Customer Reviews

Rock Climber's Guide to South Platte

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hubbel's guide is the most comprehensive guide for the South Platte, and does a fairly good job of getting you to the crag (a few of the fire roads are mislabeled, but the alert reader will still make it to the base of the crag). Once at the crag, however, is where the adventure begins. Some routes are misidentified, or not given an adequate description; some of the topos do not match the topography of the crag.

Look at it this way; it's an excellent means to preserve some of the adventure of rock climbing in an area where adventure abounds. Get out there and climb.

Climbing for 20 years I have thumbed my way through a fair share of guidebooks. This book is very poorly done.

I would consider Richard Rossiter's Eldorado Guidebook to be the 5 star Cadillac of FrontRange guidebooks. Along side this Hubbel's book wreaks. If you don't get lost in transit to a rock formation (e.g. car and/or trail), don't fret, Hubbel will soon send you awry with an errant topo.

Do yourself a favor and use one of the older guidebooks to this area (i.e. any one will suffice as all are superior to this one).

It's only saving grace is a few of the areas documented are not available in any other guide. Caveat emptor!

At first glance the deserves five stars for the sheer ability to create a comprehensive guide (it's thick!) to a large and beautiful area like the South Platt... unfortunately it must drop to three stars after actually using the guide. You must be able to think on your feet while using this guide. While it may contain large amounts of information, some of it is just wrong and even conflicts with itself. (i.e. Bucksnort Slab is on one side of the road on one map, and on the other side of the road on another) It also contains GPS locations for most rocks (another accomplishment) but at the same time it's in a format specific only to a specific GPS receiver. I'm an Electrical Engineer and it took me a lot of work to be able to convert them into something usable.

A couple of stars for the most comprehensive book out there, and probably the best choice at this time. But it definately isn't a bulletproof source of knowledge, and requires you to question the book.