Australia Has Its First Rock Climbing Handbook in Nearly Three Decades

After five years of gruelling work by a dedicated crew of Aussie climbers, the Australian Climbing Handbook is hitting shelves. Now they’re ready to reflect on the rain-soaked photoshoots, late-night editing sessions, countless revisions, and hard-earned lessons that brought it to life.

The full version of this piece first appeared in Vertical Life 56, Australia’s rock climbing magazine.

Use code WAE15 for 15% off your copy of the Australian Climbing Handbook!

Marty Middlebrook

Writer, Talent & Spreadsheet Connoisseur

Marty Middlebrook at Barrenjoey in NSW | Photo by Claire Williams

It’s cold, raining, and misty at Mitchell’s Ridge in Mount Victoria. Four climbers are setting up ropes in an alcove, but we are not here to climb. We are here for a photoshoot.

Despite the rain, the conditions aren’t too bad for photos – the lighting is good, there aren’t any shadows. The pictures we are trying to capture are of ascending a rope using Prussik cord – and the ‘model’ keeps spinning around on the ropes. Someone tries to stabilise the rope by hanging on the end out of view.

It’s a noble effort. Chances are, none of these photos will make it into the book, but every experience adds to the learning experience. There will be many, many more days like this – making the best of what we can in service of The Book.

The Book is of course the Australian Climbing Handbook, a project that has evolved over many years and many iterations, with one consistent element: the passion and perseverance of one Brendon Flanagan. It’s important to note that he has not been commissioned to produce this book. It has all been done in our spare time.

When most climbers have free hours in the day, they go climbing. Getting a project of this scale from idea to published book required phenomenal tenacity and belief. Finding qualified contributors who could communicate well required just as much fortitude.

Lead photographer Claire Williams and model Michelle Ives in challenging conditions | Photo by Marty Middlebrook

I like to think my role in this process was to keep spirits up. From entertaining climbers during drawn-out photo shoots to eating bananas inappropriately, my focus was on keeping it fun and exciting. And, of course, sneaking off for a climb whenever time allowed.

While we tried to keep egos out of it, it’s extremely hard to contribute hours and hours of time and then see your work on the cutting room floor. But that’s the reality of producing something of this scale. I would often say, ‘There are no bad ideas. But not all ideas will make it in.’ I tried to keep everyone engaged as the months turned to years, even Brendon.

I vividly recall sitting in a coffee shop and asking, ‘So where is it up to?’ After a good long heart-to-heart, I committed to apply whatever I could offer to get us to the finish line.

In 2024, we organised a roundtable event with multiple stakeholders to present the first draft. The buzz and anticipation that day as we all bounced ideas around with climbers, publishers, and creatives, was exhilarating. That was over two years ago! But with each bit of feedback, each reshoot, each updated illustration, the book just got better and better. In the end, version 15.2 was shared, agreed on, and sent to print. All in all, it was both relieving, and a little sad.

Brendon Flanagan

Lead Author & Project Manager

Brendon Flanagan with his hard-won handbook

One evening, over a few beers and a handful of scribbled notes, several climbing instructors and I sparked the idea for this book. We wondered why Australia relied so heavily on imported rock climbing publications when our own history clearly showed we had the knowledge and experience to produce one ourselves.

Only a handful of Australian climbing handbooks have been published since 1969, including works by John Davis, Jeff Boyton, Neil Montgomery, and Glenn Tempest. Tempest’s Rockclimbing – Getting Started, first published in 1996, was the first Australian handbook specifically dedicated to the sport of rock climbing.

While those books remain excellent resources, equipment and techniques have evolved significantly. The Australian Climbing Handbook helps bridge a two-decade gap in Australian climbing literature.

The handbook details knots and techniques used by Australian climbers

As the project grew, it became clear the commitment was far greater than anyone expected. Contributors gradually stepped away until I was left carrying the project alone, and there were times I questioned whether I could keep dedicating so much of my life to it. In the second year, fellow author Marty Middlebrook joined the new team and played a pivotal role in many of the book’s achievements.

Editing felt endless. Every revision uncovered new details to verify against best practice and manufacturers’ recommendations as we wrestled with the publisher’s page limit.

To strengthen the manuscript further, we enlisted Glen Nash, founder of the Australian School of Mountaineering, and Richard Delany, founder of RopeLab Online, to review the content. Their expertise proved invaluable, refining the technical material and helping shape several logical terms the climbing community should consider adopting.

In 2023, the project entered its visual phase, with Claire Williams joining as lead photographer before Steph Eveleens came aboard in the final stages.

The Knots, Bends and Hitches chapter was easily one of the most challenging parts of the book. Claire and I transformed the upstairs of Paddy Pallin in Katoomba into a makeshift photo studio. Photographing each knot was painstaking, with many requiring multiple reshoots to get every step clear and accurate. We kept ourselves going with an endless soundtrack of 80s music, singing at the top of our lungs between takes.

Watching Claire then take those images and use her graphic design skills to turn them into clear, easy-to-follow instructional sequences was incredibly rewarding. It was a perfect example of how much collaboration and attention to detail went into every page of the handbook.

I initially believed every technique could be captured with a camera, but it soon became clear that some were better explained through illustration. Watching Vladi’s sketches evolve into polished artwork was fascinating, and she even wove in subtle nods to Australiana and a few in-house jokes that reflected the team’s journey.

Looking back, the project was one of the most demanding and rewarding I have undertaken. While there were certainly moments of frustration, finding the determination to see it through was unquestionably worth it.

