[.ca] Rock Climbing Red Rocks, 3rd (ISBN 1560448970)

Total Pile:
I do not believe this book can even be considered a guide book. No topos for certain areas. Poor descriptions. I went to Red Rocks with this book and it only got me to where I needed to park. I used the kindness of locals to get me to where I needed to go. Don't waste your time on this book. It's a pile.

Need Improvement:
I've been living and climbing at Red Rocks for two years now. Swain's guide book publicizes a number of new routes that are not in the previous guide; however, not all descriptions are adequate, and a few are even dangerous (such as fixed anchors indicated in the book where there are none in reality). You may also tire of the author's rather feeble attempts at humour! Having said this, I do use the guide alot, and when coupled with the older Urioste guide it serves its purpose. I am saddened however, by Swain's decision to not include a relatively large number of very good routes that were in the old guide-- thereby effectively 'erasing' good routes from the public memory. This amounts to a kind of bizarre censorship, as many of the routes he has left out are quite good and worth preserving. I, and many others, hope for a more enlightened guide book in the future; meanwhile, however, Swain's guide will suffice for most occasional visitors.

It's an additional resource; not "the Bible":
The book is a decent additional resource to Urioste's "Red Book" (see also her 2003 26 trad routes addendum). Combined w/ the Red Rocks' SuperTopos the three will almost give you one good guidebook's worth of beta. It IS your Red Rocks' "Bible" if you are a sport climber.