Psycho Vertical by Andy Kirkpatrick
LFTOer Book Reviews - Psycho Vertical by Andy Kirkpatrick
By
Gizouki
Outdoor headlines
26 May 2009 09:47
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Here's our first LFTOer review. See what Gizouki has to say about Andy Kirkpatrick's Psycho Vertical...
Book Title: Psycho Vertical
Book Author: Andy Kirkpatrick
Book Publisher: Arrow Books (Paperback)
ISBN Number: 978-0-099-51952-2
Price: £8.99
Review by Chris Holifield (Gizouki)
An intensely personal book, Andy Kirkpatrick's Psycho Vertical weaves the story of the climber's life around an account of his incredible thirteen-day solo ascent of the Reticent Wall on California's El Capitan. Each of those thirteen lonesome days on the rock is recounted in some detail - to a non-climber this could be boring with its descriptions of cracks, holds, nuts and cams but in the hands of a writer as skilful as Kirkpatrick, it's a real page-turner.
The fact that the book is so skilfully written seems extraordinary given his undiagnosed childhood dyslexia which meant he left school with few qualifications. Through sheer bloody-mindedness he found his vocation on the rock face and a way of communicating that to others through writing.
In between the sections on the ascent of Reticent, he tells a vivid account of his childhood – first in Wales and then on a tough estate in Hull. He recalls his failures at school and his progress through the world of climbing. He risked everything, not just his life but also his relationship with his wife and family, as his inner demons drove him on. Sometimes he fell and sometimes he lead others in to situations they were not equipped to deal with but somehow he just got away with it – that last bit of gear always held.
“I suppose I finally realised that If you wanted to do the things that you considered only other people did, all you had to do was do them” he writes as he recounts his first trip to The Alps and that message runs right through the book. It sounds simple and I guess it is if you are prepared to pay the price. I wouldn't swap places with Andy Kirkpatrick but I'm glad he's around.
