Classic Rock Climbs No. 01 Joshua Tree National Park, California

This is an odd collection of JTree climbs -- some truely classic, but many seem to have been thrown in just because they are near some better climb. It has a mixture of photos and sketches (topos), yet still skips any sort of graphics for many of the climbs.It's understandable that Vogel's large guidebook didn't have room for pictures of every formation, but this book is supposed to be for "the visiting or infrequent climber." For that, it falls short.Still, having another resource to try to locate climbs in the huge area of Joshua Tree is a good thing, and the amount of work Vogel must have done to compile this book -- even with it's limitations -- must be commended.

This is the most widely used guidebook for Joshua Tree, and is basically a classic. The only fault I've found with it is that sometimes the rock formations are difficult to recognize from the black and white, strangely angled illustrations. When it comes back into print, many people will be happy.