MARK TWIGHT is one of America's leading alpinists. His gripping accounts have been published around the world and translated into five languages. He is also the author of the best-selling book Extreme Alpinism: Climbing Light, High and Fast, from The Mountaineers Books.

[Twight] is brutally honest, and nobody, including his friends or himself, is safe from his high standards and criticism. Many of these [collected pieces] are gems and shed new light on his earlier work... This is literature about the soul of alpinism, not a blow-by-blow account of climbing drudgery from some tourist peak bagger.--Rock & Ice A glimpse into the psychological reasons one person faces extreme danger.--Reference & Research Book News Deeply personal, arrogant, grandiose, thrilling and unapologetic, this record of [Twight's] career will gratify and repel extreme athletes, their admirers and detractors.--Publisher's Weekly Read [Kiss or Kill] if you have alpine ambitions -- or have a disturbed mind. It's a good read, and you might gleen some perspective from it.--Scree With chapter titles such as 'House of Pain' and 'I Hurt, Therefore I Am, ' no one would mistake Twight for a member of the Von Trapp family. A bracing tonic for us desk-bound wussies.--Pittsburgh Tribune-Review If you've delved into the growing body of mountaineering literature by reading books like Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air ... be forewarned: They're like Billy Joel; Kiss or Kill is like the Dead Kennedys ... Prodding the deepest recesses of fear the way he'd stab a wafer-thin ice runnel with the pick of his axe, Twight's Kiss or Kill is an engaging read.--The Vancouver Sun