The Roof-Climber's Guide to Trinity (1900)

For the climber who "seeks new sensations on the artificial erections of man."

Oleander is delighted to announce the republication of the original night climbing book -- The Roof-Climber's Guide to Trinity by Geoffrey Winthrop Young. Whipplesnaith refers regularly to this book in The Night Climbers of Cambridge. Indeed, it was partly as an homage that the latter was written. This brand new edition has been produced from material kindly provided by Winthrop-Young's family.

Geoffrey Winthrop-Young was the father of modern climbing and set new routes in the Alps, Lake District and Wales. A pacifist, he lost his leg whilst driving an ambulance in WWI but after the war continued to climb with an artificial leg and over the next few years reached the summits of the Matterhorn and Zinal Rothorn. He was president of the Climbers' Club and of the Alpine Club and it was through his efforts that the British Mountaineering Council was created in 1945. Read more about him at Wikipedia and also here.
 

"It's an enjoyable jeu d'esprit and leaves one feeling admiration for the daring of Winthrop-Young and his fellow climbers." - The Independent Jan 2010. Review.

The Full Text - In this edition we're reproducing the full 1899 text and illustrations, as corrected by G. W-Young in his personal copy. A true parody of the 'Alpine Guides' that started to appear around the turn of the century, this narrative schematic to the 'finest view in the college Alps' is informal, amusing, informative and inspiring as well as being sophisticated, erudite and very witty.

'...the stegophilist will find a guide-book so lucid and complete as to compare with such classics as Ball's Alpine Guide and Haskett-Smith's Climbing in the British Isles. - Full contemporary review

Additional private notes - The family have provided us with two sets of notes – one handwritten set from GW-Y's private papers and another typewritten set found in a copy given to a close friend. Covering the provenance of the book, the people he climbed with and who they went on to be, his strong views on the second edition and other pithy observations; all giving previously unseen detail to this fascinating book.

Revealed - the truth behind Byron's climb to decorate the Library statues...

The Roof-Climber's Guide to Trinity is truly the first of its kind and the original example of the select literary niche that covers free climbing,  buildering, and stegophily and now spreads into parkour, free-running and urban exploration. Oleander is pleased to be publishing The Roof-Climber's Guide to St John's, the 2nd (1930) and 3rd (1960) editions of The Roof-Climber's Guide to Trinity as well as Winthrop-Young's Wall and Roof Climbing.

Customers who bought this also bought the bible of buildering - The Night Climbers of Cambridge by Whipplesnaith