1000+ Climbing Tips - Softcover

1000+ Climbing Tips is aimed at anyone who hangs off stuff, or just hangs around in the mountains. It's not an instruction book, but more a massive collection of all those little tips that make a real difference. These tips are based on thirty years of climbing obsession, as well as nineteen ascents of El Cap (3 solo ascents and one days ascent), Alpine North Faces, icecaps, scary climbs and expeditions. For a more extreme taste of this book, imagine an alien came down to earth, stuck a straw in a climber's head, one who'd been climbing for about thirty years, and proceeded to suck out their brain; then transmogrified all that it contained in to a 57,000 word book of climbing tips. Well this is just such a book! I000 tips covers the following areas: Basics (1-240) The first part of the book covers a wide range of subjects, varying from how to best rope up and stopping your boots from stinking, to racking your gear correctly and how to sleep in a harness. This section is designed for both novice and experienced climbers. Big Wall (241-347) Written for anyone tackling large multi pitch climbs, with advanced topics such as jumaring, hauling and speed climbing. These tips will be an aid both to those new to multi pitch climbing, as well as the more experienced climber. Ice (348-370) Tips on all aspects of ice climbing, including movement, protection, ways of approaching mental strength, and not falling off! Mixed (371-392) How to use your tools on snowed up rock, and focused primarily on Scottish and Alpine winter skills. Mountain (393-694) If you're not a rock climber then this section has a lot of tips on living and staying alive in the mountains, be that in the UK, Alps or greater ranges. Safety (695-785) The name of the game in climbing is staying alive, and coming home in one piece. This section covers loose rock, rescue, dealing with heat and getting caught out. Training (786-863) A wide range of tips on strength and endurance training and diet for climbers. Stuff (864-2017) A mix of esoteric, such as how to rap off a fifi hook, what books to read, how to get sponsored and going to the toilet.

The US magazine Climbing once described Andy as a climber with a "strange penchant for the long, the cold and the difficult", with a reputation "for seeking out routes where the danger is real, and the return is questionable, pushing himself on some of the hardest walls and faces in the Alps and beyond, sometimes with partners and sometimes alone." More succinctly, Metro magazine claims that he "makes Ray Mears look like Paris Hilton". Andy's speciality is big wall climbing and winter expeditions, which involves pitting himself against a vertical climbs of over 1000 metres (that's two and a half world trade centres), often in temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees. Andy has scaled Yosemite's El Capitan - one of the hardest walls in America - over ten times, including two solo ascents. One of these ascents was a 12 day solo of the Reticent Wall, viewed at the time as perhaps the hardest climb of its type in the world. In 2002 he undertook one of the hardest climbs in Europe: a 15 day winter ascent of the West face of the Dru. This 1000 metre pillar pushed him and his partner to their limits and was featured in the award winning film 'Cold Haul'. Andy has also taken part in three winter expeditions to Patagonia. The stories that Andy has brought back from these expeditions have become modern classics in the climbing world and have brought new meaning to the words 'epic' and 'cold'... " I haven't climbed Everest, skied to the poles, nor sailed single handed around the world. The goals I set out to accomplish aren't easily measured or quantified by world records or 'firsts'. The reasons I climb, and the climbs I do, are about more than distance or altitude, they are about breaking barriers within myself ". It is perhaps Andy's journey from remedial student to successful climber, writer and speaker that interests his audience most. Brought up on a council estate in one of Britain's flattest cities, Hull-born Andy suffered from severe dyslexia which went undiagnosed until he was 19. One of his greatest strengths is his ability to talk about his life and his climbs in a way that is totally accessible to the non-climber and allows the audience to experience the risk and tension of big wall climbing. Andy also works in film and TV, as a stunt safety advisor and this plays a part in many of his talks, which take you from the heights of Patagonia to the chocolaty depths of Charlie and the Chocolate factory!