1001 Climbing Tips

Andy Kirkpatrick has 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. He was born and raised on a council estate in Hull, one of the UK's flattest cities, and suffered from severe dyslexia, which went undiagnosed until he was 19. Thriving on this apparent adversity, Andy transformed himself into one of the world's most driven and accomplished climbers and an award-winning writer. In 2001 he undertook a 12-day solo ascent of the Reticent Wall on El Capitan, one of the hardest solo climbs in the world. This climb was the central theme of his first book Psychovertical, which won the 2008 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature. Cold Wars is his second book. Andy lives in Sheffield with his two children. Learn more at his website, andy-kirkpatrick.com