Masterpieces arrive fully realized, the creator’s toil invisible in the final product. Eldorado Canyon, Colorado, now has its masterpiece with Steve Levin’s intuitive, exhaustive, 450-page Eldorado Canyon: A Climbing Guide ($39.95, sharpendbooks.com). (See Players, of Climbing No. 281 - December 2009, p.26, for more on Levin.) This first-ever photo-topo guide comes stacked with action photos; clear (but not belabored) Beta for the climbs and, more crucially, the descents; loads of must-read historical essays; and a revamp of the climbs’ seriousness grades (now G through X). The meticulous Levin, climbing here 33 years, has also resolved many an FA blank spot, a critical mission in this living stone museum.

—Matt Samet