Claire Williams

Lead Photographer and Vertical Life Editor

If it weren’t for one email to the Australian School of Mountaineering (ASM), I might never have become a climbing photographer, and I certainly wouldn’t be the editor of this magazine.

After spending my entire life in Melbourne, I felt an overwhelming need for change. Van life had become the dream, so in late 2023 I emailed every guiding company in the Blue Mountains asking if they needed a climbing or canyoning guide. Looking back, I was hilariously underqualified.

One of the first replies came from Glen Nash, owner of the ASM. He politely explained that I wasn’t qualified to guide but said my resume and personal experience interested him. There might be opportunities in photography and retail instead.

Soon after, I received a call from ASM’s Sydney operations manager, Brendon Flanagan. He mentioned photography work involving around 300 images for the ASM website.

Turns out Brendon wanted Claire for help on a little project of his

When I arrived in the Blue Mountains, Brendon and I met at a café. Within minutes he admitted that the job description hadn’t told the whole story. The photographs weren’t for a website. They were for an ambitious climbing handbook documenting techniques with hundreds of carefully planned images. The moment he explained the project, I was hooked.

Brendon introduced me to the ASM team and organised training that I’d need to work safely on rope as a photographer. Over the following months I completed abseiling, rope rescue and canyon leadership courses, while photographer and videographer Sammy Zammit became an invaluable mentor. Sammy tailored much of my training specifically towards climbing photography, and his guidance accelerated my skills enormously.

Our first day was spent photographing climbing holds and movement, and it quickly became obvious that no amount of planning could overcome one simple reality: the rock decided what was possible. Finding the perfect hand jam, ring lock, or foothold often meant changing plans and adapting on the fly. That flexibility was tested from the very beginning.

Before we’d even started, Brendon realised he’d forgotten his pencil. I handed him a stick and suggested he poke holes through the shot list to use as tick marks. It became a running joke for the rest of the project, and a fitting reminder that improvisation would be just as important as preparation.

Michelle Ives climbs Cranky (20) | Photo by Claire Williams

By April 2024 we had photographed most of the technical content but still didn’t have a cover image. I drove nine hours from Melbourne, and spent several days photographing climbers throughout the Blue Mountains before continuing to Point Perpendicular and Nowra. The goal was simply to shoot as many people as possible and hope something stood out. Months later, when the cover was finally selected, I realised I’d captured it on the very first day.

Once the photography finished, the real work began. There were months spent organising files, planning image placements for the designer, attending meetings and working late into the night after my regular job. It was demanding, but seeing how a book comes together behind the scenes proved just as valuable as taking the photographs themselves.

The biggest lesson, however, came from something Brendon said the first day we met.

‘I’m giving you this opportunity because you’re the little guy, and the little guy deserves a chance. One day, I want you to return the favour to someone else.’

That stayed with me.

Looking back, one email completely changed the direction of my career. More importantly, it showed me how powerful it can be when someone is willing to take a chance on another person. Through my role at Vertical Life, I now try to do exactly that by creating opportunities for the next generation of writers, photographers and contributors.

Vladi Rosolova

Illustrator

Back in 2016, when I was running skills trips for the UTS Outdoor Club, I started drawing humorous posters to make climbing theory a little less dry and a lot more memorable. They featured quirky climbers displaying all the classic ‘climber manners’ on the cliff, alongside bemused Australian animals wondering what on earth these humans were up to. Those light-hearted sketches struck a chord and, unexpectedly, became the reason I was invited to illustrate this book.

As a kid, I wrote and illustrated my own books from the moment I learned how to write. The urge to interpret the world and life in an artistic, humorous way never really left. My curiosity led me in 2021 to the University of Sydney, where I discovered the fascinating world of visual perception and neuroscience.

It opened up many questions about how we see art. What we actually see, what we believe we see, and how the brain processes it. Pushing limits in climbing is also a way of testing our brains. Overcoming the thought, the belief and turning the seemingly impossible into reality. And so illustrating this book brought together all my passions: climbing, art, imagination, and visual science.

Years of climbing provided the technical substance. Art of drawing transformed dry technicality material into a land of fantasy where, with a few strokes and dots, I can make you see rock cliffs, vegetation and animals. And visual science explains why hand sketches allow me to stretch and pull your fantasy without you knowing. And why I can make you see things that are absolutely impossible in reality without you even noticing.

Chimney climbing technique by Vladi Rosolova

Illustrating wasn’t all sunshine and pink roses. Some illustrations were dreadfully technical, some even required trips to the cliffs and hands-on demonstrations. Illustrating escaping the belay cost me half a day in boiling sun, three buckets of nerves and a punctured tyre on the side of a highway. Some illustrations just flowed and some sent me down unexpected learning paths.

Take the off-width, for example. I’d always been slightly terrified of off-widths and had successfully avoided climbing them.

However, to draw the sequences of the movement accurately, I needed to exactly understand each body position, every shift of weight, every force working through the climber. During the illustrating process, I learned to climb different sizes of off-widths without actually touching one. Simply by studying reference material. Am I still terrified? In fact, I look forward to testing them.

I hope this book will introduce the amazing world of rock climbing to many, help them stay safe and test the limits of their own minds. And if, along the way, you happen to notice a confused cockatoo, or surprised, lurking lyrebird somewhere in an illustration, that’s just my way of adding a little spark to the book.

Use code WAE15 for 15% off your copy of the Australian Climbing Handbook and if you liked this article, consider subscribing to Vertical Life Magazine.