The new El Chorro guide is now in its final stages and will be going to the printers next week. We have produced a sample chapter download of the Arab Steps chapter. This shows the new ‘Lofoten’ style which has been very well received – huge topos, lots of colour and even more inspiring photographs. In the first week since we introduced this download it has been downloaded 583 times!
The book will be available for pre-orders from next week at a special offer price.
El Chorro actually featured in the 5th ever Rockfax publication, produced in January 1994. It was a set of 7 yellow cards, folded together and stuck into a plastic wallet. I think we sold it for around a fiver.
This was the second ‘topocard’ guide that we produced. The first was to Yorkshire Limestone, and the last was to Mallorca. It was an early experiment in providing climbing information in different formats, in this case that meant affordable (or cheap!) and quick to produce. I suppose in many ways this format was a precursor to the downloadable MiniGuides we introduced in 2002. One thing is sure when you look at the 1994 topocards – guidebook publishing has come avery long way since then!
