City of Rocks Idaho, 7th: A Climber's Guide [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

There is confusion here as to what book is being reviewed, viz., the 2006 version of "City of Rocks Idaho--A Climber's Guide" or some earlier edition. This is caused, in part, by Mr. David Bingham's listing all editions by the exact same name and not having an ISBN associated with the book. Further, the book being sold here is listed as "7th". Looking at the title page of the 2006 edition, there is no mention of what edition it is.

Being an occasional visitor to the City, 4 trips since 1988, I owned 2 earlier versions of the book. On the basis of the reviews here, I hesitated to buy the current (2006) edition until I was able to see it. Simply put, it is a vast improvement over the earlier versions. The challenging topographics have been replaced by photographs, which clarify the location of the crags and of the routes. The illustrations have been supplemented by useful verbal descriptions. Many new areas have been added, e.g., Tahitian Wall. The worst aspects of the index have been corrected. For example, "The Anteater" is now listed under "A" and not under "T". The book is sturdily bound although it would hold up better as a field guide if the corners had been rounded.

I recommend this book as a fine, useful guide to the area. The earlier guidebooks by Davis and by Calderone were quite decent and helpful when they were published but are outmoded by the 2006 edition of "City of Rocks Idaho--A Climber's Guide."

Since I'm a professional publisher and indexer, take the following nit-picking with a grain of salt. The index would be easier to use if different font styles were used for route names and for all other objects. This lack of difference contributes to omissions, e.g., "Private Idaho" refers to a route and to a crag, but the route gets omitted from the index. Also, the rating of the route should follow its name in the index. The author should either forgo using "5." before a rating or use it all the time. The confusion this causes is such that not even the author can follow his own usage, e.g., Delay of Game is listed as 5.8, whereas Skyline is listed as 8. Many routes have a generic name such as "Chimney." They should be given unique names, even something like "Chimney of the Spire" would be an improvement. Occasional inset photographs of the starts of routes on some of the larger crags, e.g., The Breadloaves, would make it easier to figure out where the climbs are on a crag. And some of the washed out photographs, e.g., Lost World, need reworking.

David, thanks for yours series of guidebooks to the City. They've provided me with a lot of pleasure (and some adventure now and then) over the years.

This may be the best rock climbing guide book on the area, but it has both some good qualities and some flaws. The pictures and the maps, both large scale and small scale are adequate. However, he leaves out too much in the narrative description of the climbs. Sometimes he doesn't even say if the route is trad or sport. I was certainly happy to have the book on a recent trip to the COR, but sometimes I felt I needed more beta on the climbs before starting out. I was able to find out some details on many routes on line, including a list of the best sport routes. I don't know who provides the ratings, perhaps not Bingham, but we thought they were pretty stiff. Climbs listed as 5.7 seemed more like 5.8 and so on. This review covers the 2006 edition.

As far as I know this is the only current guide book for the area. It covers the entire City in a fairly succinct way. I love it and it's helped me create a tick list and helped me literally check some boxes on that list.
That being said, it would be nice if there was more information on the climbs. The author seems to assume that many of the classics well-known to locals and frequent visitors will be as easily found and protected by first time visitors. But while Stripe Rock may seem to have a neon light above it for someone who knows the area, it is actually very difficult to find for someone who rarely climbs granite and doesn't know the area. This isn't helped by the fact that the picture in the book of Stripe Rock wasn't taken from the trail head so the angles look very different in person when compared to the picture in the book. Add to this the route line in the book goes directly over the stripe feature for which the rock is named and you can end up walking around for quite awhile searching other striped rocks.
The directions for getting to many of the out of the way climbs are sparse, so research ahead of time if you're unsure where you are going. The guide is also unclear much of the time whether you'll need some trad gear or just draws and how many draws necessary for a given route is never given.
A wonderful guide, I love some features like the Recommended Route Checklist laid out by difficulty and the Climbing Lore section. But think of it as a mobile supplement and research your approach and gear info online ahead of your trip and make plenty of notes in the book to take with you.