Rock Magazine

By Alain Robert (Maverick House, 2009, $49.95) www.everestsports.com.au

Review by Ross Taylor

With Bare Hands is the simply-told but very readable autobiography of French climber Alain Robert. Robert’s is most famous for his solo ascents of skyscrapers and subsequent arrests, but he is also a very talented climber who has soloed up to grade 31 on rock. It is usual to hear soloists talks about ‘control’ but there have been many times in Robert’s soloing career where he has been right at the limit of control, while a number of times he has actually fallen and messed himself up. I always assumed Robert was some kind of narcissist, but this book has changed my perception of him, now I think that perhaps he is a non-conformist, while his skyscraper exploits make more sense to me now I have heard his motivations for climbing them.