He won his battle, Barnsley didn't.

Andy, a former miner from Royston who took up climbing when the miners' strike left time on his hands, made it to the top. It was the first time Kennedy had been conquered Alpine-style, with little equipment.
"When I am at Oakwell and watch them lose I think I could be climbing Stanage Edge for free!" he says.

Andy, aged 41, who now lives in the Hope Valley and is one of the leading lights in mountaineering, tells of the climb in his new book, Thin White Line.*

The line is the ice on which he climbs and even if you have got a head for heights you'll find yourself holding on tight with some of his descriptions.

The book, the sequel to his award-winning Learning To Breathe, charts his progress tackling mountains in Patagonia, Norway, Scotland and Alaska, regaining his confidence after his climbing partner Brendan Murphy was killed in an avalanche after they had conquered Changabang in the Himalayas in 1997.

It's a journey inside his head as well as up mountains.

"The reason climbing has a mountaineering literature which goes back 150 years is because you have got the inside of a climber's mind as well as the incredible scenery to describe, which the armchair mountaineer will never go to," he says.

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It's a frank account. He doesn't mind admitting a failure of nerve in bad weather defeating his assault on Mount Fitzroy in Patagonia.

He can recall most moments of a climb. "I have a very good memory. Climbing stuff is etched on your mind - it's not like a trip to Meadowhall. And I keep a diary until I reach the steep bits."

There are, he says, endless possibilities for new climbs: whether unconquered mountains, new routes or with different equipment.
It seems as if it is not the view from the top but the getting there that is important to him.

"There isn't a book which shows you the way. You have to work it all out."

And the penalty for making a mistake could be fatal.

Despite being a former miner he suffers from claustrophobia, even in a tent. He solves it on a mountain by going outside and looking down. "I like a nice 5,000ft drop!" he says.

He's 41, working the summer as a mountain guide in Chamonix, writing, lecturing, training and giving motivational talks, so how long can he keep climbing?

"Chris Bonington is slowing down a bit but then he's 73!"
At the end of the book he mentions in one line that this February he finally conquered Fiitzroy - the mountain on which he had failed for a whole chapter earlier.

"That was a good month - to beat Fitzroy while Barnsley beat Chelsea and Liverpool," he says.

Published by Hutchinson at £18.99.


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