Maximum Climbing
Mental Training for Peak Performance and Optimal Experience


Now Available!

As physical as climbing is, it is even more mental. Ultimately, you climb with your mind—your hands and feet are merely extensions of your thoughts and will. Becoming a master climber, then, requires that you first become a master of your mind.

In Maximum Climbing, America’s best-selling author on climbing performance presents a climber’s guide to the software of the brain—one that will prove invaluable whether your preference is bouldering, sport climbing, traditional climbing, or mountaineering. Eric Hörst brings unprecedented clarity to the many cognitive and neurophysical aspects of climbing and dovetails this information into a complete program. He sets forth three stages of mental training that correspond to beginner, intermediate, and elite levels of experience and commitment—the ideal template to build upon to personalize your goals through years of climbing to come.

A useful and fascinating read for climbers of all ability levels. –Lynn Hill

Click here to listen to the author's introductory podcast. (podcast plays in a pop-up window).


  • Here's a book review (5 stars!) from Rock and Ice magazine.