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This article has been published to accompany a recent discussion encompassing people's use of AW's guides and is written by renownded guide writer Kev Reynolds who has not a single AW publication on his shelves.  Kev Reynolds Then out of the blue came a call from Walt Unsworth, that doyen of mountain writers who was then editor of Climber & Rambler, who told me he’d founded a small publishing company and invited me to write a guidebook to the Pyrenees. A guidebook? Why on earth would anyone want a guidebook? My idea of mountain adventure was to take a map and go exploring. If I fancied a peak, I’d work out a possible line and go for it. It didn’t matter a hoot if anyone had climbed it before, by which route or how long it took. I wasn’t interested in grades of difficulty, for if my chosen line turned out to be too dangerous or beyond my meagre abilities, I’d simply downclimb and try something else. But the ego-seduction of becoming a published author helped me to say ‘yes’. Despite having a contract now to write a guidebook, I had never even looked at one, so I had some serious research to do. What information did people look for? I wondered. What about style as well as content? Someone suggested Wainwright. The name was familiar, his guides already well-known to Lakeland addicts, although at the time his photo had never appeared in the press and he could wander the fells in complete anonymity. Wainwright? I didn’t know anyone who owned a copy, and with no spare cash to buy one for myself, I took off to the Alpine Club’s library – a wonderland of musty books of every mountain range imagineable. I was in heaven. And yes, they had guidebooks by the score; some of which dated back to Victorian times. Some in pristine condition, some with quirky annotations in the margins (I soon discovered how guidebook users love to take issue with the authors), some illustrated with monochrome photos, some with lovingly detailed sketches.  No Wainwrights! Thirty years and several editions later, Walks & Climbs in the Pyrenees is still in print, along with more than forty other titles. Each year I take off to the mountains for weeks or months at a time, armed with notebook, tape recorder and camera; to wander trails, cross passes, and sleep out under the stars in an orgy of delight. My mission is now to create dreams that others might turn into reality. I’ve not had a holiday in more than twenty years…
Back at home the shelves of my study groan under the weight of around 500 different guides, in numerous languages, to mountains as diverse as the Tatras, Andes, Caucasus and Himalaya. But there’s not one by AW. Does that mark me out as an heretic?
Kev Reynolds NB: This article originally appeared in The Lost Sheep Issue 6. |
