climbing is it keeps people who are unwilling to put in effort at a distance.  Dropping a pin at the base of a 4 star climb certainly isn't going to help thin the masses.

Tom Sherman · · Austin, TX · Joined Feb 2013 · Points: 433

I actually don’t know a single climber who uses the app. Only Gunks or Rumney gumbies who suggest to me that I should use it

jbak x · · tucson, az · Joined Jan 2006 · Points: 4,626
kenr wrote:

98% of climbers under the age of 50

Are newbies
Grandpa Dave · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Aug 2016 · Points: 5
JRZane wrote...one thing I appreciate about climbing is it keeps people who are unwilling to put in effort at a distance...  

^ yes!

mediocre · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jul 2013 · Points: 0
Tom Sherman wrote: I actually don’t know a single climber who uses the app. Only Gunks or Rumney gumbies who suggest to me that I should use it

You’re 30 years old and don’t know a single climber who uses the app? Are you sure. 

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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