The Crag Survival Handbook: The Unspoken Rules of Climbing

by Matt Samet, Kevin Jorgeson (Foreword)

Dogs at the trailhead, belayers in lawn chairs, long lines queued up at the classics in Eldorado Canyon the crags seem more crowded and more crazy than ever. In fact, according to the Outdoor Industry Association, in the United States more than 3.6 million people participated in climbing in 2011. Many of these new climbers are entering outdoor climbing solely through rock gyms, without having the opportunity to apprentice with an experienced friend or mentor resulting in climbing accidents and conflicts. How do you become a responsible crag citizen?

"Crag Survival Handbook: The Unspoken Rules of Climbing" is longtime climber Matt Samet's personal handbook to becoming a member of the climbing community. While Samet discusses key skills like movement, dealing with fear, gear management, and how to fall, he also delves into crag culture: ethics, access, dealing with conflict, dogs and kids at the crags, and Leave No Trace practices. Samet lays out the unspoken rules you need to know.

Genres: Climbing

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a great idea, but the execution could be better. The technical material related to gear usage and climbing technique was more confusing than it needed to be: some of the material that was new to me confused me, and some of the material I was already familiar with would have been hard to understand if I was seeing it for the first time. By improving the diagrams and the prose -- e.g. by using less jargon, consistently defining jargon that is used, and replacing complex photos with drawings -- the book could be improved without much change to the content. It has the typical problem of books published by Mountaineers Books where the technical black and white pictures often have poor contrast. But, e.g., I find the Mountaineer Books anchor book Rock Climbing Anchors: A Comprehensive Guide by Craig Luebben (RIP) easier to understand, even though it's much more technical.

The sections on etiquette, safety, and caring for gear were the most valuable to me, since other books I've read don't overlap much here. There are entire, better books about training, movement, and gear usage, but it's still nice that this book includes short sections on those subjects. And it has some nice tips, like the section on prepping your hands when climbing in cold weather.

Overall I think this is a valuable book, and I'm curious what I would have thought of it a few years ago when I was even more of a beginner. I bet it could be improved by having a few beginners read it and provide detailed feedback on what they found hard to understand.