Joshua Tree Rock Climbs
Joshua Tree is technically a "best of" book, though with 2,600 routes (out of the ~7,500 in the park), it could very well serve as a single, complete guidebook for the vast majority of us. The result is a nice, compact book. It appears to be high-quality paper and is all color, so it's heavy for its size. The binding is stitched and it will lay open on a page.The usual introductory and logistics information is thorough, fun to read, and up to date. A whole bunch of lists like the "best hard cracks, best moderate trad, best sport, best easy routes, etc" are entertaining, as are some fun blurbs spread throughout (like a list of all "poodle related routes", "funniest names", etc). Lots of nice full page action photos.The geographic divisions of the book are slightly different than Vogel's guide, but they make a lot of sense. Each section starts with a satellite image that has been altered to show roads and highlight rock formations. I'm not yet sure if I like these more than hand-drawn maps yet. It will probably be better once I get used to them.Virtually all rock formations have GPS coordinates, though you probably only need them for the Wonderland and Queen Mountain area. Each rock has a 1-3 sentence general description and approach notes.Routes are all marked on photo overlays, as with the other Wolverine guides. Raps, walk-offs, and bolts are well marked. I like the photo overlays, but sometimes it's hard to tell where a line goes exactly, and when multiple routes converge or diverge it can be hard to distinguish which is which. Compared to line drawings or black and white photos, these color photos make it MUCH easier to find a route in general as you approach a rock. Every route I remember seemed correct in the book, but I'm not a Josh local or expert, so I can't really comment on accuracy.Each rock face has a sun/shade indicator. This is a huge feature for a Josh book, since you are almost always searching for one or the other. Of course the accuracy depends on the season, but each symbol shows roughly which hours of the day will be in sun or shade.Routes are colored to indicate trad, sport, boulder, toprope. The vast majority of routes are trad, so this isn't particularly useful, but doesn't hurt if you're flipping through looking for the rare sport route or a clump of boulder problems.There are quite a few ads in this book, and I generally don't like to see them after paying $40, but I don't think guidebook authors are exactly raking it in, even for Josh books, so that's how it will be.Despite a rash of new Josh books, there seems to be a place for each. Vogel's 2006 guide Rock Climbing Joshua Tree West is one of the best guides ever written, but it only covers a third of the park. The Central and East books are not yet published (East might even be years off), and then you're talking about three pretty large volumes. Vogel's new book (Classic Joshua Tree Routes & Bouldering) looks fantastic, with long route descriptions, and great photos and maps, but only covers around 500 routes. Though I'm not a local, I need more coverage than that. As most of you know, Vogel's older, relatively complete book (Rock Climbing Joshua Tree, 2nd ed) covers the most routes, but descriptions are non-existent and maps and trail help are pretty bad (though the book was a monumental effort that deserves a lot praise!). There are many older or more specialized books that are less relevant to most climbers and I won't mention.Bottom line: This is a great book and will be my standard go-to Josh guide. --Nick Wilder, mountainproject.com