Mini Article: Super (Duper) Topo

Well the pound is super strong against the dollar, the British weather gets ever more frustrating and David Beckham now lives in Los Angles. So that's at least two reasons to visit the good old US of A!

With the recent launch of two great new guides (Yosemite Bouldering and Bay Area Bouldering) we thought we'd give you a heads up on America's answer to Rockfax.com.

SuperTopo is prolific producer of North American climbing guidebooks, covering all the various disciplines of the sport, from bouldering, sport climbing to traditional and aid climbing these boys have usually got it covered in the no customary photo-topo layout. Supertopo was founded in 1999 by Chris McNamara (a man said to have spent 3% of his life on El Cap!) after he decided there wasn't enough guidebooks being produced which encapsulated what he saw as the key features of a guide:

• Climbing route history and story telling
• Detailed topo: pitch lengths, gear sizes, beta, beta, beta
• Strategy, retreat, and storm information for each route
• Detailed approach and descent maps
  

SuperTopo.com is designed to be a resource to help you plan a climbing itinerary, as well as get the best topos available for those climbs. We currently include detailed info on over 380 of Yosemite's best big wall and free climbs — including photos, stats, links for related sites, and user submitted beta with the latest info. SuperTopo.com


Freebies?
As well as producing quality publications for purchase they offer plenty of freely downloadable PDF topo's to full sections of their guides - Free SuperTopo's. The site also hosts a great photo gallery, which not only features some excellent shots from the SuperTopo team but also contains entire portfolio's from professional snappers such as Joseph Puryear, Nathan Welton and Greg Epperson. The site also contains a well frequented Forum.

Purchase SuperTopo Guides from Rock + Run here.