{"title":"Baton Wicks Publications","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781898573708","title":"Classic Rock","description":"Ken Wilson’s Classic Rock is one of the most popular and iconic works of climbing literature ever written. Along with Hard Rock and Extreme Rock, it has acquired legendary status.    First published in 1978, Classic Rock represented the absolute best of British climbing at that time, quickly establishing itself as a must-have publication. It is a celebration of 80 of the best lower-grade routes in Great Britain, bringing them to life through a superb selection of photographs, anecdotes and essays from some of the most accomplished climbers of the day.    ‘Ticking’ the book became an instant and obvious challenge, and remains so to this day (Wilson wasn’t a fan, describing it as ‘puerile ticking’). Any climber working his or her way through the book will be taken on a tour of the finest routes on the best cliffs and crags to be found throughout England, Scotland and Wales.    Many of the routes in the book were established over a century ago. At that time the Victorian and Edwardian alpinists, flushed with successes abroad, sought harder challenges at home. With their well-honed confidence, they went straight for the biggest cliffs of Scotland. Anyone seeking to retrace their steps will immediately be transported to bold lines of weakness up otherwise daunting precipices! Before long these pioneers trailed their hemp ropes and balanced their hobnail boots up the sea cliffs of Cornwall and the gritstone edges of the Pennines, and the crags of the Lake District and North Wales. These climbers provided us with a great national treasure – a repository of adventure and spectacle that can provide a lifetime’s enjoyment and challenge.    An ascent of a great historic route will rarely disappoint. Such routes retain much of their original challenge, unsullied by the pitons and bolts often found on their continental equivalents. They take bold, logical lines up otherwise difficult cliffs – usually cleaned and stabilised by years of use.    Classic Rock provides a mere sampling of these treasures. This latest edition has been transformed with over 300 new colour photos. These sit alongside archive images to create an inspirational dialogue between today’s climbers and those of history. Fifty-five chapters, contributed by acclaimed climbers and writers such as Jim Perrin, Paul Nunn and Angela Soper, describe the finest classic rock climbs in Britain.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308231930229,"sku":"9781898573708","price":39.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781898573708_2d9be98b-d58d-43d1-9c5a-51d3647c0574.jpg?v=1786029383"},{"product_id":"9781898573982","title":"In The Shadow of Ben Nevis","description":"In 1959, sixteen-year-old Ian ‘Spike’ Sykes left school and, after a short period of work at Leeds University, joined the RAF. Already a keen climber, he signed up on the promise of excitement and adventure and was posted to the remote RAF Kinloss Mountain Rescue Team in the north of Scotland. It was the beginning of a journey which would see him involved in some of the most legendary call-outs in Scottish mountain rescue history, including the 1963 New Year tragedy on the Isle of Skye.   In the Shadow of Ben Nevis tells Spike’s story from growing up in Leeds in the aftermath of the Second World War, to his time with the RAF during the cold war. After leaving the RAF, he remained an active member of the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team and was involved in the first lower down the north face of Ben Nevis – an epic 1,500-foot descent to rescue stricken climbers in the middle of winter.   Following a two-and-a-half-year stint on Antarctica with the British Antarctic Survey, he returned to the Highlands and opened the first Nevisport shop with his close friend Ian ‘Suds’ Sutherland. Together, they brought Sunday trading to Fort William and were one of a small number of shops to revolutionise outdoor retail in the UK. Later, he was a key player in the development of the Nevis Range ski area. Over many years, and against all odds, the project became a reality and a great success.   Recounted within these pages are a great many lively tales of adventures and mishaps, told with immediacy and charm. With a foreword by legendary Scottish mountaineer Hamish MacInnes, a close friend of Spike’s, In the Shadow of Ben Nevis is a must-read for anyone with an interest in Scottish mountaineering and mountain rescue.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308232225141,"sku":"9781898573982","price":14.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781898573982_ae7c5423-0363-4afc-a546-e7f2166810f4.jpg?v=1786029385"},{"product_id":"9781898573685","title":"Fontainebleau Bouldering Off-Piste","description":"The forest of Fontainebleau is one of the major bouldering spots of the world. Thousands of sandstone boulders lie scattered over an area of 1,200 square kilometres of forest – wonderfully-shaped boulders of superb quality rock in a wilderness of pine, beech and oak trees. The climbing style is addictive, a subtle mixture of body positioning, footwork and power that is as demanding mentally as it is physically. There are problems at every grade imaginable, from the easiest of circuits to world class testpieces.   Written by local climbers Jo and Francoise Montchausse and Jacky Godoffe, Fontainebleau Bouldering \"Off-Piste\" reveals the locations of over 3,000 of the best problems graded at Font 6a and above, and highlights 250 problems of outstanding quality. Some problems found on circuits, others are set apart and easily missed. This guide ensures that doesn't happen. Covering 92 different areas across the forest, the guide lists the harder problems in the main locations, and also on many lesser-known groups of boulders around the forest. There are 120 detailed maps  -  both general location maps and boulder layouts, colour photographs for every area and hints, tips and anecdotes throughout.   This new edition also features a comprehensive alphabetical index to all the problems in the guide with those of the highest quality highlighted in bold type.  