Routes
In all these books, he provides routes up the major peaks, and many minor ones as well, not being totally obsessed with peak bagging, but rather the interest and enjoymernt of a particular route. So the route on Stac Pollaidh in Wester Ross is described in detail, despite being only about 2000 feet in height, for example. The crest of the ridge presents many interesting scrambling diversions, including at least one bad step before the final peak.
However, the routes described are necessarily limited to well-known paths, such as the Pyg track on Snowdon or the traverse of Kinder Scout in the Peak district, and walkers can vary their routes according to choice or need. The limited scope of his guides is clear from the Wales volume, which has few routes in the Brecon Beacons or Black Mountains for example. The routes in that volume are concentrated in Snowdonia and North Wales, where rock exposure is much greater than in the south or central areas of the country. Notable omissions include the Berwyns or Clwydian hills however, both ranges of mountains to the east of Snowdonia, which have many interesting routes to their summits. Likewise there are no paths described in Shropshire such as the Stiperstones, The Wrekin, Caer Caradoc or the Long Mynd. The Welsh borders is not considered at all.
There are no routes described for the Cheviots, a hilly region in the Scottish Borders and Northumberland. And all coastland paths, many of which are exposed and rocky, are omitted from the guides, . Such routes and other in less mountainous regions are described however, in the many guides to the National Trails in Britain, such as that to the Pennine Way published by HMSO and authored by Tom Stephenson.
Later volumes of these works, updated in consultation with his son, John, remain in print as paperbacks by Frances Lincoln Publishers (who also publish the many Lakeland walking guides by Alfred Wainwright) .
On the basis of the success of these guides, Poucher encouraged his publishers (Constable) to publish selections of rock-climbs in each area, in a similar photographic format.
Read more about this topic: W. A. Poucher
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