Rock Climbing Utah
	By: Stewart M. Green Published by: Falcon Publishing Company Paper, pages 336
Publication date: March 1998 Price: $21.56 ISBN: 1560445947 Category: climbing

Review

I have to admit that when I first picked up Rock Climbing Utah I was skeptical. I have lived in Utah my entire adult life and climbed since 1988. I didn't think that there was anything that I could glean from this book that I didn't already know or that wasn't found in one of the numerous guide books that I already have. What I found, however, was a wealth of information.

This guide was written with the road-tripping climber in mind. It covers all of Utah including classic areas such as Fisher Towers, Castle Valley, Indian Creek, Zion National Park, St. George, American Fork and Maple Canyons to name a few. The book gives detailed description and topos of many selected climbs in the areas, as well as local and climbing history, geography, access information, shops and services nearby, and references to local guide books. Finding the crags with this book will be easy, but be warned, the areas detailed in this book are some of the best areas to climb in Utah so you probably won't find a great deal of solitude.

Rock Climbing Utah contains a few secret gems that you would be hard pressed to find detailed elsewhere. There are many short trad and sport routes in Zion National Park that are not listed in Eric Bjornstad's Desert Rock that are listed here. Also, who hasn't seen the pictures of the long, overhung, huecoed rock of Kolob Canyon and wondered how to get to those climbs. Wonder no longer.

There is room for improvement. For starters it would be nice if the binding method was sewn instead of a regular glued method. This book will get a lot of use and if you're going to shell out $27 for a guide book it should last forever. Also, the picture on the front cover is the author's son climbing Scarface, a Indian Creek classic, and the picture is used throughout the book as the theme. But Scarface isn't covered in the book; it gives reference to another guide.

If you are planning to trip through Utah, consider this book an essential. It is a no-nonsense guide to a great deal of the state's best climbing. It'll keep you tripping to Utah for years.

Reviewed by John Walter.