The text - by which I mean the words, both written and spoken - of Go Climb is well ordered and lucidly expressed. The sections are clearly divided, appropriately progressive, well arranged, and clearly indexed. If you read the book from start to finish, everything appears in a logical order, with items of information coming-up when you need them. On the other hand, if there is a snippet you want to refresh in your knowledge, you will find it easily: even if you don't use the classic index at the end of the book, the opening table of contents, immediately after the credits page, will tell you exactly where to find what you want. Indeed, the contents exemplify the book's clarity: "Ropes and Protection" includes "Ropes, Tying knots, The rack, How the system works": what more do you want? You will find the same contents (not necessarily in exactly the same words - a bit much to ask!) in the DVD. Within sections, across page-spreads perhaps, you will find an explanatory piece of text. Under "Carrying your kit" it begins "You'll need a backpack to carry all your kit." which might sound too obvious, but any such impression is immediately countered by the eminently sensible and (to the beginner at whom this is targeted) much less obvious "Always take water with you to the crag so that you can stay hydrated." and suddenly it is clear why you need to carry a backpack rather than just draping your rock gear around you. The addition of "Using a rope bag" re-inforces the point effectively, and is well toned. The instruction does not condescend by ordering, "Take a rope bag" but deals with the point as if it is re-inforcing something that you will already have thought of for yourself, a very effective teaching technique Alongside the explanations are demonstrative photographs, lettered to link them to informative captions. To take a good example, again, the page-spread on "laybacking and bridging" has two pairs of photographs, a pair for each technique. The first of each pair, 'a' and 'c', is a textbook illustration: its exact equivalent appears in Blackshaw (1965) though there one of them is line-drawn. The second illustration snapshots a moving climber rather than a posing one, conveying the purpose of the technique better than a single picture could. The 'a' and 'c' captions idealise the technique; while the 'b' and 'd' captions express limits, thus: "d Here, the climber is on an overhanging section of rock. He has been able to make a very wide ridge across to a slab to take a good deal of strain off his arms. Both hands are used in a pinch grip to maintain balance.
The design of the book is superb, in both the invitation given on its covers and the way it works page by page. . I normally exhibit shudders of impending of word-blindness when I am faced with white text printed on a black ground, or black text printed against anything but white. Here, on one early page, I even find go for it over a background photograph which is so well chosen and well located that the text itself seems to provide a hold for the illustrative hands of a climber coming up the page. The difficulty of describing the effect using words alone is a true indication of how exactly the mix of words and pictures is appropriate for the topic of this book. For all the potential for confusion which I hope I suggested in my previous paragraph, the quality of design ensures that the pages -and there for the messages they contain -remain models of clarity. This is so throughout: the section on "racking up" contains no fewer than eight photographs and nine sections of text without confusion.
The long section entitled go out there exemplifies the book's qualities. It contains everything a beginner needs to know, in the right order: Guidebooks and grading; On the rock; Getting down; Rope techniques. It has well-chosen subdivisions: Leading the first pitch has a well-stepped, well-photographed demonstration of the essential skill of "Using a quickdraw". I have not found anything missing, here or anywhere in the text, which I think might matter.
The DVD is equally good. It does not slavishly follow the text of the book, though it does follow its arrangements, so that the two are easy to cross refer. While they might well be taken separately, the book and the DVD could stand alone: neither needs the other, but makes sense on its own. Rather, they work as complementary to each other. The DVD design is as good as the book: words are well-chosen to match the pictures - or vice-versa: it is genuinely well made with all its parts having been thought of at once, none added as an afterthought. The whole is refreshingly inclusive and unprejudiced: it describes the range from trad climbing to sport climbing, from natural anchors to drilled bolts. The DVD's climbers are clearly competent, but it is like watching a film of how good you yourself might become with the right effort and commitment. It is not like watching an ace ascending on some other, gravity-free planet. I don't know where the filming was done, but the place was well chosen for appropriate varieties of rock and for clear air - though its one omission so far as British climbers are concerned might be a major one: British weather.
Go Climb, to its great credit, has no presumption: read the label and you know what you will get. For years, in addition to supervising a school-based indoor climbing wall I taught winter and summer hill-walking to teenagers. Many in both of these classes expressed an interest in progressing to more serious outdoor rock-climbing, which was beyond my capacity. This book would be ideal for someone in my position, wanting to explain the basics and suggest possible advances. Finances permitting, an association -school, club or wall -might well buy more than one copy to lend to the most evidently enthusiastic. I cannot think how the package might be bettered.
