The rarefied world of mountaineering is sagging at the taped seams with endless biographies and autobiographies of snow-plodders and axemen, listing frostbitten digits, broken stoves and death bivouacs like there’s no tomorrow. Yet what about climbing, that thing that 90% of us do, 99% of the time? Where are the stories, legends and characters that make it what it is? Where is the book that captures that amazing joy of moving up rock?

Few climbers can ever claim to have been the best in the world. Jerry Moffatt is one of the few who could make that claim. For 25 years, Moffatt dominated at home and abroad, doing the country’s hardest routes, travelling the globe to find, repeat and improve upon the hardest climbs, then adding his own harder ones. Few top climbers seem to have the larger-than-life sense of ‘character’ that we all look for in our heroes, yet mention the name of Moffatt the world over, and the chances are that someone will tell you a story they once heard about a fast car, a night out and world-class ascent. Few people were around to observe the sport of climbing go from an anarchic halfway house for misfits and dropouts to being a global arena for performance by some of the most dedicated athletes in any discipline. Moffatt saw it all.

Moffatt’s amazing life is now captured in his new autobiography, Revelations, the most eagerly-awaited climbing book of the decade. From humble beginnings, fighting up VS jamming cracks armed with one hex, to years spent sleeping rough in limestone holes, to mythical legend slaying trips to America as a nineteen year old, to conquering France and Germany, to the competitions, the redpoints, the traditional death-routes, the balls-out solos, to bouldering, and finally to a family, and the golf course. It’s all here.

Revelations is a unique book. It’s a history book, reaching far back to a golden time beyond the memories of most; it’s a book of inspiration, showing what can be achieved with dedication, and how much fun that dedication can be; it’s a deeply personal story, cutting through the ups, downs and ups of life; it’s a great book that will have you laughing, and wishing the last page would never come.
 

But it now at the BMC shop.

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