Granite Mountain. A pocket guide to rock climbing in Granite Basin, Prescott National Forest, Arizona, by David Lovejoy. Prescott, Arizona: Published on a grant from The Prescott Institutions, 1973. 120 pages, numerous photographs, drawings and diagrams.

The AAJ cannot hope to review every guidebook to every small rock climbing area in the United States. This small guide is an exception. In many ways it is patterned after Steve Roper’s, A Climber’s Guide to Yosemite Valley. It has a similar design, with a plastic-cover-and-screw- post binding arrangement to facilitate removal or addition of pages. Route descriptions are short, clear and concise. Route photographs are well marked. It makes me want to stop at Granite Mountain next time I go through Arizona.

What sets this guidebook apart from others, is its overall approach. Rather than paraphrase the philosophy, I’ll quote the author’s short introduction:

“The need for a climber’s guide to any area is always a bit of a debate. The argument used by the guidebook opposition is that the publication of a guide creates an overcrowded area doomed to rapid deterioration. We see a good deal of truth to this theory.

“So why did we write a guidebook? Three years ago we would not have been interested. Three years ago everyone who climbed at Granite Mountain knew everyone else who climbed there. Climbers understood the traditions and customs of the area, they knew which routes had been done and what techniques were used. Recently, however, word has spread and there has been a huge influx of new climbers. Newcomers have not always understood what the area meant to those who had been climbing there for years. Bolts were added, free climbs were attempted using aid, siege tactics were used on one-day climbs, and pitons were used in perfect nut cracks. This destruction does not seem to have been intentional; rather it is due to the new climbers’ lack of information. A Granite Mountain guidebook now seems the lesser of two evils.

“We see this guide as more than a collection of routes. We see it as a way of transmitting information about attitudes which have prevailed in this climbing area since its beginning. A sort of ‘city planning’ effort in an attempt to contribute some kind of order to the threat of a ‘rock climbing sprawl’; hopefully, a deterrent to the Serenity Crack Syndrome.

“The area is of good quality. The crag ranges in height from 150 to 500 feet. The granitic rock is reputed to be the soundest in Arizona. Climbing is done in every season; the weather is great.”

Only time will tell whether the information in this guide more than compensates for the publicity of the area in terms of cumulative damage to the climber’s environment.

Galen Rowell