Customer Reviews

Rock Climbing Lake Tahoe

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

 

 

After waiting several years for its release, the new edition of Mike Carville's guidebook to rock climbing in the Tahoe area was finally released in 1999. This book was long over-due; and though happy that it's finally out, I am rather disappointed with it. This guide is rather exhaustive in covering the climbing areas in the Reno/Tahoe area, but it falls far short of other guide books, such as the "Climber's Guide to Smith Rock" by Alan Watts, in its overall quality.

This guidebook lacks a "star" rating system, which many climbers are familiar with and find useful. The new hand-drawn topos by Mike Clelland are a nice addition since the original edition (1991), but their detail makes distinguishing route-lines on some topos difficult. The book is seriously lacking in the number of actual photos of cliffs, and those included only show select route-lines. Most critical to any rock climbing guidebook are its route ratings, and many of those given in this guide are disputable.

All told, it must be remembered that this book is only a `guide' and is not the absolute authority on what one will find at each crag. Your mileage will vary! If you are unfamiliar to the area, be sure to check with local climbers, who are generally more that willing to give advice. Also, Bob Sutton's "Select Rock Climbs of Tahoe" is available locally and is a very nice compliment to Carville's guide. HAPPY CLIMBING!

After a few years of delays, it's good to see the new edition of Mike Carville's guide to Tahoe climbing come out (the first edition was called "Climbing Tahoe Rock"). I had been working off tatty photocopies of the 1991 edition for quite a while, so having a sturdy, well-bound book finally to hand is a relief.

The major new feature of this guidebook is a set of excellent topos hand-drawn by Mike Clelland. These are among the best topos I have seen in any climbing guidebook. Unfortunately, about 20% of the topos remain the vague and confusing outlines last seen in the 1991 edition.

Directions to crags are generally good, but route descriptions rarely extend beyond names and approximate indications of the lines of ascent. Carville's alternative to the star ratings common in other guidebooks is a "recommended routes" section at the beginning of each description of an area, which makes navigation back and forth through the book an annoying necessity; this also makes it less easy to decide which routes might best be skipped by climbers unfamiliar with the area.

As far as new routes go, this version doesn't seem to add a lot of material over what was in the 1991 edition. There is now a section on ice and mixed routes, which I don't recall seeing in the earlier edition (but I wasn't interested in ice climbing then).

Carville has clearly put a lot of work into the new edition of this book, and while it's not the best guide I've seen, it is certainly good enough to get you to some crag where you'll find whatever challenges you please.

This guide might tell you what's there but you'll have to figure out the rest. The topos are vague and the drawings are not very useful. Compared to the Supertopo books, the Falcon guides are useless. Unfortunately Supertopo only covers the South Lake area and neglects Donner.

If you're over 40, I'd be surprised if you could make out the tiny print on the topos in this book. The text is very small and very difficult to read. There also is no ***** system recommending quality routes. Try to search out the old guide book with larger and more readable topos.

Having this book sure beats copying/printing pages off climbing forums from the internet! The directions are very easy to follow - we were able to find all of our climbs with no trouble at all. The diagrams and drawings are also easy to follow - routes are clearly marked, and the drawings actually look like the rock.

Descriptions were also accurate. I really can't think of anything negative to say about this book, I'd recommend it for anyone planning to climb in the Tahoe area.

This guide brings the art of the reticent guidebook to new heights. Although I have only used it to find one climbing area so far, I already regret buying it. The directions to Big Chief are simply wrong.