Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Author

melbourne crag guide

pomyrocks

4-Jan-2005
10:04:44 PM

G'day folks, i have been strugggling for some time to try and find a really comprehensive guide to all the crags that surround melbourne. Most of my climbing has been within an hours drive (or so) of town due to other commitments in life. It seems all i can find are small flimsey pocket sized guides that are very much out of date or the other alternitive is that i purchase every single major guide book for victoria thus denting the wallet and having to carry around a mass of of books which weigh a tonne.

i have heard rumours that someone might be in the process of producing such a guide but its just a rumour??????????

can someone help me out please.

regards,

james

James

4-Jan-2005
10:56:33 PM

the crappy old rock guide is the only Melbourne guide. Tempest & simey have a new one in the pipeline (no release date of course, don't hold your breath). Only other options are the various VCC guides - recommended as they are easy to follow & up to date... the only catch is you will need to buy 3 of them.

pomyrocks

6-Jan-2005
8:31:27 AM

cheers james. i'll hold out for this new guide which hopefully will be printed sooner rather than later.

regards,

james

nmonteith

6-Jan-2005
9:13:25 AM

You might be waiting 12 months or more for Tempests guide... I advise the VCC guides for the moment. The North Western Guide covers some of the best crags including Camels Hump, Black Hill and Mt Alexander. South West is really just the You Yangs. Eastern Victoria is the go for Catherdral Range and Ben Cairn.

pomyrocks

6-Jan-2005
12:24:20 PM

Cheers Neil, i was really hoping to aviod buying books but so be it. hopefully the tempest guide will come out sooner rather than later but heh i've got time on my side.

thanks for the tips on which books to buy.

cheers,

james

dalai

6-Jan-2005
12:44:44 PM

The Tempest Best of Melbourne guide is starting to look like it may start to compete with Russ Crows epic You Yangs Guide release date. The You Yangs guide was to be available late 80's and took at least another 10 years to appear!

Best buying the specific VCC guides as the Best Of guide won't probably be out any time soon.

WM

6-Jan-2005
12:44:50 PM

If you're going to buy all 3 the member's guidebook discounts will almost pay for a VCC membership....which then also gives you gym discounts shopping discounts etc etc

pomyrocks

6-Jan-2005
4:47:48 PM

thanks Dalai, i'll go and check out those books and skip waiting for the melbourne guide to come out.

dalai

6-Jan-2005
4:52:03 PM

No worries. Glen is a member of Chockstone and logs on from time to time. He may be able to provide a more definite publication date.

pomyrocks

6-Jan-2005
4:52:21 PM

cheers mate, i was checking out the discounts on the books at the VCC webiste as neil monteith had mentioned earlier in this thread so you must have been reading my mind. i am already member but had not realised that the discounts where that much.

anyway i'll have to open up the wallet and buy a couple.

cheers and thanks for your input,

james

dalai

6-Jan-2005
4:56:31 PM

If you are a VCC member buy away, it's a really good discount.

PS Tempest hasn't logged on since March last year, we may not hear a date from him any time soon.

WM

7-Jan-2005
9:35:05 AM

for those three it's a combined discount of $37.50 to be exact

DVM

18-Jan-2005
9:18:05 PM

VCC has a Summer Sale on guide books till end of February for members' only - check the website - www.vicclimb.org.au & follow the links. At least 30% discount on RRP and more if you buy 2 or more guides, or special Victorian & Tasmanian packages.

Richard

20-Jan-2005
1:02:35 PM

For some unkown reason, very few members seem to buy guides direct and save them selves money. eg, last year we sold 12 copies of the eastern guide directly to members, and 117 copies were sold over the counter. A lot of these where probably VCC members, given there is about 330 members. You can get the guides at the meetings to also avoid paying the postage costs.

On the website I have shown the RRP price and the members price so you can see the saving you make in $ terms - the discount varies from 25 to 30%, with the Eastern guide actualy being a 33% discount ($15). Through in an extra 10% discount with the summer sale and that's a good saving.

http://www.vicclimb.org.au/pages/guidebooks.html

Since most of the people who come on VCC trips are regular particiapants on these trips, I assume the rest of the VCC membership have joined to get a discount on their gym entry - which is well worthwhile. But if they are keen to save money at the gym, why not when buying guides?

dalai

20-Jan-2005
1:05:52 PM

On 20/01/2005 Richard wrote:
>Since most of the people who come on VCC trips are regular particiapants
>on these trips, I assume the rest of the VCC membership have joined to
>get a discount on their gym entry - which is well worthwhile. But if they
>are keen to save money at the gym, why not when buying guides?
>

Maybe they only climb in the gyms??

pomyrocks

20-Jan-2005
4:36:31 PM

Well i'll definatly be buying guides seeing as an how VCC is giving an extra 10% off their already discounted price. i hope thay have plenty of stock at this months meeting to cope with demand.

However it still means i'm gonna have to buy more than one book to cover my climbing areas in and around melbourne that i am frequenting right now. oh well, never mind. hopefully i can venture to other areas in due course.

nmonteith

20-Jan-2005
5:32:11 PM

I had a good read of the recent VCC Eastern Victoria guide last night. An incredible amount of work has gone into this 'bible'! There are literally hundreds of crags described - some rubbish, some with potential and some mega-classic. You could spend years on this side of the world - ignoring Araps and the Gramps. The crags might not be world class, but there is certainly a wide variety of rock types, locations and styles. It has enthused me to spend my easter on a Eastern Vic roadtrip confirming the worth of many of these crags! Well done Bill and the other hoards of authors involved in this project. It is a very valuable contribution to the climbing community!

joemor

20-Jan-2005
5:54:54 PM

where in perticular neilio?

nmonteith

21-Jan-2005
8:45:44 AM

Mitchell River
Dargo High Plains
Little River Gorge
.... i think.

Richard

21-Jan-2005
12:59:18 PM

I am sure BA will be very happy with your comments above, and any feedback on trips to these areas (I suspect some of the details for these cliffs could not be confirmed before printing)

There are 20 messages in this topic.