The Rock Archives: Old New-Route Books Online

Beau Geste first ascent details by Jonny WoodwardUKC News, 25 Feb 2010© The Rock Archivist

Have you ever wondered how Jonny Woodward described the first ascent of Beau Geste, his 1982 extreme classic arete at Froggat in the Peak District?John Allen described it in Extreme Rock thus … “its ascent was a moment of inspiration fired by desire….a classic natural sculpture and challenge…. made to be climbed – but only by the best.”Jonny Woodward described it as, “”the obscure and insignificant arete 20ft left of Holly Groove”What happens to all these historical first ascent descriptions written in various new routes books?The Rock Archivist is the brainchild of Lancashire climber Phil Kelly and is a project attempting to collect new route books all together, image and index them and then publish them online. Phil is well on the way with this project, with the help of several climbers, and his son Oliver who is doing some of the scanning. Phil had this idea way back at the birth of the internet when he was leafing through a Lancashire new route book kept at Ian Lonsdale's pub, the Black Dog, near Bolton.

The Rock Archivist… scanning new route books and making them available to all.UKC News, 25 Feb 2010© The Rock Archivist

So far The Rock Archivist displays eight surviving Stoney Middleton books as well as two from the Outside in Hathersage, plus a number of other resources. More than thirty books are queued for publication in the next few months.Have a dig around and tell Phil what you think, maybe even offer to help. All is revealed at www.rockarchivist.co.uk Diesen Artikel inkl. Bilder auf UKClimbing.com anschauen

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