Colorado Bouldering Guidebook Disaster

As I was walking down the endless rows of vendors today at the Trade Show, I happened to walk by Falcon Publishing and lo and behold there it was, Colorado Bouldering by Bob Horan. I flipped through the book in 20 minutes or so and what I saw was appalling, embarrassing, and the source of much entertainment. The Poudre Canyon, RMNP, and Mt. Evans were all included in the guidebook and each section was rife with gratuitous mistakes. In the Poudre Canyon nearly every problem on Hankfs Boulder was renamed. It was also written that Hanks boulder was named after a climber named Tom Henry. The Park may have been the worst of three areas I looked at closely. Most boulderers know the massive boulder that sits in the lake as the 50/50 Boulder. While there was no mention of 50/50 Where it Counts, it was written that on that boulder were several problems, including European Human Being, The Centaur, HandiCapps, Nuthin But Sunshine and the ghighballsh Skyscraper and Stars and Stripes (none of which are actually on that boulder). The boulder with Tommyfs Arete is listed as having two problems named Tommy Arete, one of which is V7, the other V8. The Gobot was listed as V4. I also saw gThe Kine Traverseh as well as the gLarge Roof V10 at Emerald Lake. Directions to everything are horrendous and unusable. In Upper Chaos, Triple Threat Arete is shown in a photo and labled as Sunspot, with McFly on the same roof to the right. There is a picture of Freshly Squeezed, with Bob gtopping outh that is labeled as the Freaky Boulder and the problem is called Freak of Nature V14. I canft emphasis how laughable his mistakes are. At Mt. Evans the trajedy continues. Ty Landmanfs problem Blackie V11 is listed as Jiggles V9 and All Dogs go To Evans is listed as Patfs Arete V7. On the Dali Boulder we have The Dali V5, The Lime Wall V13 and The Lime Wall V12. Although Bob told Cameron that Area B,C, and D would not be mentioned, there they are clear as day and in fact Area D lists gThe Big Fourh This would be great except there are five problems listed and most incorrectly, by either name or grade. He also mentions an area at Lincoln Lake called the gGreener Grasses Areah Perhaps that was Bobfs name? I could go on and on. Trice V10, Animal (pictured as No More Greener Grass and given the V11 grade) Suspension of Disbelief renamed to something forgettable and inaccurate, as well he gives directions to The Tropics (which donft even exist because they were blown up 7 years ago!) Cage Free called Hit Hard Tactics V7, etc etc and this is nothing to say of how lightly access issues are dealt with, if at all. At one point I was surrounded by Carlo Traversi, Daniel Woods and Paul Robinson and we were just laughing aloud at how bad it really was. All of this was uncovered in a mere puruesing. I can only imagine what a good sit down viewing would reveal. I talked to a fellow there from Falcon and he said that they would contact Bob and that he would really look into it. He also suggested that myself and my group of friends maybe had the wrong names and that Bob was very experianced in Colorado Bouldering. When this book hits the shelf in a month or so, I recommend keeping the 50$ to yourself. I will happily give free tours of accurate information to anyone that wants them. This book was written with little regard for anyone in our community and its unfortunate so much time and money was wasted on a very poor effort. Update In the last few days I have been working with the Northern Colorado Climbers Coalition in an attempt to figure out the best way to deal with the new book. As I understand it, the book is printed and Falcon Press is ready to move forward with getting this pile of mis-information out to the public. I very much oppose this because a guidebook of this magnitude and scope should be of the highest standard, and this one is nothing but the lowest. It is time to take action and the best way to do that is to write to Falcon Press. Let them know why you oppose the guidebook. Let them know that you are not interested in such gross misrepresentation. Let them know that you donft intend to spend your money on this book and that you will tell your friends to do the same. It will take a large effort to make a change but I think its worth it. If you feel strongly about this please write to [email protected] Many Colorado climbers oppose this guide book and it would be great if we could get the support of the 8A community. Thank you. Jamie Emerson