Yorkshire Limestone Guidebook Published ...

“It's Dave Musgrove on the phone” came the shout from downstairs. “He's after some photos for the latest Yorkshire limestone guide”. I break off what I'm doing and take the call. Some time later, I send a Jiffy bag with a bunch of slides in away in the post and I think no more of it. As a photographer, I'm always shipping slides around the country. You take 'um, you sort 'um, you post 'um, then you move on to the next assignment. In May, guidebook supreme, Musgrove, rang again. “Guide's out,” he says, “and we've used a few of your shots. We're having a bash and there's an invite for you to come up for the evening. And by the way, we used a shot of yours on the front cover”!

I'm always keen to see a new guidebook, especially so if there's some of my images in it. Yes I know that a bit on the egotistical side but hey, photographers are only human! However, getting a front cover that's kinda special. That's the one image that everyone picking up the book will see, even if they put it straight back on the shelf! I confess, I finished the call to Dave and then I punched the air. Show me someone who doesn't get a buzz from pitching a winner and that's someone that wouldn't be pitching many more! I’ve always been happy to offer photographs to guidebook producers. Ian Smith, a very good friend who knows a bit about photographs and guidebooks, once said to me that that having photos in a guidebook was “like putting them in a shop window”.

So in early June, we (Ian Smith and I) arrived at said guidebook launch. Dave Musgrove welcomed all on behalf of the YMC. The room was stuffed with scriptwriters, photographers, resident artists, IT experts, activists, steering group members and club officials past and present. It was a who's, who of Yorkshire climbing. Bar none, all were extolling the virtues of the white stone in the White Rose County , that and the new guide of course. It's easy to see the attention that these guys had lavished on their new guidebook, the hours of effort just shine out at you. The guide contains all any visiting, or local, climber could ever want; thousand’s (literally) of routes of both traditional and sport climbing persuasion, stunning crag diagrams, rich histories, tick lists and graded lists aplenty and tonnes of cracking action images. But then again I would say that, after all, several were mine!

Driving home from the bash later than evening, my mind slipped back to the spring of 1973 when I pulled off the deck for my first Yorkshire limestone experience. The crag, as it happens was Twistelton, though a great deal of climbing and photography has passed under the metaphorical bridge since then! The intervening thirty years have just flown by; but the routes and the photos are stored away. Malham and Kilnsey are, without a doubt, my favourite locations for climbing and photography; these two crags easily qualifying as international ‘must-visits’ venues. Latterly, many of my visits have been with the man of the moment, Steve McClure, North Yorkshire ’s very own rock-star. Steve in particular has been instrumental in developing the hardest routes on Yorkshire limestone in recent years with first ascents of the desperate Northern Lights and Rainshadow, both of which are 9a. I’ve been fortunate to catch the action on these routes as well as many others.

The familiar drive back to Sheffield passed quickly and as we crossed the 'border' back into South Yorkshire I was left wondering whether the YMC would let me back into Yorkshire again when/if they find out that I’m a Lancashire lad let alone use my photos in their guides again! Until then, I guess I’m ‘in the shop window’.

Technical bit …

The new guide, the sixth edition of the title and the second edited by Dave Musgrove, is available from the distributors, Cordee, and from bookshops and climbing shops across the country. Follow the link to the YMC’s own website (www.theymc.org.uk/pubs.html) for further details.

And more…

The images featured in the attached gallery are extracted from the slideshow, “Thirty Years of Pennine Climbing”. For a bigger selection and for details of how to book Keith for a unique insight into the crags, the action and the current stars in and around the Pennines, including inspiring video footage of Steve McClure on Rainshadow, click >here<