Kiss or Kill

Confessions of a Serial Climber

By: Mark Twight

Narrated by: Jonathan Yen

Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Sit back and join the ride with this collection of edge-of-your-seat climbing stories by Mark Twight, aka Dr. Doom. "Somewhere out there somebody understands these words and knows they matter. They were written in blood, learned by heart." (Mark Twight)

Mark Twight is a BANFF award-winner, an extreme climber, an extreme writer, and an extreme personality. No matter what he's doing, Mark Twight takes a definite, and often controversial , stand. Anyone who knows climbing knows Twight's name, and anyone who knows Twight's name will want to listen to this audiobook. Each story is told in Twight's taut, in-your-face style. Brand-new epilogues bring each piece full circle, providing updated information and fresh, hindsight perspectives.

©2001 Mark Twight (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Motivation to throw it all away and go crush it.

Mark Twight's prose of his time in and out of the mountains will get you off your ass.

hell yeah

intense. engrossing. hard to stop listening from start to finish. mark doesn't care if you enjoy it or not, which makes it that much more enjoyable. I read extreme alpinism before this book and had a few doubts, but they were quickly put to rest. as a climber myself, this book is totally relate able and contains quote-able quotes with every sentence. good insight into his persona and internalizations

Truth, taken black, no sugar

I am not part of Mark's scene as he puts it. I carry different demands (thankfully) but I really appreciate his naked honesty. This is the first audiobook that has pointed out my ethical and morel concessions for the sake of being PC or getting along. This ultimately has let down my community and myself, both in the mountains and outside of them. Listing too much of this book has made me uncomfortable and left me angry at myself but in a way that has invigorated a return to stronger ethics and less passivity. This is the only audiobook I have listened to twice in a row. I have refrained from listening a 3rd time. Time to act. I'll come back in a year and see how uncomfortable I still feel.
Thanks Mark

it's definitely about climbing

Sometimes it is painful when the grades are read out loud but otherwise a good way to get through Twight's bad attitude and bragging. Crucial Alpine history doesn't always have likable characters so be sure to not clutch your pearls...

Good story - climbing background helps

Great story, but you need to be an outdoor climber to understand the jargon. The narrator pronounces some terms wrong - 5.11 as "five point one one" instead of "five eleven".

Narrator needs to do his research.

It really bother sne when a "professional" book reader can't be bothered to do a bit of research on how to pronounce the names of places and people that are repeatedly mentioned in the book. I know. I'm being picky. But it really detracts from the story when you're spending an entire minute thinking of how ridiculous it sounded.

Delivers what it promises

Good book, but the narrator mightashoulda asked if he didn't know how to pronounce words.

Take It or Leave It

If you have the same inner corrosion as Mark Twight, this is a philosophical piece.

the spirit of alpine climbing

Great stories and insights by Mark. Truly a must read for anyone interested in climbing. The book helps you realize the true mindsets needed for the sport, and the way you outta be/think. I recommend taking this book in slowly and with much thought as the author goes through each article.

An exciting, fresh, and viciously enjoyable book

I thought I was going to get a super-technical and edgy climbing book, and was a bit skeptical when I began listening.

After a listening to a few chapters, this quickly became one of my all-time favorite mountaineering books. Mark has a way of explaining his thoughts and actions that really connects with the audience, which is rare for this genre.

I particularly loved how uncompromising this book is in its focus. The chapters are each the unfiltered author's version of articles, so they can be read in any order. They're ordered chronologically, and are also accompanied with additional author's notes. These notes act as a retrospective, and offer some new explanations and insights.

The sense of danger reminded me a bit of the passages from Savage Arena by Joe Tasker, but far more sustained. This guy has put himself in some unbelievably dangerous situations. It's rare we get to hear much from someone like this - so many of them went home to the Alps, Himalaya, or Karakoram before they were done.

The narrator has some mispronunciations with YDS grades ("5 point one one b") and place names (Nanga Parbat is one of the hardest place names for me to say, to be fair), which can be a turn off at times. He otherwise does a great job, and I really recommend this book. Lots of fun, lots of adrenaline, and an incredible amount of content packed into this book.