Putting together a guidebook...

I had a friend who used to read by blog and she would always complain that it was always about climbing. On several occasions I did point out that it was a climbing blog, and there for I was just doing the title justice but that didn’t matter. I’ve tried before to write about things on here that are not climbing related, and it always ends up coming back to climbing in some way or form.

However this week I’ve been off for half term. You’d think that I’d have been away. I’m normally away in Scotland but time, conditions, money and probably most importantly drive, have kept me away from the snow and ice. I’m not giving up ice climbing, but I definitely seem to be taking a sabbatical from it. This has left a rather large hole in my climbing life which has been filled by 2 things; gardening and sitting in front of my laptop. Added to this my partner has been very ill and I’ve been home every day with her. Some things are more important than climbing over rocks. Dealing with the latter first I’ve been typing up a crag that me and Soames have been working on. At the moment I think we’ve climbing 30% of the routes there and I am eager to get back, but I’m also very eager to get it written up properly. Hence the sitting at my computer and typing away like a man possessed. 

This has given me a very good insight into how much effort goes into producing a guidebook. I can tell you that it’s a lot of effort. It isn’t just all sitting behind a computer, but many hours actually out at the cliff, photographing, drawing and scribbling on various pieces of paper and route grade checking. Once this has been done (or at least started) then the sitting behind a computer and compiling, putting together starts. Topo’s have been drawn, maps doodled and words typed out. I’ve had to recall computer skills I thought I’d forgotten… and it’s times like this I’d wished I’d taken the time to become competent with photoshop. Never the less it’s been a fun journey getting down all the idea in my head, drafting and re-drafting, and hoping that it’ll all turn out alright. 

Gardening? Me? I’m not exactly green fingered but this doesn’t stop me. With my partner we’ve been potting, building and planting and we’re now waiting for chillies to germinate in the bathroom and mushrooms to establish themselves in the airing cupboard. As far as building goes there is now a small greenhouse on our balcony ready for when it warms up a little. I’ve even built a vermicomposter, but I now require some worms for it to start working properly. I’ve not yet found a place for it in the flat.  

So instead of actually going climbing this half term, I’ve been writing. Drafting, rewriting and working out where everything should go. Next time I buy another guidebook I’ll understand somewhat the lengths that someone went to, to put it together.