About ROCKFAX
ROCKFAX publish rock climbing guidebooks to areas all over the world. The company was started in 1990 with the first guidebook Fax01 - Yorkshire Limestone. Since then we have published a total of 28 European ROCKFAX books, which cover areas from the Lake District in Britain to the Costa Blanca in Spain, and 3 ROCKFAX books to climbing in the USA.
Publications
Our printed guidebooks use every available modern publishing technique to create visually-based guidebooks which rely heavily on topos, photo-topos and maps. Our aim is to make assessing and locating your chosen route to climb as easy as possible, however, for those who don't like 2D representations of a 3D world, we also include full route and crag approach descriptions. Although we don't cover historical details with as much depth as some other publications, we are committed to attempting to maintain the historical record of climbing in the areas of our books.
MiniGUIDES - ROCKFAX MiniGUIDES are small downloadable PDF guides produced in a similar style to our printed books - more info.
We also have a series of climbing performance coaching books Sport CLIMBING +, Trad CLIMBING + and Winter CLIMBING +.
The Web Site
This web site provides support for all our guidebooks including Area Guides and occasional updates. We also have an extensive Route Database which contains a listing of every route in our publications with a full description and the possibility to vote on the grade and quality of the route, and lodge your comments. The information that we gather from the database is vital in helping us produce future editions of our guidebooks.
Advertising
We have a dedicated advertising system on the site aimed at individuals and small companies who have accommodation to offer in some of the areas that our guidebooks cover - more info. We also have space for print advertising in most of our publications - contact our advertising manager.
Access and Bolt Funds
ROCKFAX recognise the impact climbers have on the environment and the part the outdoor industry has to play in that. We make regular contributions to access funds and bolt funds - more info.
Who are Rockfax
 Alan James
Prompted by reading some Pokketz Cartoons in On The Edge magazine, Mick Ryan approached Alan to do the cartoons for the second Rockfax guide to North Wales Limestone. Alan immediately began production on the third publication Peak Limestone and is now behind all the guides on the Europe side of the Atlantic. This includes the controversial Pembroke
guidebook, the very successful and popular Costa
Blanca, Mallorca and El Chorro guidebook, Peak
Bouldering, Costa Daurada, Peak Gritstone East, Western
Grit and Northern Limestone plus MiniGUIDES to Lower Sharpnose, Carreg-y-Barcud, Devon Sport, Peak Lime Extra, Kalymnos, Cala Gonone , Inland Sardinia, Margalef and Bellús. His latest book as an author is the 2006 Mallorca guidebook. Alan now authors fewer books but is responsible for the publishing side of all Rockfax publications and is the sole owner or Rockfax Limited. He also helped set up UKClimbing.com which he becme the sole owner of in 2008.
Alan in the Elbesandstein, Germany. Photo: Karsten Kurz
 Chris Craggs
Chris first started writing guidebooks in the 1980s and his first book - Rock Climbs in the Costa Blanca (1989) - was a major contributing factor to the popularity of that area as a climbing destination. Further books written for Cicerone have helped publicise many other areas in Spain and Belgium.
In 2001 Chris joined ROCKFAX as the co-author of the revolutionary guidebook Peak Gritstone East (now updated to Eastern Grit). Following on from this Chris has gone on to co-author two more books - Western
Grit and Northern Limestone. Chris has also written the MiniGUIDE to Black
Rocks and co-written the MiniGUIDEs to Peak Lime Extra and Bellús. Chris's latest two books have both come out in 2008 - Northern England and Lofoten. Chris takes an active role in the publication of all other Rockfax publications.
Chris soloing at Summit Quarry
in Lancashire Photo: Dave Gregory
 Mark Glaister
Mark joined the ROCKFAX team in 1998 when he co-authored the Costa Daurada book with his then-partner Emma Williams (now Emma Medara). This was their
first ever attempt at guidebook writing and was completed in under 12
months from their initial phone call to the finished product; a period
which involved three trips to Spain, learning to draw topos from scratch
and a big set-back when many topos were nicked from their van.
