Beyond Limits – A Life Through Climbing

Beyond Limits is the autobiography of Steve McClure, one of the world’s top
rock climbers. From his childhood encounters with the sandstone outcrops of
the North York Moors right up to his cutting-edge first ascents such as
Overshadow (F9a+) at Malham and Mutation (F9a) at Raven Tor, Steve explores
his deep passion for climbing and how it has dictated and shaped his life.

Introduced to climbing by his parents at an early age, Steve quickly
progressed as a climber, developing a fascination with movement and technical
difficulty. Rapidly reaching a high standard, Steve became torn between the
desire to climb increasingly bold routes and his hesitant approach to danger,
with a series of close calls forcing him to seriously question his
motivations. Searching for a balance between risk and reward, he struggled to
find his place as a climber.

Having dropped out of the scene, a chance encounter led to his discovery of
sport climbing. Free from fear, Steve plunged headlong into this new style and
surged through the grades. Pushing everything else aside, he allowed climbing
to take over his life. He reached world-class levels of performance, but once
again found himself searching for a balance between risk and reward, yet this
time the risk was of losing what is truly important in life. As he searches
for what really makes him tick, his climbing comes full circle and returns to
where it started – climbing for the love of it.

Beyond Limits is the story of a climber and his obsessive exploration of the
sport, of finding a true passion, taking it to the limits and attempting to
delicately balance this passion against other aspects of life to give the
greatest rewards.