Josh,
I have the November 2018 PDF/electronic version of the VDiff book. I am not sure what changes were made for the 2019 edition. It does appear that the subtitle (Self-Rescue Techniques) was added in the 2019 edition, so maybe that section was expanded. In the edition I have, the self-rescue section is about 50 pages. There is a lot of information in other sections that is applicable to self-rescue, such as anchor building, knots, and climbing safely on loose rock. Overall, I would say the book covers general skills for trad climbing, and has information on self-rescue, but it is not primarily focused on self-rescue. The best feature of the book is its illustrations, which are extremely clear, and in full, high-contrast color. They are in the same style as the illustrations on the VDiff site. Every skill in the book is accompanied by illustrations. There are also some actual photos, but mostly just for added flavor. For a visual learner, this book is ideal.
In contrast, the Tyson and Loomis book (Climbing Self Rescue: Improvising Solutions for Serious Situations) has more depth when it comes to rescue-specific skills. There are things like flow charts for handling rescue situations, instructions for improvising stretchers, carrying injured people, example scenarios with analyses, etc. Much like the VDiff book, it also contains some general climbing skills, but I would say it is mostly focused on self-rescue. My printed edition has both photos and illustrations. The illustrations are good, but the photos are low-contrast and a bit unclear. If you are not already a bit familiar with these techniques, you may spend some time reading over the text while figuring out how to map that to the photos. There are also some sections which lack photos/illustrations that would benefit from having some.
Continue with onX Maps
Sign in with Facebook
