On the 27th September 2007 the official launch of Malta Rock Climbing – the comprehensive guide got underway at Nove wine bar in St. Julian’s with guests that included the Maltese climbing fraternity, the authors’ friends and family, the local press and a special appearance by John Codling, co-author, who was flown down from England to be at this prestigious event.
The launch party was a happy event, bringing together climbers from all the generations of Malta’s climbing community. Merriment and wine flowed unabated, there were slideshows of images of Malta’s climbing stars beamed onto the walls, food and bubbly conversations all around. This was easily the largest gathering of rock climbers held in the Maltese Islands to date. It included almost everyone involved in bringing the guidebook to print: there were the three authors Richard Abela, John Codling and Andrew Warrington; Simon Alden who had kept new-route records until 1995; Matthew Mirabelli who was mostly responsible for the photography of the guide; Rayan Sammut who was instrumental in editing the guidebook in its final stages, and many others.
This guidebook is the culmination of 10 years of work by the three authors. It is endorsed by the Malta Tourism Authority Chairman Mr. Sam Mifsud and received widespread press coverage both in Malta and internationally.
The publication comes as a great relief to the climbing community who had been waiting eagerly for its publication…and sometimes doubted that it would ever really come to fruition! But now it is here and Malta’s rock climbers now have at their disposal a full colour volume that describes in detail all 1200 climbs on Malta, Gozo and Comino.
Malta Rock Climbing – the comprehensive guide is available throughout the Maltese islands, in the UK through Cordee and in Germany through Rot-punkt. It is also available through book distributors in many European countries and on the internet via its own micro-site www.maltaclimbingguide.com.
