In preparation for the publication early in 2008 of Northern England, we have released a sample chapter from the book as a free download. The chapter covers the historic Wainstones on the edge of the North York Moors - download it from here.

We are aiming to publish the book early in 2008. It may now drift into February since Christmas has got in the way a bit of the final production stages (baa humbug) but it will be worth the wait. With a book like this that covers such a vast area, it is virtually guaranteed that everyone will find somewhere new to visit, no matter how experienced they are.

Here is another example page from the book:

Trad Climbing + is now at the printers and will be published in the first week in December. As usual we are offering a special offer for pre-orders at £17.45 (plus delivery). This will get the book on your door step a few days after it is published and will be quicker, and cheaper, than any other method.

Pre-order it here

Recommend it as a present (for yourself) here

Download a sample chapter here

For the authors Adrian and John, we are now in the final stages of what has been at least a year-long project for them (infact even longer for Adrian since he was busy getting images for this book last year when he produced Sport Climbing +). We will be going down to the printers in Nottingham on Thursday 15th to see the first sheets rolling off the press. It is always a fun experience but also a useful one where we often make very slight adjustments to the colour to make sure it looks absolutely spot on.

The printing itself takes a couple of long sessions over two or three days before the ‘running sheets’ (large single sheets with 32 A5 pages on them) are cut and collated ready for thread sewing and binding. This is usually the only delay in the process since binders are in short supply in this country and we actually had to book them two months ahead. Once the books are sewn and bound they are then quickly boxed and sent off to the distributors in Leicester and Rock + Run in the Lakes for the online orders. Rock and Run generally turn round all the online pre-orders in a couple of days at most.

This month sees the introduction of a new section to the site - Rockfax Blogs. These will work in much the same way as other blogs elsewhere but the intention is to bring together blogs with a climbing and mountaineering theme under one roof.

Rockfax Blogs are open to everyone, all you need to do is create, or log into, your Rockfax user account, and you will be able to start blogging.

If you have a Blog elsewhere then it is possible to use the admin functions to import it into the Rockfax Blogs relatively easily - see this help page.

So, if you have been on a trip, got a good story to tell, know of a great new crag which you want to publicise, or just generally like exposing your thoughts on the Internet, then set up a Rockfax Blog and target the climbers who will be interested in what you have to say.

If you are unsure how to start a blog then check out our Help Pages.