The TRAD Guide to Joshua Tree

This book was amazing on the approach. Right when my wife and I would stop to get our bearings, we would look at the picture in the book and the tree 2' in front of our face would be at the same position in the picture we held up to the landscape! It was like the authors know where you will have trouble following a trail and have provided extra info right where you need it the most. All the climbs are a lot of fun also. Good job on the book. Highly recomended.

Unlike some of the other JT guidebooks out there, this one is not just a huge laundry list of routes. You get the feeling that the Wingers climbed everything in their book....which is possible since there are only 60 climbs listed. Information on the approach and downclimb are all spot-on and helpful. With the large color photos, it's easy to find and identify crages and routes.

Since we went in the winter, the best feature was the orientation index. To keep in the sun and out of the (strong westerly) winds, we needed some SE-facing climbs. These were easy to find and made the trip much more enjoyable.

I could go on with all the great things about this book, but it's enough to say that it's a keeper. The only downside is that I wish that there had been a few more routes listed (say, a nice round 100), but given the quality of the material that is presented, you can understand why they cherry-picked the routes they did.

This book was great for the wife and I. Everything was easily found and tons of protection. There wasn't a climb in the book that I thought was bad or not fun. The downclimbs were a bit tricky in a few places, but it made for the adventure. A must-have for the beginner leader.

The pictures direct you right to the climb. The downclimbs seemed to be a little sandbagged though. Very helpful, if you're like me and hanging out in the moderate climb range.

Exactly what I was looking for as a supplement to the Vogel guide. Sort of a Jtree select for moderate trad climbers. Extremely detailed, filled with color photos, and detailed descent information which really saves a lot of time exploring new routes.

The only nitpick I have is that some of the rappelling information is a bit conservative. The rappel from Doublecross is easily made on my 60m rope, and from Mental Physics a 60m rope means a small bit of easy downclimbing.