Rockery Press is the realization of a local community effort that has been building for over half a decade.
It’s generally well known that Chattanooga has had a reputation for being tight lipped with regards to publicizing our regional climbing resources. Whether this conservative stance results from our seemingly never-ending battle with area access, or from a tradition of ‘do it yourself’ guidance, or maybe simply from a trend of general guidebook skepticism – the Chattanooga climbing community has long been divided on what to do about the “guidebook question.”
With this conflict as our backdrop, it’s important as publishers and community members to see both sides of what a guidebook offers. Oftentimes, the immediate local response to publication is to focus on the impact that guidebooks bring. Studies show that guidebooks result in a 30% rise in user visitation. Outside of the disgruntled ‘not what it used to be’ local perspective, this increase in traffic, if not mitigated through appropriate planning, can result in forms of negative impact.
On the other hand, a community without a guidebook runs the risk of having its future gym and web reared generations loose, forget, or never learn the histories and tall tales that distinguish a community’s legacy.
Rockery Press recognizes both sides of what a guidebook does. For this reason, it’s our mission to produce the most unique, local-born content and multimedia designs that preserve the authentic Chattanooga rock climbing record for past, present, and future generations. And in addition, as proactive local publishers committed to area access and stewardship, we pledge a portion of profits to local grass roots organizations and efforts committed to developing, sustaining, and protecting our local climbing resources.
We hope that this balance between publication and protection will help carry Southeast rock climbing into a healthy and vibrant future as it continues to grow throughout the TAG region.
