Climbing book review: Eastern Grit (ROCKFAX)

Eastern Grit is a really comprehensive climbing book, covering a massive 2950 climbing routes over 19 crags in the Peak District.

Because it focuses entirely on the Eastern gritstone crags, it shows a lot more routes on those crags than some of the other Peak District guides that include the limestone crags.

My brother David bought this book, mainly to gain access to more routes on the crags that we were climbing than could be found in the book I bought (Peak District Climbing by Vertebrate Graphics, which covers limestone crags and gritstone Crags in the Peaks).

Eastern Grit covers 19 Crags in total and presents them in a nice, easy-to-follow layout with full colour photographs. Where the climbs are a “must-do”, they have given them a 1, 2 or 3 grading. ROCKFAX have come up with a nice way of telling you what type of climb to expect for each route, by creating some symbols. Things like a bulging forearm to show that the climb is “pumpy” or a heart with wings indicating a “fluttery” climb (you know, those ones where you can’t help feeling a little relieved when you reach the top).

There’s a map at the back of the book but it fails to mention the names of the B roads that you need to follow to reach some of the crags. This isn’t a big problem as it’s still pretty clear from the drawing how to get there. I’m nit picking really.

The climbing routes are well described and easy to follow, and I can wholeheartedly recommend this book for anyone who wants to climb trad routes on the best gritstone crags in the Peak District. If you want to buy a copy, I would recommend buying from The Climbing Book Shop.