Technical Slot Canyon Guide to the Colorado Plateau Paperback – July 24, 2008

Phenomenal amount of info. Just great. The only problem with (every) Kelsey book is the way he lays out his info can be tough to tackle. You have to read through a giant paragraph and try to separate out the info in there pertinent to you an the route you would like to take. That being said it's truly a wealth of info and great photos! There is none better --- if you want to do some serious canyoneering, this is a MUST.

One would be hard pressed to find someone alive today who has logged as much mileage on foot in remote corners of the CO Plateau as Kelsey. His books are literally packed full of route and historical details, and as Kelsey calls them, "fotos". His technical slot canyon guide is no exception, and remains the most comprehensive technical canyoneering guide for the area. That being said, these aren't standalone guides for those lacking basic navigational skills/tools or who require things like lowest common denominator completion times (Kelsey only reports his own). I personally enjoy Kelsey's quirky writing style and appreciate the immense amount of work he has put into his guides. His guides are an essential part of my CO Plateau adventure library.

The information in this book is absolute gold. But it is a friggin nightmare to dig it out. SUPER hard to read - each page is just packed with border to border information in crushed paragraphs. like I said the information within is absolutely accurate, but don't expect a nice and concise description for each hike/canyon.4* just because it's so hard to consume.

This is the best canyoneering guide to the Colorado Plateau. Over the course of many years I have done the lion's share of the canyons in this book, and Kelsey's guide has helped me every step of the way. It's very quirky to use. I would say it's not very user-friendly. But it's just absolutely jam-packed full of the crucial beta you need for these slots. His hand drawn maps are kind of insane and genius, but they're also a real pain in the ass. It took me dozens of hours to painstakingly transcribe all of his indispensable information from his hand drawn maps onto the 7 1/2 minutes topo maps that you pretty much have to have to get to most of these canyons. As difficult as the guide is to use, it's got all the info you need. For the amount of work that the author put into getting all of this info, and how critical it is, this book would be a bargain at triple the price. All things considered, I think it's my favorite guidebook of all time.

Kelsey has expanded his first book with a ton of additional canyons to be explored. As always, the initial part is informative of gear to bring, strategies for dealing with difficult obstacles (for example, keeper potholes), etc.But, the text is really compressed and is generally not edited well. In a lot of cases, multiple canyons lumped into the same description, which is a little annoying.Moreover, Kelsey doesn't use the current ACA rating system, but has developed his own system that is only sort of coherent. Also, many canyons haven't been updated since the last printing. Heaps and Imlay are still stated in the book as the most challenging canyons. Many of the canyons in the book are at least as challenging.The most irritating thing about the book is Kelsey's refusal to use the common names of the canyons accepted in the Canyoneering community. The result may be some unfortunate souls finding themselves in a Sandtrax-type canyon because it had a different name in the book.All the complaints aside, however, this is really the biggest and only repository to find descriptions of all these canyons lumped together. For that, we should be thanking (cursing for the added traffic??) Kelsey.

Describes canyons very well, could take it along with you on a trip or take pictures of the pages you need. Maps are very helpful.

Lots of valuable information. The text is too dense and hard to read. The book is not very well organized, making it inconvenient to use.

I'm grateful that Kelsey made a concerted effort to include some of the more technical hikes over the past 10 years, opening up some of the great canyons on the Colordao Plateau. I've been a user of the evolving editions of his technical guide over the years and have found them to be superb. The call for "boycotts" from others are absolutely ridiculous and are based on anything but the content of the book ... this book judged on content alone is well beyond anything out there. It doesn't take Harvard prose or an environmental bent to open the door to the most challenging canyons on the Colordao Plateau. Kelsey is the original and has more time in these canyons than anyone out there and it shows in his books ... don't let others fool you including those who try to cross sell you "specialized" canyoneering equipment or offer their "expert" guide services, Kelsey is the Father of Colorado Plateau Hiking and truly a living legend. If you can read a map, have a sense of adventure and want to take it to the next level, this book is the one. If you want Boy Scout trips and environmental lectures, go elsewhere where an MIT education might make a difference. Kelsey has dedicated his life to hiking the Colorado Plateau and this newest edition is permeated with his passion for the canyons. All other writers have used Kelsey's books when they started out and have essentially ridden his "coat tails" to success ..... seriously guys, you owe your profession to Kelsey and yet you call for a "boycott" of his books???? - sounds like sour grapes and a self serving "cheap shot." Don't be fooled, take it from an experienced canyoneer, Kelsey is and always will be the King of Hiking on the Colordao Plateau.

Very poorly written. Maps are very hard to follow. Fonts are difficult to read. As an author myself (I used a proper publishing company) it is easy to spot these self published books and this is one of the worst I have seen. You would be much better off using something like Road Trip Ryan instead of this book.

Je crois que je me suis jamais retrouvé aussi dérouté devant un ouvrage de canyon. Je n'ai strictement rien compris avant de le relire plusieurs fois!! C'est un vrai bordel, mal agencé avec des textes incroyablement longs (surtout pour un mauvais anglophone).Cependant c'est une source d'info incroyable une fois qu'on a compris le fonctionnement du bouquin. Gros avantage sur les autres éditions outre-atlantique, celui ci comporte beaucoup de photos, de schémas et même des coupes comme dans les topos d'europe.Pour le randonneur il est inutile, à réserver uniquement aux pratiquants maîtrisant les techniques de corde de l'activité voulant pratiquer en Utah.Couvre les massifs de Zion, Escalante, Capitol reef, San Rafaef Swell, North Wash, Cedar Mesa et Robber Roost.Ne couvre pas Moab, Grand canyon, Death valley, Mogollom.