Selected Climbs and Bouldering in Wilton Quarries

The Wilton Quarries have been excavated since the mid-1840s to provide building stone for surrounding Lancashire towns. Now the haunt of climbers and boulderers, they provide some of the finest gritstone quarry climbing in the land. Selected Climbs and Bouldering in Wilton Quarries by author and stalwart guidebook champion David Price is a celebration of these quarries. Exclusively illustrated by Malc Baxter, it also honours the fine tradition of crag diagrams.

Author: David Price

With almost two hundred trad routes and sixty boulder problems, the guide describes some of the very finest lines across all four quarries. This historic climbing venue always deserved its very own guidebook documenting the history and spirit of the climbing. More importantly it has been produced in such a way to celebrate that ethos.

This special edition guide exclusively employs diagrams and not photo topos to commemorate artist Malc Baxter’s sixty years creating pen and ink drawings for many of the finest climbing guidebooks ever produced. For many years, climbers have been told that the future of guidebooks is the app – data at the touch of a screen, updated, personalised, served up 24/7. And one day we will indeed see the last guidebook published.

This won’t be the last but, if it is, let it celebrate all that is great in the fine tradition of British guidebook publishing.

Author biography

Boltonian David Price only took to climbing in his forties and, it was not the ‘rock’ that became all-encompassing, but the books that document the sport. Described by his friends as ‘slightly eccentric’, David has built an astonishing collection of climbing and mountaineering narratives and guidebooks. With over five thousand books, he owns one of the finest private collections of its type in the UK, if not the world.

His fascination with climbing diagrams led to probably the only collection of its type; over six hundred original crag drawings by many top artists. It’s this fascination and the achievement of his friend, long-time guidebook illustrator Malc Baxter, that led to his latest creation: Selected Climbs and Bouldering in Wilton Quarries. Having climbed extensively in the Wilton quarries,

David put together this extravagant document in the hope of keeping crag art alive. Having previously published several mini guides, this book is a major step up in both size and complexity. He writes, ‘teaming up with Vertebrate Publishing has been inspirational, the time and the attention given to this book by the team has been in some ways disproportionate.

Rosie Edwards, the designer, with Jon Barton, Managing Director, have both gone above and beyond. The resulting book is beyond my wildest expectations.’ This ex-soldier, photographer and salesman took early retirement in 2019 from his property development company to follow his passion – books. The only question on his lips right now is ‘what next?’