For over twenty years, from roughly 1980 to 2000, Jerry Moffatt was simply the best climber in Great Britain. Now Moffatt can add prize-winning author to his extensive resume after Revelations, his new autobiography, just won the Grand Prize at the prestigious 16th annual Banff Mountain Book Festival for outdoor, adventure, and environmental genres. The book, coauthored with Niall Grimes, chronicles Moffatt's rise to rock stardom.

Stephen Goodwin, one of the festival jury, says, "Margaret Thatcher's great contribution to pushing rock climbing standards in the 1980s can now be better appreciated: mass unemployment, climbers existing on the dole (welfare payments), dossing in caves and tumble-down shacks at the foot of crags in North Wales and the Peak District, and all the while, in Jerry's case, training, training, training...." Moffatt was both obsessed and dedicated to climbing. He trained compulsively, especially on the boulders. He lived for months under tarps or in shacks, eating beans and drinking tea, collecting his dole checks, and climbing every day.

Revelations won over 101 book entries from ten countries. American alpinist Steve House won The Jon Whyte Award for Mountain Literature for his mountaineering book Beyond the Mountain, while David Roberts was awarded Best Book on Mountaineering History for The Last of His Kind, a biography of photographer and alpinist Bradford Washburn, and Sarah Garlick won Best Book on Mountain Exposition for her Falcon book Flakes, Jugs, and Splitters about climbing and geology. The great American climber Royal Robbins was given a Special Jury Mention for Royal Robbins: To Be Brave -- My Life, the first volume of his planned seven-volume autobiography.

Read more about the Banff Mountain Book Festival.

The Devil's Thumb, sometimes called Toponas, its Indian name, poses high above Boulder, Colorado, on the southeast ridge of Bear Peak. The crooked digit, usually climbed by a short, amenable route (5.7) up its east side, offers an imposing north wall of overhanging sandstone sliced by diagonalling roofs and intermittent cracks that was climbed with aid by the late Kyle Copeland and Scott Sounders in 1981.

In one of this year's best efforts on American stone, Matt Wilder cranked the steep face on October 17. Naming the route Cheating Reality, Matt tentatively assesses the route 5.14a R but says it's "bouldery and heady" and difficult to rate.

The athletic route features lots of technical face climbing and difficult moves, including the five-move V10 crux, an "improbable leftward dyno to a sloper" from a crimp handhold, and finishes with a "final powerful and crimpy boulder problem" (V7) to the summit slab. Because of the route's serious nature, Wilder climbed it in headpointing style, that is, he worked sections on top-rope as well as did it twice on top-rope before attempting the lead. He led the route on his second attempt, the first ending when a foothold broke.

Matt, writing on his blog, gave the route its name because "the crux dyno move seems impossible at first and when you finally stick it for the first time, you feel like you've cheated reality" and "the gear was a bit scary and by not falling on the route, you are cheating reality." He also calls it a "world class route" that will be a "Front Range classic for sure."

In previous years, a first ascensionist might have slammed in a few bolts and established Cheating Reality as a sport climb, a safe and sanitary line up the steep wall that any hard climber could send. Matt Wilder, however, had the vision and boldness to create a free climb in a traditional style that will definitely stand the test of time--in another 50 years when the bolts are rusting out of Shelf Road's cliffs, Cheating Reality will be the same climb that it was in 2009. Well done, Matt, and thanks for keeping an eye to the future.

Find out more about Cheating Reality and Matt Wilder on Matt's Climbing Blog.

Photograph above: Matt Wilder working up a 5.12 corner on Cheating Reality. Photograph courtesy Andy Mann.

What's the best American climbing area? I posted a poll last week on the About.com Climbing Forum. Go there and cast your ballot for your favorite.

It's hard to decide which is the best climbing area in the United States. Lots of excellent climbing areas scatter around this vast country. Back in the 1970s it wasn't hard to decide the best arenas for rock climbing. The Big Three--Yosemite Valley, Eldorado Canyon, and the Shawangunks--were simply the best, the places where cutting edge routes were done by the world's elite climbers.

Now it's more difficult to decide. There are just so many places to climb. I winnowed them down to five areas--Yosemite, Shawangunks, New River Gorge, Smith Rock, and the Boulder area. The Big Three are still in there, for historic and aesthetic reasons and because their climbing is that good, but I chose the other two for the same reasons. Smith could rightly be called the place were American sport climbing took root, while the New offers a heck of a lot of great climbing.

There are the omissions, of course. Everyone has a favorite special area that isn't on my list, places like Red River Gorge, the Moab area, Joshua Tree, Cochise Stronghold, and Red Rocks.

All these areas are worthy. All are great climbing areas. But are they the best? Are my picks jingus? What do you think? Vote in the poll and post your comments here. Let's decide what's the best American climbing area in 2009!

Vote in my About.com Climbing Poll for the best American climbing area.

Photograph above: Keith McAllister cranks "Tongulation" at the New River Gorge, West Virginia. Photograph © Stewart M. Green.

The UIAA (Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme) Safety Commission recently released its first safety standards for braking devices used for belaying and rappelling after working with device manufacturers over the last ten years. The standards include parameters for device performance as well as stringent testing guidelines so that devices can receive coveted UIAA approval.

Belay and rappel devices are crucial pieces of safety gear that climbers use every day, having these new safety standards will ensure that you can buy and use the approved devices with confidence. The standard applies to four basic braking devices--manual, locking-assisted, rappel devices, and rappel devices with a panic function. It details what kind of attachment points the device has to connect to other equipment and the size of the rope opening.

The standard also provides testing criteria for static strength on both the climbing rope and the device as well as dynamic loading strength on auto-locking devices to see how much rope slippage occurs in the device during a fall, if the rope and device are damaged by the impact forces, and what minimum and maximum rope diameters can be safely used. Lastly, the standard details the device use instructions that must be included by the manufacturer.

You can download the Braking Device Standards (UIAA 129) report from the UIAA website. While it's the sort of document that only an engineer could love, it's worthwhile to have a quick look to see the new standards so you can evaluate your own belay and rappel devices. The standards took effect on September 30. Look for approved braking devices next year.

Buy a New Belay and Rappel Device:

Buy a Black Diamond ATC

Buy a Petzl GriGri