Rock Climbing: Mastering Basic Skills (Mountaineers Outdoor Expert)

Craig Luebben's book is possibly THE Best Single Book written for rock climbing. It should be THE textbook for all people interested in learning to climb as it begins with basic but critical hand and footholds, basic climbing gear, knots, belaying, and rappelling. Later chapters for intermediate or advanced Sport or Trad climbing go into great detail. You will find yourself reading and referring to this book for your entire rock climbing lifetime.

As a relatively new climber (i.e., as of this writing, I've been climbing about 7 months), I found that this was a good introductory text to keep around. Granted, climbing is not something you really want to read-then-do; think of the reading as a good supplement to your training and climbing.

I enjoyed how Luebben dives right into the material; he keeps the introduction short and then goes immediately into the science and sport of rock climbing. He writes in a colloquial style that is easy to digest and presents the material in a way that makes it seem like a conversation. It's like it's you and him out on the rock, Luebben telling you everything he needs you to know.

While the book's focus is definitely on outdoor climbs, Luebben emphasizes techniques that should easily transfer to indoor rock gyms. Especially early in the text, Luebben writes a lot about body and foot position, how to approach routes and problems, and the mental elements of rock climbing. While these techniques are typically discussed in an outdoor context, the lessons all easily transfer to whatever surface you're climbing.

For a new, mostly indoor climber like myself, there seemed to be a lot of material in this book that either didn't apply to me or served merely to whet my appetite for outdoor routes. If you're looking for something specific to indoor climbing, you're probably better off exploring Matt Burbach's Gym Climbing book. Still, even a mostly-indoors beginner climber will find the chapters on body position, footwork and hand-holds, knots, belaying, and bouldering to be useful.

Excellent starting place to get into this kind of book, very good reference. I've been climbing for the last five years, and I learned a lot from this book.

Guide, author and climbing gear inventor Craig Luebben's book won a National Outdoor Book award and it's well deserved. For anyone taking up rock climbing, or wanting to bring their knowledge up-to-date this is the book to start with.

It's well organized and well-illustrated. Luebben starts the basics of pure climbing - footwork, holds and jams along with special climbing challenges like chimneys and off-widths (he's the Yoda of off-width climbing). Then he covers the gear you'll need like shoes, harness and ropes. He describes basic climber knots and working with ropes and slings. Then he talks about protection, natural and man-made.

He tells you how to build anchors and keep your partner safe with proper belaying technique. He covers top-roping, sport climbing and the basics of traditional climbing including the approach, route-finding, setting pro and the physics and psychology of leading.. Later chapters introduce multi-pitch free climbing, descending and rappelling, bouldering and training for climbing. The concluding chapter explains how to avoid turning your climb into an epic by learning basic self-rescue techniques.

This is by far the best, most up-to-date book on basic rock climbing. After you've read it (more than once) and practiced the skills he describes, get Luebben's book on building climbing anchors.

Bill Becher

it may not be perfect, but it does everything it needs to (at least for me). as per the title, i'd recommend this book to any beginner or strong gym climber who wants to move to real crags. for advanced climbers who want to improve their skills there are probably better books out there.