Jens Larssen, 8a.nu: “This is the best book I have read on the subject.”
Splitter Choss: “I have to say that ‘Sport Climbing’ is well worth picking up, especially if like me you’ve never fully embraced all that sport climbing has to offer.”
Splitter Choss’ interview with the author. “I honestly believe that it is realistic for an average person to do 5.13+ or 5.14.”
Lizzy Scully: “Every new climbers should read this book.”
Arnold Braker, Urban Climber magazine: “If you are new to the game, Andrew Bisharat’s Sport Climbing: From Top Rope to Redpointcan save you a lot of the work of trial and error. Even if you’re an old hand, I can almost guarantee there are gems within its pages well worth the twenty bucks it costs.”
NOBA judges: “Andrew Bisharat is a senior editor at Rock and Ice magazine and he couldn’t be better suited to write about sport climbing. He is an accomplished, versatile climber and an equally accomplished author. Bisharat’s clear descriptions along with plentiful and instructive photographs provide thorough coverage of the sport. It’s all there and all nicely done: history, gear, climbing moves, falling, belaying, motivation, and more.”
Sport Climbing by Andrew Bisharat is quite simply the best modern compendium on this most popular form of rock climbing. The book is well-written, with an entertaining history section and concise advice on all relevant aspects of the discipline. If you’re looking for a book that lays out techniques that will help you climb better, and more safely, then you will not find a better manual than this.
Gear heads and nigglers will undoubtedly focus on Bisharat’s omission of in depth analysis. Thankfully, you will not find the words “triaxial loading” or “gate lash” in this book. Nor will you encounter tedious discussions of anchoring systems. And rightfully so. These subjects have no place in a how-to book on Sport Climbing, and including them would dilute the title and make it far less user-friendly. Such emphasis on technical jargon might impress fellow climbers, but it will not improve your climbing, which is, after all the thesis of this book.
Most helpful are Bisharat’s first-hand strategies for redpointing and onsighting. Affirmations like “Let your expectations float to the surface and evaporate,”seem at first simplistic, but prove particularly useful when actually applied to the real world setting of the crag. The best climbers in the world (Lynn Hill, for example) cite these affirmations as key to their success.
If you’re new to the sport, or an old horse looking for sure-fire time-tested methods to climb better, more safely and have more fun, then pick up Sport Climbing by Andrew Bisharat. It’s far and away the best book yet published on the subject. – “Old Dog,” Amazon
Sune Hermit: It is clear that the book is aiming on absolute beginners — typically someone who has climbed a few times in a gym and thinks about trying to climb outdoors. … The value for more experienced climbers is to be found in the last few chapters. There are chapters describing advanced ropework techniques for leading and cleaning pitches — including how to use a stick-clip, not only for the first few bolts, but also how to safely “call up the stick” from high on the climb. I found the chapters on onsight and redpoint techniques inspiring and I think even advanced climbers could benefit from reading these chapters.