Since then Mark has gone on to work on several MiniGUIDES to Cala
Gonone, Inland Sardinia,
Inland Devon and Montgrony and also updated the El Chorro chapter of the 2001 edition of Costa
Blanca, Mallorca and El Chorro. In 2002 the second edition of Costa Daurada was produced in full colour. Mark then worked on the Yorkshire and Cumbria sections of Northern Limestone. 2005 was a big year for Mark with two new publications Dorset and Clwyd Limestone. Mark is working on a new guidebook to El Chorro due for publication late in 2008.
Mark red-pointing Polifemo (7c)
in Kalymnos. Photo: Alan James
Adrian Berry
Adrian was the main author of the first Rockfax performance coaching book Sport CLIMBING + published in 2006. He has gone on to co-author Trad CLIMBING + with John Arran, and is working on producing Winter CLIMBING + with Ian Parnell and Neil Gresham.
Mike Robertson
Mike's Rockfax career started with a bang when he was the sole author the award-winning Deep Water. This huge project was the result of many year's of research by Mike and was a well-deserved winner of the 2007 Mountain Exposition Award at the Banff Mountain Book Festival. Mike is currently working on a full new guidebook to Pembroke which he is co-authoring with Alan James.
Jonathan Lagoe - Rocktalk Profile
Jonathan co-authored the Lofoten MiniGUIDE in 2003. He is currently working on a guide to Lakes Bouldering.
Andy Hyslop - Rocktalk Profile
Andy is the owner of Rock+Run and co-owner with Alan James of UKClimbing. Andy first wrote for ROCKFAX way back in 1994 with the Lakes ROCKFAX. After a gap of many years he took advantage of the versatile MiniGUIDE system to produce the Skye MiniGUIDE in 2002 and the Lofoten MiniGUIDE in 2003. In 2006 he was the co-author of Lakes Bouldering.
Nick Smith - Rocktalk Profile
Although Nick has only so far co-written the one MiniGUIDE to Kalymnos, his contribution to ROCKFAX has been massive. He is the technical brains behind all the sophisticated Databases and MiniGUIDES on the ROCKFAX web site and works on a number of other sites including UKClimbing from his own company Climbers.net.
John Arran
John was the co-author on Trad CLIMBING + published in 2007.
Thorbjørn Enevold
Thorbjørn co-operated with Chris Craggs on the Lofoten Rockfax by supplying much of the original information.
Steve McClure
Steve was the co-author on Sport CLIMBING + published in 2006.
Jon Haukåssveen
Jon has given us the considerable benefit of his local knowledge in helping to author the Heavy Water - Rjukan Ice published in 2005.
Tom Atle Bordevik
Tom was the co-author on the Heavy Water - Rjukan Ice published in 2005.
Lee Proctor
Lee work with Mark Glaister in authoring the Clwyd Limestone book in 2005.
Emma Medara
Emma co-authored the Costa Daurada ROCKFAX which is now into its second edition.
Pete Oxley
Pete has contributed his extensive knowledge of Dorset climbing to write three editions of the Dorset ROCKFAX.
Alan Cameron-Duff
Alan helped with the first edition of the popular Costa
Blanca, Mallorca and El Chorro book and then went on to write and publish his own book to Merseyside Sandstone along with Pete Chadwick. After this he came back to ROCKFAX for his book to Yorkshire
Gritstone Bouldering.
Allen Williams
Allen first wrote a guidebook about bouldering in the Peak for OTE in
1995. The subsequent popularity of bouldering required a new book in
1998 which became the Peak Bouldering
ROCKFAX. This book sold so well that it was reprinted in 2000.
Ben Stokes
Ben ran the now defunct Dorset Climbing Domain for several years is one of the first people to start producing his own MiniGUIDES almost entirely independent of Rockfax. His first MiniGUIDE was the now superseeded Dorset Update, he then went on to help with the Cala Gonone MiniGUIDE and followed that up with the Cuttings Boulderfield MiniGUIDE in 2004.
