Guidebook: Leading on Gear

What book do you think gives the best and/or most in-depth account of the trad leading process?

I have Freedom of the Hills and John Long's anchor books. Both great books that offer a lot of invaluable information. I want to pick up something that deals a bit more specifically with leading on gear. FOTH has a good section on it and Climbing Anchors is obviously very applicable, but I'm sure there are some books out there that either deal exclusively with trad leading or have sections that do, and I was hoping some people might have some recommendations.

I was planning on buying How To Climb! by John Long and then saw some praise for Rock Climbing: Mastering Basic Skills by Craig Luebben. Both books have sections on trad and leading, anyone favor one or the other when it comes to that type of instruction?

P.S. I read Extreme Alpinism by Mark Twight too. Great book, with lots of good info, which I'd recommend to anyone looking to get some booksmarts, but a bit above and beyond the basic rock type of thing I'm looking for.

john longs newest how to rock climb is actually a great one to check out, he updated all the pics to modern gear and equipment, as well as still having a lot of great information.

if you really wanna learn a lot though, pick them both up, they each have different things in them that you should learn.

Heidi Pesterfield "Traditional Lead Climbing" is pretty straightforward and concise.

Thanks Muttonface. I am indeed new and scared, usually take too much gear, and while haven't been gripped on 5.4, definitely have been on 5.7... I think what I'm looking for isn't technical instruction so much as an overview of the process and mentality. For example, choosing when to place gear (before cruxes vs. at good stances). My hope was that someone (maybe Long or Luebben) goes through the technical stuff with a holistic view on top of it. Maybe what I really need to do is just go back and re-read FOTH and Long's anchor book now that I have some experience. Basically, after getting out on a handful of 5.7 and 5.8s, I got a desire to go back to the book and apply my experience to someone's instruction, or vica versa. But maybe it'd be best just to re-read what I've read.

Thanks for your help!

Not everything can be learned from a book. You obviously know the basics, so from here on out you learn the little details by following tons and tons of trad routes. You can also practice placing gear from the ground, and doing some toprope aid soloing.
Leubben's anchor book has a bunch of exercises to practice for different types of gear.

Peter Pitocchi wrote:Heidi Pesterfield "Traditional Lead Climbing" is pretty straightforward and concise.

Dont overlook classic information from RR in Basic and Advanced RockCraft editions. They may be old, but cover some basic nut use that many in the 'all cams' era seem to overlook for its simplicity.

Check out How to Climb 5.12 by Eric Horst. It's not a trad book but does great for the mental game at any level as well as some training guides.

steverett wrote: I was going to suggest this as well. It doesn't have much on gear placement and anchor building, since those are well covered in both Long's and Luebbens' books. Instead it focuses on other aspects, like other equipment, rope management, etc.