The Trad Guide to Joshua Tree: 60 Favorite Climbs from 5.5 to 5.9

Rating:
Summary: The Trad Guide to Joshua Tree review
Review: "The Trad Guide to Joshua Tree" is my favorite rock climbing guide book because it is very reader friendly. It is logically organized by climbing area in a color-coded fashion. This makes it straight-forward to quickly find the maps and approach/route descriptions of interest. For each climbing area, easy-to-read maps clearly show where to park and the approach for the various rock formations and routes. Informative approach descriptions are accompanied by colored pictures that show the rock formations from the angle seen on the approach.

Close-up photos show each route in a highlighted fashion making it easy to identify and stay on your chosen route. The Wingers provide route descriptions that are helpful to moderate trad climbers. Clearly described descent routes are also provided. Other information in the book that I find particularly useful includes whether the route is in the sun or shade making it possible to choose routes accordingly on hot or cold days. Also, the Wingers frequently mention other nearby moderate routes for those times when the route you originally chose is occupied or you want to do multiple routes in a given location. The Winger's thoughtful work on this book enables climbers to maximize climbing time and minimize time spent looking for routes.

I highly recommend the Winger's book to climbers interested in moderate Joshua Tree climbs. Every time I open this book, the organized lay out, beautiful pictures, informative descriptions and entertaining writing style make me dream of returning to Joshua Tree for another climbing trip. I certainly will take this book on my next Joshua Tree climbing adventure. I can't wait for my next trip!

Rating:
Summary: This guidebook ROCKS!
Review: I feel like I've found my own personal guides since discovering books by the Wingers. They must love the same activities I do: rock climbing, hiking, backpacking, and other outdoor adventures.

I bought the Trad Guide as soon as it was available and it is fantastic! I took my first trip to Joshua Tree last spring, and fell in love with the place. Unfortunately, we spent as much time searching for climbs as we did actually climbing. We've already started planning our next trip using this new book -- we expect to be able to climb twice as many routes using it.

The color photography is excellent and the typical Winger wit can be found throughout the book. Boy, do I wish we had this book with us on our trip when we were trying to find Mental Physics! It took us all day, but with the description and photos of landmarks along the way, I'm sure we could have hiked there in under an hour.

This book is an essential tool (and a pleasure to read) for anyone who climbs 5.5 to 5.9 at Joshua Tree!

Rating:
Summary: JT Trad Review
Review: I think this is a great book for someone like me for the following reason:
1. The climbs in the guide are all within my skill level. Almost all the guides I have contain a large majority of climbs that are beyond my abilities and it is a pleasure to find a guide that is tailored to my skill level.
2. The climbs, their locations, approaches and descents are described extremely well. I don't know how much time I have spent trying to locate climbs whose approaches are very poorly described. I've also tramped for hours trying to locate a supposed quality climb, and then much to my dismay, the climb has turned out to be not worth the effort.
3. The photographs, route descriptions and gear recommendations are again very well done. I have done some of the climbs in the guide and can attest to their quality.

I highly recommend this book for climbers of moderate ability who enjoy quality traditional climbs, and don't want to purchase a guide that mostly contains climbs beyond their ability level.

Rating:
Summary: Confessions of a fellow climber
Review: Okay, I confess that I've known Charlie & Diane Winger for over twenty years. What I can tell you is that they always pour their hearts and souls into their guide books, including "Highpoint Adventures (2002)" and "The Essential Guide to Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve (2003)." Well,this year (2004) they've done it again with their nifty "The Trad Guide to Joshua Tree." Indeed, there is simply no better guide book available for making "fun" climbs in Joshua. The excellent route photos and superb reaseach makes you long to rope up right now!

Rating:
Summary: Color fotos of routes - what a great idea !!
Review: The nicest rock climbing guide I've seen. Doesn't try to do too much, just gets you going on reasonable routes, no 5.11 death cliffs. Great color, sun info, and local things to do and resources. Nice job!

Rating:
Summary: A must for the trad climbers bookshelf
Review: This is the coolest guide book! Nice full-page color photos clearly showing the routes with lots of humer, sun/shade info, and great details on the approaches and descents. I especially liked the focus on 5.5 to 5.9 Trad routes, rather than a "laundry list" of climbs of all types and difficulty levels. It's a nicely bound 192 page book that is obviously built to last. I give this one 5 stars, a must for the trad climbers bookshelf.

Rating:
Summary: Add this book to your required gear list for JT climbing
Review: We are always looking for new, fun climbs at Joshua Tree. We spend much of our time using 3 pieces of reference material to read about new routes and then we spend valuable climbing time looking for the formation, wandering around a formation trying to find the new route and once we have found the route we try to figure out how to descend. This book is for us. Trad Guide to Joshua Tree provides information for 60 great routes in the 5.5 - 5.9 range including clear, easy to follow directions to the parking areas for the routes, digital color pictures of the rock face the route is on, detailed descent information, recommended gear list, detailed description of routes and sun factor. This quality book provides excellent descriptions of fun-filled trad routes of moderate to intermediate difficulty at Joshua Tree. We really like the large color pictures of the routes.

Rating:
Summary: A MUST HAVE BOOK!!
Review: Wow! Great book, color detailed photos of routes, sun/shade orientation for all routes & basically all the info that one needs to have a memorable trip in Joshua Tree. Also great to have a book that has a focus on climbs under 5.10. All in all this is the most informative climbing book I have ever purchased. Would have been happy paying twice the price I paid for it.