Page 21 - 2016 AMA Spring

than already being one of the very best all rounders in the world, he would have become.
I bumped in to Dave, and his wife Claire (who designed the book), at the Fort William Mountain Festival this past winter. Declaring myself to be a book reviewer of international repute, (ahem !!!) they kindly mailed me a review copy. At that time, and indeed since late ’15, I had / have been suffering from ________________ elbow (insert any one of 50+ diagnoses that I have been given over this time. I flicked through the book and this quote jumped out at me;
“For every complex problem, there is an answer which is clear, simple and wrong” - H.L. Mencken
Suffice to say my elbow is much improved (not totally better) by following the advice in the book. Dave is a climber, NOT a medical practitioner, but this book, founded on over two decades of his own experience, study (at MSc level) and understanding of climbing injuries has helped me more, and I believe will be of more use to climbers, than a lot of the routine medical and physiotherapy interventions. The book is at times difficult to read (take your time), and at £29 it isn’t cheap. However what price would you put on not being able to climb for months or years, and battling with dead end advice and tens of metres of “new injury taping techniques” every month ? Buy the book before you are injured, and also visit DaveMacleod.com which continues to be amongst the most articulate, intelligent and inspiring blogs in climbing.
Kiss or Kill Mark Twight
This isn’t new. This isn’t like every other book. This isn’t very palatable. This isn’t meant to be. Have a visit to marktwight.com to get a gist of the man. You can buy this book from him at gymjones.com (and also see what became of this exceptionally driven alpinist).
The original book was a collection of some 24 articles that Twight wrote between 1985 and 2000. This book is the 2001 apended version in which Twight adds a (then current) authors note to the articles.
Some people still recount the extremes that Ron Fawcett went to (on British rock) as one of the first to fully embrace training as a pathway to climbing brilliance. Twight did a similar single-minded obsession in training for alpinism. Few doubt that he took it a very very long way indeed. A difficult, jarring, challenging read.
“Twight’s punk-fueled writing put the soul back in to climbing literature” – Will Gadd
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ARMY MOUNTAINEER 19