Risk-taker Steve De Maio explores risk in this eclectic collection of climbing essays and poetry written over a 20-year period. Starting with the Hard Years of his youth when he was out of work and moving through to the present, De Maio's stories can be sombre, humorous or just plain outrageous. Yet throughout this collection, the author examines the theme of risk: what it is, how it can be managed and how his attitude toward it has changed over time.