Psychovertical - Review

Psychovertical - by Andy Kirkpatrick. Price - £18.99 www.psychovertical.com / www.andykirkpatrick.com

What is it? Winner of the 2008 Boardman Tasker Award for mountain literature, Andy Kirkpatrick's book is a brilliant, analytical and entertaining look at his climbing and what it means following him from a deprived childhood in inner city Hull through to a solo attempt on one of the most difficult aid routes in the world. Not always comfortable, but compelling just the same. Read it.

Most autobiographical climbing books follow a well worn path - nice middle-class chap goes on occasional walking trips to the Alps with family, discovers climbing, goes to university, climbs more in a bold, inexperienced sort of way, survives near-death Scottish epics, goes to Himalayas, survives near-death Himalayan epics, climbs a big hard mountain, writes book, all in a cheery, jolly, chirpy sort of way.

Psychovertical isn't really like that. Nor is it quite like Andy Kirkpatrick's dryly hilarious live performances, though there are moments of dark funniness lurking in its pages. What it is, is something all together darker and more introspective.

Kirkpatrick, if you've not come across him, has built a reputation for seeking out routes which involve epic amounts of suffering. Patagonia in winter is a speciality as are Yosemite's towering big walls, but often climbed solo for maximum commitment. It all seems a bit bonkers, but Psychovertical at least starts to answer the question of 'why?'

It starts with Andy's working class childhood and his relationship with his absent RAF mountain leader dad and mixes life and climbing together all the way through. In one chapter, he cuts back and forth between describing a desperate winter retreat in Patagonia - Hell freezes over, if you've seen him speak - and the traumatic birth of his daughter. As he staggers off the mountain after a series of desperate abseils, he's tortured by the thought that 'Il'l 'never make it home, no matter how hard I try.'

'Your family, they are waiting for you.' He thinks.

It's that ripping divide between the warmth and security of family life and the danger and hardship of climbing that lies right at the centre of the book and Andy's life. He's constantly asking himself why he does it. Why he puts himself in desperate places.

There's no self glorification or traditional British sang froid here. Despite climbing some desperately hard routes, Andy's always self deprecating about his ability and riven by self doubt. It's not comfortable reading, but it's something most of us can relate to at a lower level at least.

It all comes to a head as he attempts to solo the Reticent Wall in Yosemite, one of the world's hardest aid routes, with the description running through much of the book, inter-cut with other episodes. It feels like the crux, not just of the book, but of Andy's life. Climbing desperately hard pitches alone, standing on tiny bits of hardware hooked over minute flakes, aware that a mistake could kill him. Thinking about what it means. What climbing means. What his family means.

There's a seminal moment where he talks about being alone on the wall without anyone to tell you you're good and having to do it for yourself. 'It wasn't just a climb. I was fighting for my life. There was no fun, only relief. No laughter only sighs; no smiles, only grimaces.'

Psychovertical isn't a self-glorifying grin-fest, but it's well written, compulsively readable, occasionally darkly funny and above all, it makes you think about climbing and what it means. If you want a Boys' Own romp, then look elsewhere, but if what you want to know is 'why?' then here's your starter for ten. Brilliant.