Psycho Vertical

Andy's journey from remedial student to successful climber, writer and speaker makes a fascinating story.

Was it when he was growing up in Tywyn, North Wales, that he developed his love of adventure and the outdoors? His parents divorced when he was six years of age and together with his brother and sister, the family moved to live in Hull, one of the flattest cities in Britain! The book is very cleverly structured cutting from family scene to climb for fun to serious climb (reflecting during the alternate paragraphs his experience growing up in a tough urban background, his family life away from climbing and the hardship experienced in tackling some of the toughest pitches in the World).

Perhaps it is the really early period of his life - living in North Wales close to the mountains and beaches on the sea-shore – that had more of an effect on him than the actually separation of his parents.

The fact that he was dyslexic went undiagnosed until he was 19-years old. With no qualifications and very few prospects, he left home to live in a squat before starting work in an outdoor shop in the Derbyshire Dales (cycling the 12-miles from Sheffield to and from work each day!).

The book describes his laughable, almost amateurish introduction to winter Alpine climbing and a 12-day solo ascent of the Reticent Wall of El Capitan in Yosemite, viewed at the time as perhaps the hardest climb of its type in the world.

It is really easy reading and if you get the time well worth the effort.