At the end of the book, there are interviews with Alex Puccio, Adam Ondra, Jerry Moffat, Melissa Le Nevé, Tomoa Narasaki, Alex Megos, Alex Honnold, and Coxsey. Questions range from “What is your five-second maximum one-arm hang on the Beastmaker 2000 middle edge?” to “What is your advice for climbers who want to improve?”

Beastmaker’s Ned Feehally has become a pillar of climbing’s international training community. Between both his 1000 and 2000 models, Feehally has co-produced the most popular brand of wooden fingerboards in the world. Although Beastmaker continues to build and rebuild training equipment, Feehally has more recently focused his efforts on a training book. This is Beastmaking. Ned Feehally on his wall For many, this list of accolades and accreditation would be enough to pretty much write whatever he likes but Feehally really doesn’t seem that sort and while he states that he never intended to write a book filled with academic citations, it is clear he’s done his reading. Take the History section in Chapter 1 for example, where Wolfgang Gullich gets equal billing alongside the academic studies of Eva Lopez. This book goes beyond the obvious yet never forgets it. The book feels nice, is scattered with inspiring photos of climbers doing their thing on boulders across the world on some really aesthetic problems. The text, formatting and chapters feel well done, intuitive, good for browsing or for finding some dedicated information. For climbers that need a hangboard to take anywhere, this one offers an excellent hold set for training on the go Overall: If you’re looking for an easy way to customize your hangboard routine, Boulder Trainer is for you.This was my first attempt at any 7a so it was a bit of an eye opener but a really good one because it felt extremely hard and that's what I want. But honestly, I'm nowhere near achieveing it at the momemt. I could try find another 7a that better suits my strengths but I feel this is the point at which I really need to work on my weak lower body flexibility.

While these credentials alone do not make someone inherently well researched in the world of training, Feehally’s meticulous approach to progression, described through training logs and supplemental research have come together in this book. Despite Feehally’s pedigree in the sport, it is easy to feel skeptical. Could it be just another training book? With the 1000 and 2000 models, Beastmaker changed the face of home training; taking it away from the precious few with the space, money and dedication to build their own home wall and brought both the idea and the possibility of building finger strength away from the crag or gym to the everyday climber. Suddenly, anyone could get strong in their small bits of spare time at home and many people duly did. Alongside changes in attitude to sport climbing and bouldering, Beastmaker helped to change the game and raise the bar. I never wanted it to be too prescriptive. Everyone is different,” said Feehally, of his new book Beastmaking : A fingers-first approach to becoming a better climber.

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Seeing a pretty big gap, Feehally—who co-founded Beastmaker and makes his own wood holds and is basically the definition of a cerebral training fanatic—decided to write a training book for everyday climbers. In other words, he wrote a book about training that people like me, who are temperamentally allergic to books about training, might still read and learn from. It's not just that you can potentially reach a different set of holds, you can then control the position your feet better keeping the shoe/hold working as you move and you can start to really pull in with the high foot which helps unload the arms and delay pump on steeper routes. You can also contrive rests/shakes by squeezing into the 3d spaces between holds that aren't apparent when you're less flexible. Cons: There are some minor technical issues with the app’s design, such as a muddled filter feature that sometimes makes it difficult to find problems, and slightly awkward navigation functions. Beastmaker may not quite be at this point but its close. After all, fingerboards for training had been around for at least a decade before Dan Varian and Ned Feehally set up their company but somehow, these new boys managed to revolutionise their niche industry. And they did it all with only two models, each cut out of a 6"x2" piece of wood.