Rock Climbing: Mastering Basic Skills, 2nd Edition

Thousands of rock climbers have learned the sport using Craig Luebben’s seminal and bestselling text, Rock Climbing: Mastering Basic Skills. Now Craig’s friend and fellow climber Topher Donahue brings the content up to current standards and includes technological advances, while preserving Craig’s comprehensive approach. An award-winning climber in his own right, Topher uses his writing and photography skills to simplify the complex world of modern climbing technique and reveals the thought process behind safe and practical climbing methods.

This second edition includes European climbing techniques that offer alternatives to those traditionally taught in North America. Topher has also incorporated new lessons derived from accidents due, in part, to the increased popularity of climbing.

• Approximately 35 new techniques, safety considerations, and subjects.
• National Outdoor Book Award winner in first edition.
• First edition of this popular title has sold 50,000 copies
• Over 10,000 more words and 125 more photos.
• Three never-before-published techniques: Adjustable Hitch, High Friction Tubes, and Bight Method.
• Detailed technical updates throughout.
• New distinction between “anchor” (a group of placements, pieces, or bolts used at the end of a pitch or for top rope or rappel setup) and “placement” or “piece” (individual cams, nuts, etc., used in groups to make an anchor or used individually as protection on a pitch)
• Author: Topher Donahue and Craig Luebben

Specifications

• Format: Paperback
• Dimensions: 320 pages, 8.48 × 7.04 × 0.82"
• Published: October 15, 2015
• Publisher: The Mountaineers Books
• Language: English
• Item weight: 612 g

About the Author

TOPHER DONAHUE started mountaineering with his father, Mike, who was a mountain guide in Colorado. As a teenager, he began capturing mountain experiences with both pen and camera. The quest led him on expeditions to Australia, Japan, Kygryzstan, Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Europe, and all over the United States. Today, Topher works in editorial and advertising media as well as offers creative consulting services to businesses who want to genuinely represent the experiences their customers are looking for outdoors.

CRAIG LUEBBEN guided professionally for more than twenty-five years. The author of Rock Climbing: Mastering Basic Skills and additional climbing titles, Craig also worked as a climbing guide and freelance climbing writer; writing pieces for magazines such as Climbing and Rock & Ice.

Craig died in a tragic climbing accident in August of 2009 while climbing the Torment-Forbidden Traverse route, a mile-long Grade III rock and ice route that connects Mount Torment and Forbidden Peak. As a well respected member of the climbing community - via his writing and instruction - he is missed deeply by all who knew him.