Highland Outcrops South – Guidebook Review

The new SMC guidebook Highland Outcrops South arrived in my post this morning… Of course I haven’t had a chance to use the book in anger yet but I have had a good old thumb through it – refreshing my “must do” list of crags and climbs to go at the next time I head north of the border. (Personally I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that just that simple task won’t get trickier to achieve after June 23rd. 😉 )

First off it’s worth pointing out the as far as value for money goes the coverage of this book is vast: Perthshire & Southern Highlands; Argyll; Ardour & Ardnamurchan; Loch Linnhe to Mallaig; Loch Lagan to Dalwhinnie; Strathspey; and South of Inverness. I don’t know how many routes are described, but it must be something like 2,500! Lots and lots of climbing to go at then! 😀

The book is of the new SMC larger format which seems to be becoming a standard across the industry – the CC’s most recent publication, Cornwall – Bosigran and the North Coast, and the FRCC’s forthcoming book, Borrowdale, are all larger format books. I’m not sure if I’m a fan or not of these larger format books yet. They are great to look at and use. But they are poor to carry, especially if there is any call for it on a route, i.e. when on multi-pitch climbs. Of course I have been solving this problem for years now by simply taking a photo of the relevant pages and leaving the guidebook safely stuffed in my sack at the base of the crag.

As is standard in a modern guidebook, all of the images – diagrams, plans, and maps – are of a brilliant full colour quality. Easy to read, easy to use, and supremely effective at what they are designed to do … getting to the crag, finding the crag and buttress, and locating a route to climb. Of course the writing is also of the quality we expect from the established guidebook publishers. It is good! 🙂

Each of the guidebook’s areas are clearly signposted and found via colour coded tabs. So in use I expect to find very few problems. However, the one thing missing that I would have liked to see is some kind of tool (e.g. a Crag Selector or maybe just a paragraph for each section) to help those who are not at all familiar with a given area to know what to expect by way of the style of climbing and grade ranges on offer. It’s so much easier to select a venue for the day if you know what a crag offers, say 22 HVS climbs or predominately wall or crack climbs.

My final comment will be about action pictures. My benchmark here is, do they inspire? The simple answer is yes, and knowing a thing or two about guidebook publishing I can say that getting good quality action photos is perhaps one of the most challenging things when pulling a book together. It takes time (that could be spent climbing) and skill to take good action shots. So the SMC must have put a massive effort in here to get the pictures for such a large geographical area. Well done. 😎

So in conclusion, as if you need it, the book is great – go and buy it … It is available from the online shop, priced £28.00 for non-members and £22.00 for members.