Moving the Needle cover art

Moving the Needle

How an Average Climber Can Do the Hardest Route in the World

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Moving the Needle

By: Dave MacLeod
Narrated by: Dave MacLeod
Try Premium Plus free

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $22.99

Buy Now for $22.99

About this listen

How can an average climber do the hardest route in the world? Dave MacLeod wasn’t even the best among his fellow rock climbers in Glasgow, until a sequence of key decisions and influences catalysed his progression from an unremarkable intermediate to one of the best all-round climbers in the world. Dave shows that much of his advantage came from easily trainable skills or behavioural traits that could be replicated by any climber.

Moving the Needle is a story of the ups and downs of a struggle to answer a deep curiosity and its side effect of making the first ascent of Rhapsody at Dumbarton Rock, then the hardest trad climb in the world and the first to earn the grade of E11. Through an autobiographical exploration of his apprenticeship as a climber, the book is intended to function as a guide to transform your own climbing. Foreword by Dave Cuthbertson, and edited by Deziree Wilson.

©2024 Dave MacLeod (P)2024 Dave MacLeod Adventurers, Explorers & Survival Climbing & Mountaineering Extreme Sports Outdoors & Nature Inspiring
All stars
Most relevant  
For anyone who wants to improve their climbing or tackle challenges in their life. This really helped motivate me to train and persist T my projects.

Insights from the master

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Dave has a very real and down to earth personality, and continues to share amazing insights! I have most of his books and am following his YouTube channel religiously, so this book was an expectedly great experience. Highly recommended!

Fantastic book!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Awesome and insightful story of the journey to cutting edge climbing from one of the greatest climbers of all time.

Utterly inspiring

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Enjoyed the narrative behind Dave and his growth in the climbing space.
Worth a listen

A good listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great listen with some absolute gems from Dave. It was motivating and I took a lot away from the book to apply to my own approach to climbing.

Awesome listen, great insights

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Engrossing, authentic and totally genuine, Dave has perfectly balanced his training philosophy with a humble and honest narrative of his climbing life so far. I can’t wait for Dave’s next book!

Outstanding climbing memoir

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was overjoyed when I heard that this had been turned into an Audiobook. I was sceptical when I saw Dave was the narrator having listened to other climbers read their own books, but I shouldn't have been. Dave's experience as a successful Vlogger and public speaker shows. The audio is perfectly clear with the tone just right for the weight or levity of each paragraph. Just like Neil Gaiman is the perfect person to read his books, Dave was perfect to read this.

The content was not what I expected. I was expecting a drier more analytical retrospective look at small increments that bumped the needle along. This book was not dry! It is rich in context and honesty. It puts Dave's accomplishment into a very different light to the filtered media. It is the human side of the advice that makes it resonate stronger. You can see how the small things add up and how to rebuild when life gets in the way in a real way.

I'm going to take this opportunity to say thank you to Dave and Clair for turning this book into an audiobook! It is really appreciated! I am dyslexic and reading the other books was hard going. Incredibly valuable but hard, E7 hard. I consumed this Audio version in 2 sessions out on the hills. For the same amount of total time I only got through the forward and introduction of the written version. I'd still be reading come mid-year.

If you could find the energy and time to turn 9 out of 10 climbers into an audio version I would snap it up.

And thanks to Clair for always being so helpful and friendly via email when I have ordered books previously. Going out of the way to ship books to South Africa or do complicated inscriptions. Means a lot!

Dave's most resinating book yet!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
10/10 read for anyone looking to be inspired to be not just a better Rock climber but a better person!

Deeply inspiring with a fun story of highs and lows

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Fantastic read, made me a laugh out loud at a few points, I like the very analytical and thorough approach to Climbing really inspiring, thanks Dave.

Brilliant listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I'm a very mediocre climber who started in the early 80s but nevertheless Dave's journey completely resonates - particularly the ethos of risk taking, obsession, the ignorance of youth and the neverending drive to improve. An inspiring, if at times terrifying, read!

Resonates completely

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.