Mark Twight was one of America's leading alpinists during at the turn of the 21st century. His gripping accounts have been published around the world, translated into eight languages. Sports Illustrated, Outside Magazine, Rock & Ice (and a host of European magazines) have profiled him. Twight was the first to solo the "Czech Route" on Peak Communism, currently known as Ismoil Somoni Peak, and the fastest to climb "Slipstream," a three thousand-foot-high waterfall in the Canadian Rockies (in two hours and four minutes; most parties take twelve hours). He made the first ascent of "Deprivation" on Alaska's Mount Hunter, climbed five extremely difficult new routes in the French Alps, and made a non-stop, sixty-hour ascent of Mount McKinley's Slovak Direct (the previous fastest party took seven days). Following September 11th, 2001 Twight helped develop the Protective Combat Uniform (PCU) cold weather clothing system, which is currently issued to Special Operations Command personnel. He teaches climbing, nutrition and fitness to SOCOM operators and USIC personnel. He is the founder of Gym Jones, a strength and conditioning facility where he and his wife, Lisa train fighters, football players and endurance athletes. Gym Jones is noted for its work training the cast and stunt crew of the movie "300" (2007), "Repo Men", (2010), "Man Of Steel" (2013), and "300: Rise Of An Empire" (2014). Twight resides in Utah with Lisa, and two Akitas, Echo and Preacher. Retired from climbing, he is a Masters (Cat 3) road racer with a preference for stage races. Twight is the author, with Jim Martin, of Extreme Alpinism: Climbing Light, Fast, and High. His award-winning book book, Kiss Or Kill, has been translated into five languages