Matt Gunn, whom you'll remember from my Outward Bound story, has started Cairn Publishing. He's published one guidebook so far. It looks good. It's titled "scrambles in southwest british columbia".
What is scrambling you might ask?
"Scrambling is the middle ground between hiking and mountaineering. It offers access to incredible wilderness summits without using ropes or advanced climbing techniques."
Matt has also done some very interesting things with his website (although it looks like a poor replica of macromedia.com. **Udate it turns out it's a Dreamweaver template). The website is intentionally built to provide "continual updates" to the content in the book. There are user submitted route updates, road updates, trip reports, etc. I think a website such as this is a fantastic addition to a guide book. Other guide and knowledge based books should follow suit. Matt seems to be on the site regularly replying to users comments, suggestions, and corrections.
If you're hiking/scrambling in Southwest BC you will be well served by his book. He also co-authored a guidebook for the area around Invermere.
Comments
Geof Harries - July 21, 2005 11:22 am
Wow that's a r-e-a-l-l-y bad Macromedia.com rip-off.
geof
Dan James - July 21, 2005 11:25 am
Geof,
Yeah, I actually just edited the post and made a note of that before you commented. I like the concept and the content, the design is...well...you summed it up pretty well.
matt gunn - July 31, 2005 4:09 pm
yikes! tough crowd...
remember, I'm just an outdoor ed teacher trying to give some online updates for my guidebook. certainly no web guru. I used one of the dreamweaver templates to create the site and the whole thing is pretty challenging since I don't know the first thing a bout html, php or asdf.
Dan, I just got back from a 2 week hiking trip today and put the book in the mail for you. thanks for ordering! a quick OB update: there is a new head of the school and things are changing a bunch. Jasmin is now pretty much the lead instructor up there and I am sad to say I took the summer off from OB (trying to buy a house in vancouver - ouch!). Hope you're doing well!
matt
Dan James - August 1, 2005 12:51 pm
<p>Hey Matt,
<br />Yeah, our industry is pretty picky when it comes to design. It does makes quite a bit of sense that it's a template from Dreamweaver as Macromedia makes Dreamweaver.</p>
<p>Thanks for the OB update. Jasmin as the lead instructor! That's great for her.</p>
<p>I really look forward to getting the book. Good luck with the house hunting!</p>