The History, the Routes, the Climbers…
Published in November 2013, Peak Rock is a celebration of significant developments at the cutting edge of rock climbing in the Peak District, from the day that James W Puttrell first set foot on rock at Wharncliffe Crags in the late nineteenth century, through to modern day ascents on the area’s gritstone and limestone crags.
Meticulously researched and written by a team of local authors, this is the story of the sharp end of Peak District climbing as told through the words of many of the Peak’s and the world s top climbers, including: James W Puttrell, Jack Longland, Joe Brown, Don Whillans, Ed Drummond, Tom Proctor, John Allen, Ron Fawcett, Andy Pollitt, Jerry Moffatt, Johnny Dawes, Ben Moon, Miles Gibson, Pete Whittaker, Steve McClure, Ryan Pasquill and many more.
The late Giles Barker first started work on Peak Rock (then titled Peak Performance) in the early 1980s, before progress was halted by his premature death in 1992. It was almost twenty years before Phil Kelly picked up where Giles left off, pulling together Giles’ original research and interviews, which were stored at the Mountain Heritage Trust. Phil enlisted Graham Hoey to work on the book, updating the manuscript with their own interview material and other primary source information, writing a number of missing chapters and also adding a number of chapters, including the significant developments of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s and including ground-breaking coverage of the history of bouldering in the area, the gradual acceptance of bolted climbs on some limestone crags.
Phil and Graham brought in a team of experienced Peak District climbers drawing on their knowledge of specific developments trad climbing, sport climbing, bouldering, gritstone, limestone and worked with them to develop individual chapters. This resulting book on the history of Peak District climbing is the most comprehensive to be published since Eric Byne and Geoff Sutton’s High Peak in 1966.
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