This title is Winner of the Boardman Tasker Prize 2008. "Metro" magazine recently wrote that Andy Kirkpatrick makes Ray Mears look like Paris Hilton. Words like boldness, adventure and risk were surely coined especially for him. As one of the world's most accomplished mountaineers and big-wall climbers, he goes vertically where other climbers (to say nothing of the general public) fear to tread. For the first time, this cult hero of vertical rock has written a book, in which his thirteen-day ascent of Reticent Wall on El Capitan in California - the hardest big-wall climb ever soloed by a Briton - frames a challenging autobiography. From childhood on a grim inner-city housing estate in Hull, the story moves through horrific encounters and unique athletic achievements at the extremes of the earth. As he writes, 'Climbs like this make no sense ...the chances of dying on the route are high'. Yet Andy, in his thirties with young children, has everything to live for. This is the paradox at the heart of the story. This book - by turns gut-wrenching, entertaining and challenging - appeals to the adventurer in all of us.

Accolades

Winner of Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature 2008.

Reviews

'Andy is one of the funniest of Britain’s top climbers and represents what is best in modern British climbing: boldness, innovation, sense of humour, irreverence, commitment, and an appetite for risk.' Chris Bonington

'Psychovertical is a powerful if intensely personal book, well written, sometimes brilliantly so. It charts Kirkpatrick’s fractured upbringing and subsequent escape to a life of extreme climbing and close calls… He is a clear, spare writer, and a highly visual one. The descriptions of climbing are among the best I’ve ever read… Kirkpatrick chooses words with the same care that he chooses a wire.' Ed Douglas, Climber

'Thrilling … Most compelling are his psychological battles, as self-belief and a dry sense of humour ultimately propel him to the top.' Financial Times

'Entertaining, funny and a bit mental.' Zoo

Author Biography

Andy Kirkpatrick has climbed the hardest routes in the Alps and has mountaineered around the world, including Patagonia in winter. His film Cold Haul, about his and Ian Parnell's ascent of the Lafaille Route on the Dru, won first prize at the Graz Festival. He is a popular climbing journalist and his website www.pyschovertical.com receives thousands of hits every month.