The Rock Jock's Guide to Queen Creek Canyon by Marty Karabin (1996)

The back of the book makes the case:

• Year round climbing
• 650 routes!
• 1200 boulder problems

Very stylish guide from Marty Karabin, one of climbing's true characters. Check out his excellent website if you've never visited - it is one of those increasingly rare web 1.0 experiences with all sorts of random pages and unexpected stories. For instance, while writing this description I clicked a page titled "Chris McNamara," and stumbled upon some of Marty's words about this very book:

"During this time I finished writing my guidebook, "The Rock Jock's Guide To Queen Creek Canyon" in Superior Arizona. Climbing Magazine did a book review on my Queen Creek Guidebook and totally slammed it stating that it did not make sense that I wrote such a "tome" to a nothing area that had just 30' routes. Within a few days the editors at Climbing Magazine were swamped by hundreds of letters slamming the magazine on the book review they wrote. It was obvious that somebody that had never been to Queen Creek Canyon wrote the negative review. Queen Creek Canyon was also the home of Jim Waugh's annual Phoenix Bouldering Contest which brought over 600 competitors, and 1000+ spectators to the Queen Creek area. In apology, the editors decided to dedicate the entire editorial section in the following magazine to the Queen Creek Guidebook. Four complete magazine pages were all about my guidebook. Climbing Magazine went one step further and stopped reviewing all guidebooks due to the problem. For years following, the only book reviews were for only fiction and non-fiction climbing books."

Now you can see Marty's oddball style has infected even my product description! We're way off the reservation! The simplest thing to say about this guidebook is that it was made with love, and if you love this area, you'll surely appreciate the book. 

This copy pretty worked but good for some more adventures still. Peeling on spine and front cover, like three lines of writing in the back. Black and white, 387 pages. Large section on the Oak Flat bouldering area which, as of 2026, is being targeted for mining.