I am digging for a little beta from you and your readers. We are thinking about a climb of Pyramid Peak this weekend, but are wondering what observations have been made by people up high, concerning the dust layer. Which is now clearly on top of the snow, up to 13,000 ft. Have we been getting enough cold temps at night to freeze the snowpack, or is this “snirt” holding heat overnight and not allowing the pack to solidify?

We climbed and skied Sopris last weekend, and the conditions were considerably different than years past.

Just wondering your input on the Snowpack, is it worth another attempt, or time to hit the desert for some crack climbing?

Thanks,
Matt

That said, I think the future is simply having it on the web, and sticking the relevant stuff on your PDA if necessary, or even printing some stuff out — and having plenty of GPS info. Yeah, a cold heart approach, but with no printing costs, one can do so much more in terms of gathering information and keeping it updated. The difference is night and day.

My first attempt at an online guidebook is http://www.hutski.com it’s been interesting. Not as well used as I expected, but then, how hard is it to find a 10th Mountain hut located on a road, with the trail marked by plastic diamonds nailed to trees?

“but in my opinion most guidebooks are now better done on the web”

See a little disconnect there, Lou?

Like Jordan, my 14er book from my highschool days is heavily used and abused (in my case, the Borneman/Lampert one as I’m a bit older than Jordan and that was the only guidebook at the time.) No matter how nice online guides are on a computer or iphone, it will never be a prized possession like a well-worn book can be. My guidebooks have history that I can see on every page.

I’m quite certain that there’s a lot of difficult things with regards to publishing your book or making another edition. But if you consider how important and meaningful your books have been to many of us, perhaps it’s worth the cost?

FYI, the first printing of the Guide to Backcountry Skiing was indeed defective and a nightmare. After that and many other experiences with publishing (such as my fourteener guides not being updated more often) are all leading me to the conclusion that I’ll never publish a paper guidebook again. Other types of books, yes, but in my opinion most guidebooks are now better done on the web, with downloadable and printable content for use if necessary. Many folks probably disagree with that, but after publishing a number of guidebooks, I have to say that my bad experiences with paper publishing of information based content far outweigh the good. One has to go with their experience, and perhaps others might take note of it…