Gerry Roach's Book - Fourth Edition

[Codyhill1991]

I definitely don’t think guidebooks are irrelevant. When I moved beyond the 14ers, where there is a wealth of information available. The options can be a little overwhelming. I found that it was really helpful to use a guidebook to get ideas and to get an overview of route options/trailheads. I still pull out Roach’s 14er and Centennial 13ers books on occasion for these reasons. I also really like Derek Wolfe’s and James Dziezynski’s guidebooks as well as the Colorado Scrambles/Snow Climbs books. I almost always get on this site and look at more detailed route descriptions, conditions reports, trip reports, etc. and download gpx tracks when available. I subscribe to the idea it’s helpful to have multiple sources of information available. I never did really understand the infatuation with “Roach points” though.

Agreed with all of the above.

[CheapCigarMan]

His books are a great reference but the guy doesn't seem to be particularly fond of change.

https://gazette.com/travel/much-more-to ... 8e958.html

[OBC13]

Gerry Roach's books are by no means "irrelevant." Some of this thread is pretty annoying. So, Roach may not be very fond of change. I'm with him on that. He kind of took a shot at 14ers.com, even though indirectly, but the backlash is over the top in my opinion. Way too personal.

[BillMiddlebrook]

Gerry Roach's books are by no means "irrelevant." Some of this thread is pretty annoying. So, Roach may not be very fond of change. I'm with him on that. He kind of took a shot at 14ers.com, even though indirectly, but the backlash is over the top in my opinion. Way too personal.

Yeah I probably shouldn't have mentioned it and we certainly don't want to bad-mouth Gerry. The guy has a climbing resume and history that are matched by few in the world and his books have helped, even inspired, thousands. Indian Peaks, Lost Creek, 14ers, 13ers, RMNP, Seven Summits... Many of us have his books and still open them regularly.

I'm sure it's not easy for some guidebook authors to see so much information on the internet. The interesting thing with books is that there will always be those who like to read a book, in-hand. This is true with guidebooks as well, just not encyclopedias! Imagine being an encyclopedia company when Wikipedia started to grow.

As far as the web and "change," obviously we can't stop it. The last 25 years have changed so much because of technology and the internet, good or bad (Facebook ). The amount of information on the web is astonishing and it has become a part of so many sectors of industry and individual jobs. To me, the advancements in technology that we've seen are simply amazing.

[OBC13]

Gerry Roach and Bill Middlebrook are both mountaineering icons in my opinion.

[BillMiddlebrook]

Gerry Roach and Bill Middlebrook are both mountaineering icons in my opinion.

Aww, thanks. But of course Gerry has a massive climbing resume. I don’t. But I can ski just about anything!

[OBC13]

Yeah, probably for different reasons, I guess. The website is great.

[seano]

His books are a great reference but the guy doesn't seem to be particularly fond of change.

https://gazette.com/travel/much-more-to ... 8e958.html

Thanks for the link. As a peak-bagger, I’m inspired to read about people like Gerry Roach (and Barbara Lilley, Bob Burd, etc.) who age gracefully and continue to enjoy summits within their more limited abilities.

[terrysrunning]

If you want to find the safest easiest way up a mountain and be able to make sure your dot is on the line on your phone all the way up and down, without actually even needing to know where you're going or know how to read (or even own) a map or compass, then this website and app is perfect and a book can't hope to compete.
If you want to have detailed pictures every few hundred yards along the entire route so you don't actually have to route-find at all, then this site is the best thing ever!
And, of course, like most everyone else, that's generally how my lazy ass does mountains these days. Even on less popular Centennials and other 13ers where I spend all day and never see a soul (although my last two 13ers, I've only run into one person all day, and it happened to be people I know. What are the odds?), there's always a GPX track to be found and I have it and check it an embarrassing number of times. I have even realized that I've forgotten a map the last few mountains I've climbed and the only reason I have a compass is that I have a few and one lives in each pack I own so I literally can't forget.
And clearly it's safer. And probably the only way most people on 14ers could get there.
But I did a number of my earlier 14ers when the internet was in its infancy and this website didn't exist and smart phones with GPS weren't A Thing and I had a well-worn copy of Roach's book in my pack. And even more when this site was younger and didn't have quite the wealth of resources it has now. And I can tell you that doing it that way is a different experience, and will help you develop skills you will enrich your experience and may save your life sometime. Skills that I've recognized in myself as being rusty these days. And it will force you to pay attention to details you'll never notice if you're following your dot on the line until you get to the goal. Which is of course to get the best picture to post along with your inspirational pithy caption when you get home(if you can wait that long). Oh, and also the summit.
So, the Tl/Dr is this I suppose: This site is the absolute best and safest way to get yourself to the top of a 13/14er and back. The trip reports alone are an immeasurable treasure trove. The FB page used to be fun too (Free Jasper!) But you'll be enriched and learn some valuable skills if you do some mountains with just Roach's book and a map and compass (and your phone with GPX track in your pack to be safe and because of course you need a summit pic or the mountain doesn't count). Most of the respected mentors whose wisdom guides you/us through this site got that knowledge climbing mountains with Gerry's book. So to demean either is a mistake.

[CheapCigarMan]

Don't think this is or should be a competition. There are many internet resources on mountains besides this one. All of the resources provide value in their own way.

I do wish Gerry would have GPX files for all of the routes in his books. Would save a lot of time rather than needing to recreate them.

[cedica]

Other than that, I hope he removed from his list of Classic Commandments of Mountaineering the item "Surfer Girl is not in the mountains". Because she definitely is.

But the Girl in a Green Subaru still isn't. Don't know what to do, now that pink has turned to blue.

[colin j]

Put me in the guidebooks are relevant camp. I've found the Roach guide (3rd) really useful for non-standard routes and peak combinations; it's certainly expedited my research and planning for some trips. I'd also throw out there that if you treat Roach Points as ordinal rather than cardinal they are very useful for comparing the difficulty of routes, at least relative to browsing through everyone's opinions in the forum. Having said that as I've built up a small library of guidebooks there are certainly much higher quality guidebooks out there for both CO and out of state, though he could definitely do worse (Kelsey's Utah Mountaineering book comes to mind).

Regarding competition between this site and the books, I sincerely doubt Gerry, Bill, or anybody writing hiking/climbing guides are making serious cash out of this; the market is too small and those of us willing to drop money on guides are probably using multiple sources.