The memoir-within-a-climb format worked quite well, and I mostly enjoyed the writing. But the story was a bit bland, and nothing grabbed me. The title is certainly appropriate, for Kirkpatrick's often unsafe approach to climbing.

> For most of the last few years I’d just felt more and more useless – the harder the route, the greater my apparent inadequacies. I didn’t see myself as a climber, yet climbing consumed me. Perhaps my problem was being married to someone who saw climbing only as a negative; there was no room for hero-worship or ego with Mandy. She saw through the bullshit. The greater the climb the greater the pain for her.

> All my confidence had left me, and now it was only blind fear of embarrassment that kept me going ( )

Before anything else, it#s a very honest book. No bullshitting about how the dilemma Andy - and his family - are facing. He's acutely aware of his addiction and of the harm it causes and this is what the book is about - more so than about this or that climb. Great piece of confession literature wirth some hair-raising bits of bravery and foolishness thrown in.