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My interest in the latest edition of Classic Rock is twofold: firstly, there is my chosen ticklist of the English & Welsh routes and secondly, whilst climbing Ash Tree Slabs on Gimmer in May 2004 I saw Ken Wilson on the crag taking photos to 'sex up Classic Rock' and, being pretty sure Ken had taken a photo of me that day, I was keen to see if I'd made it into the book. Sadly I haven't been immortalised in print.
My ‘original’ copy of Classic Rock from the 1989 reprint has always looked somewhat dated; black & white photos in the main, often with climbers in big boots and very little in the way of modern climbing equipment evident. The 2007 edition retains some of those black & white photos, though often now reduced in size, but complements them with many recent high quality colour photos that really add to the look of the book.
The new edition also introduces information about the history of climbing in the UK in the late 19th/early 20th Century and has a few sidebars about key players of the time – WP Haskett Smith and John Menlove Edwards for example. Also introduced is a far more comprehensive list of other similar climbs in the same areas. Given that some of the Classic Rock routes are now looking a bit battered, this is no bad thing.
The text describing the many routes is largely unaltered, a good thing in my view as change here would be a step too far, however the appearance of the text is very different. Gone is the old-fashioned looking typeface, replaced with something more modern, and the paragraphs now have spaces between them. The combination of these changes gives the book a brighter, airier feel. The order in the book is revised, though, which threw me at first. The editor maintains that the new sequence reflects where the majority of the climbing population are based.
It’s very evident that a lot of work has gone into this latest edition; it’s a big improvement and Ken’s goal to ‘sex up Classic Rock’ has been met. Can you tell that I like this re-working? Overall, I give the new edition a ‘buy’ rating although it’s not perfect - Great Gully on Craig-yr-Ysfa still gets a grade of V. Diff and in my experience it most definitely is not V. Diff!
Mike
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