Product Description

When Jerry Moffatt burst onto the scene as a brash 17-year-old, rock climbing had never seen anyone like him before. Fiercely ambitious, even as a boy Moffatt was focussed on one thing: being the best in the world. This is the story of his meteoric rise to stardom, and how he overcame injury to stay at the top for over two decades. Top sport-climber, brilliant competitor and a pioneer in the new game of bouldering, Moffatt's story is that of climbing itself in the last thirty years. Yet Jerry Moffatt is more than a dedicated athlete. Travelling the world to fulfil his dreams, his story is a compelling and often hilarious account of the climbing community with all its glories, dangers and foibles, as well as the story of a true sporting legend.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6126 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-11
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

About the Author
There are few climbers who could be acknowledged as the best of their generation, Jerry Moffatt is one of them. After taking up climbing while at school in Llandudno in the 1970s he went on to become arguably the best climber in the world during the 1980s and continued to operate at the highest level throughout the 1990s. A regular in the climbing, outdoor and general media thanks to his cutting-edge exploits, Jerry has scores of international magazine cover appearances to his name, together with countless international features penned by and about him. Niall Grimes is one of the most exciting climbing writers in the world. A regular on the lecture circuit, his offbeat and well-observed humour has earned him great popularity in his native Ireland, in the UK and further afield. He has contributed articles to CLIMB, Climber, High and Summit (UK), Climbing and Rock & Ice (US), Klettern (Germany) and many more. Niall is also the guidebook co-ordinator for the British Mountaineering Council and was responsible for the Burbage, Millstone and Beyond guidebook, winner of the Mountain Exposition Award at the Banff Mountain Book Festival in 2006.

Customer Reviews

he likes burning people off
This is a cracking book and should become a mandatory read for any climber. Probably the first/only pure rock climbing book of this type I can think of (as opposed to the mountaineering books of Simpson, Pritchard, Yates etc) and I think there are few characters in climbing who could pull this off successfully without it being a dull list of achievements and "we went climbing, it was hard, I got to the top" stories.

Despite being someone who'd been very media-savvy throughout his career and had a lot of exposure, there's plenty of detail in here that I didn't know about previously. The depth of background stories about Jerry's life really do show how these things shaped his outlook and approach, which is something frequently overlooked. It also dispels the myth that he was just bankrolled by his parents for years. The range of photos is also pretty good, I would maybe have liked to see some of them reproduced larger though.

The writing combo of Grimer/Jerry seems to work very well, and yet it does still read like you're reading Jerry's words, I think this is quite sympathetically ghost-written in that respect. On the other hand the writing style isn't quite as deeply captivating or absorbing as say a Pritchard or Simpson book, but its still pretty good (hard to put the book down), and feels kind of authentic. The pacing is about right too - I sometimes wished for more detail but am aware the book would be the size of the Yellow Pages otherwise.

On the whole this is a great read, and I imagine non-climbers, or the family/partners/friends of climbers would get a lot out of it too.

Great book - After you read this you'll want to get out and go climbing
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I'm a pretty keen climber and Revelations does a great job of capturing a lot of the things that make climbing such a great experience.

From tales of dossing in squalid barns in North Wales and going climbing every day, to traveling to some of the most beautiful places in the world and doing some of the greatest routes, this book has it all. It's quite fast moving and doesn't dwell overly long on any aspect of climbing. The personality of Jerry himself, cocky, talented and extremely motivated, comes through well even though the book is ghost-written (Niall Grimes has done a great job). The impression that you're left with is of someone who was the best in the world, and deserved to be because he wanted it so badly. However the book also adds depth beyond the climbing and paints a sympathetic and more complete picture of his life.

As you will have judged from my review I'm a climber too. I think this book would be entertaining for non-climbers as well, and would give a good insight into a part of the sport, rock-climbing, that doesn't get written about as much as mountaineering. But if you're a non-climber reading this, please buy the book and write a review - I'd be interested to see what you think.

Jerry was an inspiration for me when I started climbing 20 years ago and through this book has become one again - I just want to get strong, get out there and starting ticking some hard climbs.

best climbing book ever
the best climbing book ever and it's not even about big, spectacular alpine stuff. Very inspirational. The only sad point is that I wanted it to be twice as thick.