Editing Climbing guidebook (section)

==Publication and authorship==
[[File:Climber reading guidebook.jpg|thumb|Climber consulting a 'physical' climbing guidebook at the top of a route at [[Sennen Cove]]]]
Guidebooks may be compilations of selected popular or well-regarded routes (e.g. ''[[Fifty Classic Climbs of North America]]'' or ''[[Hard Rock (book)|Hard Rock]]''), or exhaustive compilations of all known climbing routes in a region (e.g. the 512-page ''[[Lancashire Rock]]'' in Britain). The books may be published by national/regional mountaineering bodies (e.g. the [[British Mountaineering Council]] and [[Climbers' Club]] in Britain, the [[Club Alpino Italiano]] in Italy, or the [[Sierra Club]] in the US), by commercial publishers (e.g. Rockfax and Cicerone in Europe or Falcon Guides, Wolverine, and SuperTopo in the US), or self-published by local enthusiasts, which is how climbing areas get started.<ref name=BMC1>{{cite web | website=[[British Mountaineering Council]]| url=https://www.thebmc.co.uk/how-the-bmc-produces-guidebooks?s=2 | title=How the BMC produces guidebooks | first=Niall | last=Grimes | date=12 December 2010 | accessdate=5 May 2024}}</ref> 

Regardless of publication, in many cases, the authorship of the climbing guidebook will explicitly (i.e. named on the front cover), or implicitly (listed as contributors/advisors), include well-regarded climbers who are associated with the climbing area in question.  There are however notable climbing guidebook authors who are not specifically associated with an area, but whose authorship and climbing insights are equally well-regarded, examples being Britain's [[Ken Wilson (mountaineering writer)|Ken Wilson]] and America's [[Steve Roper]], who wrote many notable climbing guidebooks for a wide range of locations and types of rock in their respective countries.<ref name=CL1/>  

As a climbing area develops, new editions of the guidebook for the area will be published to capture the [[climbing route#Details|details]] of new climbing routes, to update details for existing routes, and in particular to show any change in the consensus grade of existing climbing routes.<ref>{{cite web | website=[[Alpinist (magazine)|Alpinist]] | url=https://alpinist.com/features/kevin-mclanes-canadian-rock-what-it-takes-to-write-a-guidebook/ | first=Meghan | last=Ward | date=3 November 2010 | accessdate=5 May 2024 | title=Kevin McLane's Canadian Rock: What It Takes to Write a Guidebook}}</ref>  The task of re-grading existing climbs, and ensuring that the guidebook accurately and fairly reflects the assessments of respected climbers in the area, can be lengthy—and can lead to many heated debates amongst climbers,<ref name=BMC1/> which need to be 'consensus-driven'.<ref name=RF/> Between editions, 'new routes updates' are often held online.<ref name=CL1/>

===Climbing databases===
In recent years, many climbing guidebooks have been published in digital format, often for display in [[smartphone]] applications as apps.<ref>{{cite web | magazine=[[Climbing (magazine)|Climbing]] | url=https://www.climbing.com/gear/6-must-have-climbing-apps/ | title=The Best Climbing Apps of 2023  | date=29 September 2023 | accessdate=28 October 2023 | first=Aaron | last=Gerry}}</ref> This medium offers the benefit of continuous updates, as well as rapid searching, and in some cases, GPS navigation and [[three dimensional]] diagrams.<ref name=CL1/><ref>{{cite web | magazine=Gripped Magazine| date=17 July 2023 | accessdate=3 November 2023 | first=Aaron | last=Pardy | url=https://gripped.com/profiles/has-the-future-of-climbing-guidebooks-arrived-in-squamish/ | title=Has the Future of Climbing Guidebooks Arrived in Squamish?}}</ref> There are now several major online climbing route databases including 'theCrag.com' and '[[Mountain Project|MountainProject.com]]', however, climbing authors note that the need for 'physical guidebooks' that can be carried by climbers to (often) remote crags remains (many have physical and online editions).<ref name=CM3/><ref name=CM2>{{cite web | website=[[Climbing (magazine)|Climbing]] | url=https://www.climbing.com/people/semi-rad-in-praise-of-guidebooks/ | title=Semi-Rad: In Praise of Guidebooks | first=Brendan | last=Leonard | date=12 April 2016 | accessdate=5 May 2024}}</ref>