These essays are parables from a pilgrimage to find the best quality experiences on rock-climbs that are within the reach of most climbers. This search throughout Britain, Europe and America for the esoteric gems at the easier end of climbing is compiled from 20 years of writing for the magazines in a lively variety of forms--from new myths to minor epics, from parody to poetry and from tall tales to rare interviews with some of the characters in the climbing community. The book is a sample of the richness that climbing can offer a climber of modest ability who, by his own admission, "easily gets scared on the supposedly easy routes.".