Les Marinouns is still open and fully accessible as is Rebouillon.

Thanks to Mike Owen for this.

Thanks to Mike Owen for this information.

The restricted sections at La Turbie.

Dorset Rockfax Cover 2012

The latest edition of the ever-popular Dorset Rockfax is now available for pre-order from this web site at a special offer price of £21.95 (RRP £24.95).

Pre-order your copy now to take advantage of this special offer and to ensure that you receive the book as soon as possible after it is published on 21 February. This will be the fastest way to get hold of a copy of the book, in fact you might even get it before we do since the main delivery goes straight to the warehouse before being moved on to Rockfax base in Sheffield.

• Pre-order now
• More about the book here
• Read the book Introduction Pages
• Sample chapter – Coastguard Cliffs on Portland

NOTE: The book is being published on 21 February. This offer is only open until 20February 2012. Although other web sites may also offer the book at a discount price, they DON’T have any stock and are not likely to have stock for a few more weeks after 20 February.

Sax – Penas del Rey
Same description as book until 1.8km but stay on the tarmac road, follow this road past the old bridge (now blocked off), until you go over a new bridge. Then over the new railway, turn immediately left (virtually back on yourself) onto a dirt track and follow this to rejoin the old track. Drive towards the crag, there is parking for a few cars at a wide junction, or continue to parking under the crag – the track is is quite bad. If you carry straight on at the junction you would get to Sector Cumbre.

Echo Valley
Polop is not signed from the N332 but the CV70 is the road that goes past the entrance to Terra Mitica. Follow this road towards Polop until you get to a roundabout that is a water feature. It has some strange sculptures in it, also there is a very obvious ‘tangerine’ petrol station on the far left of the roundabout which you will pass when you follow the sign for Guadalest. Its quite easy to miss the sign post. Polop Paradis does not have a sign for it, just look for the ugly white houses on the side of the road.

Sierra De Toix
The road that leaves Maryvilla for Toix TV is currently blocked by fallen rocks. Walk in from Toix Oeste.

L’Ocaive
The 7km post is a bit faded, looks like a trig point, but its also very obvious your there.

Bellùs (as reported the other day)
When following the CV 60 west from Gandia, the junction used to access Bellus is No 7 and is signed Montaverner and Alfarrasi. This is 30 km from the outskirts of Gandia. Take the A340 through Alfarrasi and on to Bellus.

The routes affected are from 2) Biotone on page 148 to 11) Une belle dans la tete on page 153 in the new Rockfax guide.

Thanks to Martin Harris. Thread on CampToCamp web site

The area of the rockfall a the Cirque des Vases at Gorge de la Jonte

When following the CV 60 west from Gandia the junction used to access Bellus is No 7 and is signed Montaverner and Alfarrasi. This is 30 km from the outskirts of Gandia. Take the A340 through Alfarrasi and on to Bellus.

- Chris Craggs

The book will be the largest Rockfax ever with the route count up from 1616 in the 2005 guidebook to 2075 at the last count (we just added a route which was completed on 14th January so if you have a new route to finish try and do it within the next 4 days). Portland alone has expanded its repertoire by 274 routes an amazing increase of almost 30% in the last 6 years.

Much has been going on down at both Portland and at Swanage with Dorset’s hardest line being climbed at Blackers Hole ushering in the 8c grade to Dorset and a bountiful haul of new sport routes both at the established cliffs on Portland and on a good number of new venues. The new Rockfax is in full colour with all new action pictures and increased coverage of the trad climbing at Swanage such as Unknown and Flake Ledge.

These advanced copies look great and our in-house target audience tester has got down to using the book straight away.

Lydia James-Louwerse testing the new Beginners' Guide for Climbers

We will have a limited number of books available this weekend at the Outdoor Show in London on Saturday and Sunday only. You can find Sophie (the author) and myself in the climbing village, probably around the NICAS stand. The book will be available for sale from the DMM stand.

The ACT funds projects to protect our cliffs and mountains and aims to promote sustainable access to cliffs, mountains and open countryside by facilitating education and conservation projects across the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The ACT is a charitable trust established by the British Mountaineering Council in 2001.  ACT allows tax efficient donations to be made using Gift Aid.

You can read more about the ACT here including a list of work they have done over the last few years here.

Alan James interviewing Dave Turnbull about the ACT at Kendal 2011

On the Rockfax site, guidebooks which cover areas where support of the BMC and the ACT is vital are indicated with green side-bar box. In sport climbing areas this is in conjunction with another box pointing towards the relevant bolt fund. All our future UK publications will also contain information about the ACT and bolt funds (where appropriate).

We have finalised our plans for 2012 and we are aiming to publish six books during the year. Since this is two more than we have ever managed before in a calendar year then we could be being slightly optimistic, however we have two titles very close to publication as I write this – Dorset and Peak Limestone – plus the Beginners’ Guide for Climbers which already at the printers and due for delivery in January. So three books before Easter looks easy to manage. The next three though are rather longer tasks and I suspect that the schedule may slip a little.

The main book of the summer is Peak Bouldering: a new revised, updated, generally improved and enhanced version of the classic old Peak Bouldering guide that first appeared in 1998. Adrian Berry is putting this together and the work done so far looks stunning.

The pre-Christmas books for next year are France : Ariège – part four of our France series, and the fifth edition of our ever-poplar Costa Blanca book. We will need to wait until nearer the time before we decide exactly which one takes precedence a decision which may well shift the other book into early 2013.

Rockfax in 2012 PDF

Dorset due early 2012

Peak Limestone due Easter 2012

Peak Bouldering due summer 2012