More than enough for even the most dedicated enthusiast to go at. Fontainebleau Bouldering \"Off-Piste\" works particularly well when paired with the popular circuit guide Fontainebleau Climbs, written by the same authors.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308298973557,"sku":"9781898573685","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781898573685_28caeafb-edc0-493e-9b03-d23ace3bff2b.jpg?v=1786029382"},{"product_id":"9781898573586","title":"On Thin Ice","description":"On Thin Ice is Mick Fowler's second set of climbing memoirs, following Vertical Pleasure. Here, the celebrated mountaineer records his expeditions since 1990 where, despite work and family commitments, he maintained a regular series of 'big trips' to challenging objectives around the world with a sequence of major successes.  The combination of exotic travel with major climbs provides the ultimate adrenalin-soaked holiday experience that Mick Fowler has mastered to the full. We are transported from the cliffs of Jordan to remote peaks in deepest Asia via Taweche and Changabang in the Himalaya, with jaunts to the Andes and Alaska thrown in for good measure. That Fowler has organised this routine for years, while holding down a conventional nine-to-five job with the Inland Revenue, has constantly amazed his peers. In this, his second book, he has also mastered the skills of amusing travel-writing to entertain us as a preliminary to the finale of a titanic struggle on each of his fiendishly demanding climbs.   His ascent of Siguniang in 2002, with Paul Ramsden featured hard ice climbing on a fabulous face in deepest China and was so admired by the international climbing community that it won the US Golden Piton and the French Piolets d'Or, both awards given for the finest alpine achievements in the world during that year.  Fowler describes his travels in the great traditions, with engaging modesty and wit, but the climbs themselves are frequently so dramatic that the anxiety and tension forces its way to the surface to be matched by a corresponding relief and triumph when success and safe descent is achieved.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308693401973,"sku":"9781898573586","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781898573586_bb04e1ea-0be9-4ece-8d8e-15beef46adb4.jpg?v=1786029380"},{"product_id":"9781898573593","title":"Essays from the Edge","description":"Essays from the Edge gathers fifty years of selected writing by Dennis Gray, one of British climbing’s most influential voices. These twenty-one essays, spanning one of British mountaineering’s most exciting periods, provide a compelling narrative of a life studying the art of climbing and of living it first-hand on the cliffs and mountains of the world in the company of some of the sport’s most colourful characters of the last century.    Vivid portraits anchor the collection: the legendary Joe Brown and Don Whillans, members of the Rock and Ice Club; American pioneers Royal Robbins, Jeff Lowe and Warren Harding; and unsung originals such as the Barley brothers, Robin and Tony. A wide-ranging 1973 interview with climber Allan Austin gives a fascinating insight into the Yorkshire scene of the early 1970s. Dennis’s commentary expands to cover other issues, such as the 1932 Kinder Mass Trespass, climbing’s debut in the Olympics and the development of modern rock climbing in Belgium.    Broad in scope yet precise in observation, Essays from the Edge celebrates the values and spirit of British climbing.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56369343725941,"sku":"9781898573593","price":14.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781898573593.jpg?v=1786029381"},{"product_id":"a-man-for-all-mountains","title":"A Man for All Mountains","description":"Sir John Laurence ‘Jack’ Longland (1905–1993) was one of the defining figures of British mountaineering and outdoor education in the twentieth century – a man whose influence reached from the highest mountains of the world to the classrooms, airwaves and policy rooms of post-war Britain.    As a young climber, Jack Longland stood at the forefront of adventure. His eponymous climb on Clogwyn Du’r Arddu in North Wales in 1928 – the first on the crag’s imposing West Buttress – confirmed his standing among Britain’s leading rock climbers, while his 1930 ascent of Javelin Blade (E1) in Cwm Idwal was ahead of its time in terms of difficulty and boldness. Further from home, he was a member of the 1933 Everest expedition, gaining first-hand experience of the world’s highest mountain at a formative moment in Himalayan exploration; after helping to establish camp 6, he famously led his team of Sherpas down to the safety of camp 5 in a storm. His participation in the 1935 Greenland expedition further demonstrated a lifelong appetite for remote and demanding terrain.    Yet Longland’s greatest legacy is how he connected mountaineering with public service. Appointed director of education for Dorset during the Second World War, and later for Derbyshire from 1949 to 1969, he became a visionary advocate for outdoor learning. In 1950 he founded White Hall, the first local authority outdoor pursuits centre in Britain, establishing a model that transformed access to the outdoors for generations of young people. He was knighted on his retirement in 1970.    A respected leader within the climbing world, Longland served as chairman of the Mountain Leadership Training Board and of Plas y Brenin between 1964 and 1980, and as president of the Alpine Club from 1974 to 1976. His authority was matched by a gift for communication: he was a familiar and much-loved voice on BBC Radio, regularly contributing to Any Questions?, as well as chairing Country Questions in the 1940s and 1950s, and My Word! for twenty years from 1957.    In A Man for All Mountains, the long-awaited biography of Jack Longland, Mark Lambert profiles a climber, educator and broadcaster united by a single belief: that mountains, landscapes and ideas are at their best when shared.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57490187813237,"sku":"9781898573289","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781898573289.jpg?v=1786442073"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/publisher-baton-wicks-publications.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}