Rock Climbing Idaho's City of Rocks
	By: Tony Calderone Published by: Chockstone Press Paperback, 220 pages
Price: $20.00 ISBN: 1560447516 Category: Rock Climbing

Review

The City of Rocks in southern Idaho is world renown for it's climbing. It is one of the few places where sport climbing and traditional climbing have peacefully co-existed for years. The climbing there is inviting to beginner and expert alike. It is one of my favorite places to road trip to and I have been going there since 1979. This is probably why I was so disappointed with Tony Calderoneís new guidebook for the City of Rocks.

Tony Calderone uses his guide as an arena to air his views on the issues of climbing ethics, dead since the early 90's, and to pat himself on the back for the bold ascents that he has accomplished. Calderone, a staunch traditionalist, makes snide remarks about sport climbing and refers to sport climbing first ascents as ìfast-food style of putting up routesî. Calderone has also introduced a new acronym for the first ascent information: FRA ñ First Recorded Ascent, and interestingly enough, Tony Calderoneís name is by the majority of the climbs listed with a First Recorded Ascent.

Calderone would also like to limit the number of climbers in your party. He insinuates that climbing with more that two people in your party is akin to hogging a route. While there are extremely popular routes, there are over 700 routes and if you canít find an empty one in your range, youíre not looking hard enough.

The guidebook also has left out many of the topos of routes that are on private property. Pictures of the rock formations and route descriptions are included, but the actual route topo, in most cases, are not. However, anywhere that formations are on public land and climbing is banned the route topo has been included. I had to look in the editorís note to somewhat clarify this confusion. Climbing on private property was not included to protect the rights of the land owner (although there are some climbs on private property that are listed in the book), while climbing on public property that was banned was included. This just served to add to the confusion of access to the City of Rocks, which access is under assault.

On the plus side, the new guide has black and white photos of the rock formations with the routes outlined and good route descriptions. It also includes numerous routes in the Circle Creek Basin area that were unlisted in previous guidebooks.

The climbing at the City of Rocks is incredible. So much so that it outshines my disappointment of the new guide book. Continue tripping to the City. However, access to the routes at the City of Rocks is tenuous. Putting up new routes at The City must be approved by a committee. The last place that instituted this policy has now restricted climbing to less than 10% of the historical climbing areas. That place is Hueco Tanks. Climb responsibly.

Reviewed by John Walter