The long-awaited book celebrating a century of cutting edge rock climbing in the Peak District is now in print and available from the BMC online shop.

Meticulously researched and written by a team of local authors, Peak Rock is the story of the sharp end of Peak District climbing as told through the words of many of the Peak’s – and the world’s – top climbers, including: James W Puttrell, Jack Longland, Joe Brown, Don Whillans, Ed Drummond, Tom Proctor, John Allen, Ron Fawcett, Andy Pollitt, Jerry Moffatt, Johnny Dawes, Ben Moon, John Dunne, Miles Gibson, Pete Whittaker, Steve McClure, Ryan Pasquill and many more.

The late Giles Barker first started work on Peak Rock – then titled Peak Performance – in the early 1980s, before progress was halted by his premature death in 1992. It was almost twenty years before Phil Kelly picked up where Giles left off, pulling together Giles’ original research and interviews, which were stored at the Mountain Heritage Trust. Phil enlisted Graham Hoey to work on the book, updating the manuscript with their own interview material and other primary source information, writing a number of missing chapters and also adding a number of chapters, including the significant developments of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

Phil and Graham brought in a team of experienced Peak District climbers drawing on their knowledge of specific developments – trad climbing, sport climbing, bouldering, gritstone, limestone – and worked with them to develop individual chapters. This resulting book on the history of Peak District climbing is the most comprehensive to be published since Eric Byne and Geoff Sutton’s High Peak in 1966.

“It's a thing of beauty from cover to cover and a truly fantastic voluntary effort from Phil Kelly, Graham Hoey and team. I was a bit sceptical when I first heard about this - but I'm not now.”
BMC CEO Dave Turnbull

View a sample section of Peak Rock

Buy your copy from the BMC online shop 

Member price: £34.15
Non-member price: £37.95

We want to say a big thanks to every BMC member who continues to support us through the Coronavirus crisis.

From weekly Facebook Lives and GB Climbing home training videos, to our access team working to re-open the crags and fight for your mountain access, we couldn’t do it without you.

Did you know that we've launched a U27 membership offer for just £1.50 / month? And with full membership from £2.50 / month, it's never been easier to join and support our work: 

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/join-the-bmc-for-1-month-U27-membership

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