If you want a real CDT guidebook, get the Jim Wolf guides from the Continental Divide Trail Society - they are infinitely superior to these Westcliffe guides. Wolf is better written, more detailed, has better information and data, and on and on and on.

The Westcliffe had 2 advantages for me - one was that they were written in my direction of travel (except for CO, whihc is written in a different direction than the other guidebooks??!!!), which has something to be said for it; and the second is that they are occasionally more up to date as far as recent changes go, which means that they helped out in a couple potentially iffy situations.

Other than that, though, the Westcliffe guides had me FUMING throughout the trip - they are riddled with inaccuracies, mistakes, omissions, bad writing, unclear writing, and on and on and on. Every single day, I think, almost without fail, the Westcliffe guides would blow it in at least one major place. Now I know the CDT is (at this point) still all about using a variety of maps and books and whatever else you can dredge up to find your way and not relying on one guidebook source, and we did. So in that light, you could think of the Westcliffe guides as just another piece to add or subtract. But standing on their own, the fact that they purport to be "official" is preposterous, not just because they omit some great "non-official" sections like the Gila Middle Fork, Parry Peak, and Temple Pass, but because they are sold as "guidebooks" when they are more like "lostbooks." To be honest, I think the Westcliffe guides are so bad that they border on being irresponsible.

I purchased this book in the fall of 1999. I spent the next six months planning my adventure. Since I had only 7 days to spend on the trail, I decided to hike Segments 24, 25 and 26 (from Winfield to Hancock).

I planned my trip exactly form this book. When I got on the trail July 1, 2000, it was if I had my own personal trail guide with me. I knew exactly what to expect, how far I would hike each day, where the water and the good camp sites were. The driving directions were very accurate to the trailhead, the mileage and guidemarkers were also accurate.

Each night I camped at the locations I expected and found water where the author said it would be.

I finished my 7 day hike within 2 hours of my expected time! Never had I been on the CDT before!

If you have any interest in the CDT I would urge you to purchase this book. I'm now planning my adventure for next year from this book.

I used this book to climb Mt. Handies, Redcloud, Sunshine, and Sneffels (all 14,000' peaks) and was utterly confused on how to find the trailheads! Located in the Alpine Loop that connects Ouray, Silverton, and Telluride, we spent many precious hours searching in four-wheel drive terrain for the trailheads. In the end, the trailhead was a simple location and could have been described in a much better way. The result was that we nearly ended up stuck in the mountains due to running out of gas! We only made it because of a kind stranger.

To Pixler's credit, the description of the actual hikes are good, although the distances seemed consistently off. I especially appreciated a few hints on shortcuts for the Redcloud hike, as it saved about a mile and a half of hiking!

There are definitely better books out there, but this will do if you can't find anything else.

One caveat: the difficulty ratings are for SW Colorado climbs *compared to each other*. I have run across many tourists on trails in the San Juans who tackled a "moderate" climb from the book only to find it extremely difficult.

I think the ratings are accurate, *if* you live in the area and hike regularly. If you're not used to altitude and not in good shape, take this into consideration.

If you're visiting or living in Southern Colorado, you need this book.

Thanks Paul!

Why this book [stinks]:

1. There is no logic to the formatting. Seems totally random. Is it north/south? east/west? You can't tell! Therefore you cannot just walk along the cliffs & flip pages SEQUENTIALLY to figure out where the [devil] you are. No attempt even made to match text descriptions of routes to the topos on opposing pages. Nor to place trail maps in logical places in relation to routes/parking areas. He counts each section's routes from "1" again, so you have route numbers repeated all over the place. (You can't just say, "Look up route #16." There are SEVEN route "16s".)

2. Topos are a joke

3. Book lacks USEFUL photos with route ID lines

Lots of pretty pictures of elite climbers doing 11s - 13s, but rarely a photo to help the mortals of us find moderates or ANYONE to even know where he is. (Many pretty photos though of the author and his friends being rock jocks.)

4. Rappel locations & escape routes NOT clearly indicated.

5. Book weighs a TON. Would have been better to break this anvil of a book into sections for each area, that you can clip to a harness. (Like the guides for the Gunks).

6. . It was not just us -- for 3 trips we were constantly running across people there who had the same book, and cursed it up and down just like we were. Even people who had been climbing there for many seasons.

Rossiter's other guidebooks are plagued by the same lack of organization. He needs to grasp the, "newcomer to the area" perspective, which is the TARGET AUDIENCE for a guidebook, after all.

This man obviously did not have an editor who (ahem) really tested the guidebook by going there and trying to USE it. Which is the only way to judge such a book. Perhaps he did not have an editor at all.

Use at your own GREAT risk. Please supplement with other general Boulder Area guidebooks to get some sanity into the equation.

Eldo is a worldclass climbing destination. This means that the place is changing. The book is a few years old so yes - some of the data about raps and fixed gear(for example) isn't completely accurate. (but then no climber should rely entirely on any guidebook!)

However, this guide has an incredible amount of information about the incredible number of climbs. The route descriptions are excellent and the maps more than suffice. Eldo is a big place with a ton of routes. I'd like to see someone try to better organize and describe the routes - I don't think it can be done. The book IS organized well, it just takes some time to get oriented to the canyon and it's MANY formations.

Any place as big and historic as eldorado canyon is going to be very hard to cram into a single guidebook. Rossiter does an exceptional job. Any experienced climber will find this book to more that suit their needs for a trip to eldo.

First, while they are topo maps, there is little altitude information on the actual contours- you can only determine altitude by finding a peak or opther point with a stated altitude, and count the contours to your point of interest.

Second, these topo maps have NO lat/long information. In todays world, where many folks have GPS units in their car, RV, or backpacks, this makes no sense at all. This is a serious failing and why I feel the book is outdated.

When the price for crickets rises to eight cents a head, Stella the Stargazer wonders why she left her secure but boring job as an accountant. Though bordering on poverty, Stella realizes that becoming an astrological columnist for the Denver Daily Orion was needed for her sanity. Still she needs extra cash so that her spoiled pet anoles, Fluffy and Lips, continue to dine on gourmet crickets. Stella accepts a job as an assistant director at the Magic Circle Theater. She quickly understands that her main task is to intercede between the owner, Barbara Steadman and everyone else because the boss drives them crazy.

Stella's job radically changes when she finds Barbara barely alive as she hangs from a prop. The prime suspect is Barbara's teenage son, but Stella thinks the lad is just the fall guy. She begins her own investigation and quickly concludes that the real culprit will do anything to shut down this theatrical group, including eliminating a particular stargazer.

DEAD ON HER FEET, the latest Stella amateur sleuth tale is a humorous tale that does not take its characters seriously yet still provides an enjoyable twisting mystery for readers. That ability to mix a jocular, offbeat cast inside an intelligent who-done-it demonstrates the talent of Christine T. Jorgensen. Stella's column and her boy friend add to the enjoyment. This particular novel is one of the more entertaining books in one of the better series that the genre offers.

Harriet Klausner

"The Witness" features complex, realistic characters who seldom are all good or all bad, a sense of time and place that makes the reader feel he's living in 1890s Colorado and prose that flows along as effortlessly as a mountain stream. Highly respected by his writing peers, Wheeler has not yet achieved the widespread general readership that he deserves. For those who haven't yet discovered him, "The Witness" is a wonderful way to get acquainted.