Customer Reviews
Psychovertical- brilliant! - By: A. Latham, 07 Nov 2008 
Psychovertical
Just a quick review here, the others seem to have pretty much covered it. Very unputdownable. Great descriptions made me feel as though I was there myself.
BUY IT!!
Highly recommended - By: Mr. Rjt Williams, 23 Oct 2008 If you are a fan of mountaineering literature, especially writers of the class of Simpson, Krakauer or Mark Jenkins, then you will enjoy this. Kirkpatrick successfully manages to convey both the thrill & the terror of climbing,in an easily accessible style. As notedin other reviews, some parts of this have been published before, but that should not deter you from getting hold of a copy. Kirkpatrick comes across as a highly driven individual, but also one with whom you would want to share a pint or two down the local, after a long dayin the hills. Highly recommended.
Gripping! - By: Mr. S. Taylor, 22 Oct 2008 Psychovertical is a brilliant account of a seemingly impossible big wall climb interspersed with a humourous autobiography that attempts to explain why the author repeatedly finds himself half way up a mountain faced with near certain death. It is a fascinating account which will no doubt appeal to climbers & non climbers alike as the climbing specific language is sparse & adequately explained when used. The book has equal amounts of suspense & I found it very difficult to put down. I thoroughly recommend this book.
Had to put it down .... to catch my breath - By: Declan P. Craig, 08 Oct 2008 Since attending one of Andy's talks, which probably one of the most well paced & entertaining presentations I've been to I've eagerly awaited his book. Reading some of the pitches described on the Wall I had to put the book down from time to time & walk about the room as I could feel my own fearometer building towards overload, so well does Andy paint the picture. I also thoroughly enjoyed how the main theme was interwoven with Andy's own history & development as a climber & as a person.
Great relief to the rest of us weekend rock warriors that even the greats are never too far away from the trouser filler either :-)
Well done Andy
Psychovertical - By: S. J. Ebbens, 08 Oct 2008 
Pyschovertical is a an ambitious debut for Andy K, attempting to interweave autobiography with descriptions of alpine & big-wall climbing while presenting a honest explanation of his deep seated compulsive reliance on undertaking these stupendously dangerous expeditions. The book is at its bestin the terse descriptions of climbing specific pitches on his deranged solo of the Reticent wall, which form a broken narrative running throughout the book. These passages are so vividly sketched that I feel I know how it feels to leave the safety of a ledge half way up El Cap & commit to hanging your body weight from friable wafer thin flakes, expecting a sudden fatal fall to the valley thousands of feet below. This backbone is interspersed with more fully fleshed out descriptions of Andys' climbs, many solo,in the Alps, Patagonia & other Yosemite walls. Each of these chapters is raised above the genres ubiquitous plodding trip reports by laugh out loud black humour, & the clever use of split narratives. An example of the humour is foundin two photo captions, the first of Andy eating gruel from a pan captioned; "Alpinists are onlyin it for the food & the sex"; the second, of Andy lying next to his nervous looking climbing partner; "By day 5 the food had run out". Surprisingly, given the quality of some of Andys' photos on the web, the two photomontage insets are a little disappointing. Many of the portraits convey the extremes of fatigue that Andy & his climbing partners endure, but the small image size & cluttered layout masks their impact, you want to be able to clearly see the blood shot eyes & battered bodies for the message to sink home. A better example is the back-piece illustration where the sun-blistered skin on Andy's arms as he looks down on the meadows below El Cap speaks volumes.
The book is highly readable, with the down-to earth raw prose matching the themes; a stark contrast to the wordy & overtly metaphysical writing of Joe Simpson. However I found the early autobiographical sections comparatively tough going. For example, Andy's character study of his mother revolves around her repetitive use of clichéd phrases, which seemed a bit naff compared to the detail he achieves laterin the book.
It should be noted that this book partly draws on a series of previously self-web-published short stories & this origin is occasionaly apparent with places & events being repeatedly introducedin subsequent chapters without cross-reference. However, already having read this orginial web-material does not greatly detract or diminish the overall effect of the book.
In conclusion, the book is a great read & I would recommend it to anyone with slightest interestin the subject matter, & for many climbers it could well be the start of a path towards big walling adventures of their own.