We have also worked with Rab Anderson on the first editions of Costa
Blanca, Mallorca and El Chorro; Jon Barton and Paul Evans on North
Wales Bouldering; Paul Cornforth on the Lakes; Steve Mayers on the first edition of North
Wales Limestone; Ben Walker on the first Yorkshire Limestone book; Dave Pegg on Rifle; Randy Leavitt and Dan McQuade on Vegas
Limestone; Jerry Handren on Cathedral and Whitehorse; Ward Smith on Rumney; Mike Kerby on the Tenerife MiniGUIDE and Keith Sharples who has helped with with the Cala Gonone MiniGUIDE.
 Mick Ryan
Mick, working with Ben Walker, produced the first ROCKFAX guidebook, Yorkshire Limestone in 1990. He then went on to produce North Wales Limestone and The Lakes before handing over the European publishing reins to Alan James when he moved to the USA in 1994. After many years living in the USA, where he produced books to New England, Rifle and Las Vegas, he has now moved back to the UK and lives in the Lake District. He now works full time for UKClimbing.com.
Photo: Mick Ryan in action near Bishop in California.
The Genesis of Rockfax
The 80's was when sport climbing landed on the shores of the UK. Lots of climbers liked sport climbing, lots didn't. It was the bolts they didn't like....and the lycra......and the competitions.....and the arrogant youths......and the departure from the 'old' ways. It was the shock of the new (or Baboo-Baboo).
At the time guidebooks were produced really only by the clubs and the BMC but they were very slow to bring out their books. Many people in the clubs and some in the BMC frowned on sport climbing. Weren't interested in them, but lots of people were.
Sport routes sprouted up all over the UK like mushrooms after an autumn rain, but no-one was documenting them. I worked at On The Edge at the time and put together a Crag Directory of sport climbs and cliffs all around the UK. This was the template for the early Rockfax guidebooks: Yorkshire Limestone, North Wales Limestone, The Lakes, Dorset....
Also at the time many climbers were climbing in France and Spain and found that the guidebooks there were quite useful. They had the route names and descriptions on the same page as the topo or photodiagram. Some of the guidebooks had fun little symbols - in particular Dennis Garnier's Cimai guidebook from 1988.
So there was a need for information about sport routes and there was a need for guidebooks that presented the information in a simple and easily understood format. Hence this new guidebook company called Vertical Brain Publications that produced Rockfax guidebooks.
Vertical Brain I misheard from a Julian Cope lyric...it actually said, 'my vertigo brain leads me on the edge'......Rockfax came from the fertile brain of a friend of mine, Steve Rhodes...Facts about Rocks...Rockfax.
The first Rockfax was Yorkshire Limestone, a simple book of photodiagrams and topos with the route information on the same page. It documented a mix of sport and traditional climbs. This was Fax 01......like the catalogue system FAC 01 from Factory records in Manchester. Fax 02 was North Wales Limestone...written by Steve Mayers and Gill Lovick...this was in a similar format of photodiagrams and route info and very clear maps. Macs were used from the outset, particular the programs Aldus Freehand and Adobe Photoshop.
Anyway soon after I met Alan James, I can still remember the morning very clearly in Sheffield. I'd seen his cartoons which I found hysterical. At the time I was looking for someone to do Peak Limestone. A mutual friend and very talented climber, Steve Ansen put me in touch with Alan.
Myself and Alan had very similar ideas and enjoyed each others company, still do.
Anyway I moved to the USA (did 5 Rockfax guides there) and Alan as you know is Mr. Rockfax UK, in fact he is Mr. Rockfax and through hard work, perseverence, suffering, and a lot of talent has developed the Rockfaxes as we see them today - in fact much of it you don't see....modern guidebooks are more than just a book.
Mick Ryan 2006
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