Moving the Needle – How an Average Climber can do the Hardest Route in the World

How can an average climber do the hardest route in the world? Dave MacLeod wasn’t even the best among his fellow rock climbers in Glasgow, until a sequence of key decisions and influences catalysed his progression from an unremarkable intermediate to one of the best all-round climbers in the world. Dave shows that much of his advantage came from easily trainable skills or behavioural traits that could be replicated by any climber.

Moving the Needle is a story of the ups and downs of a struggle to answer a deep curiosity and its side effect of making the first ascent of Rhapsody at Dumbarton Rock, then the hardest trad climb in the world and the first to earn the grade of E11. Through an autobiographical exploration of his apprenticeship as a climber, the book is intended to function as a guide to transform your own climbing.

Moving the Needle is a large format, full colour hardcover book with 278 pages and 143 colour photographs, with a foreword from Dave Cuthbertson, and edited by Deziree Wilson.

1st edition: oct 2024