UKC

 Hi there.

Just a quick plug for Andy Kirkpatrick's blog and website as a great source of practical advice and aspirational stories about climbing.

https://andy-kirkpatrick.com/

The cragmanship series are very accessible and helpful.

https://andy-kirkpatrick.com/cragmanship

It's quite opinionated so there may be stuff that some folk here disagree with but I like that he's definitive about things and doesn't beat about the bush. You're not left in any doubt what he thinks!

Anyway with a look if you haven't seen them.

Dave

I've always enjoyed reading his stuff, but hadn't seen the cragmanship collection, so thanks for the link.

On Instagram Andy this year has gone all a bit cuddly and non-political again after a few years of not much climbing and lots of politics/cultural criticism. Unless you have really strong views on softshells that differ from Mr Kirkpatrick - what's there to disagree with?

I haven't read anything of his since he started spouting very provocative stuff a while back. I don't know if he really believed it or not.  If he has stopped that then I might start following again.  

I had some debates with him in the insta comments, I think that is very much what he thinks. I often thought he was quite fundamentally wrong on issues, but never questioned that Andy has come to his opinions after a lot of thought, reading and experiences.

I don't know if he's just gone off posting political stuff (insta isn't a good platform if you are really interested in discussion because most people can't be arsed to type much with their thumb into a phone), or decided for professional reasons to focus on climbing/outdoors stuff.