Chris Bonington Mountaineer

Book excerpt: Chris Bonington Mountaineer is a photographic autobiography, documenting over sixty years of climbing the world¿s most beautiful and challenging mountains. Few climbers can match Bonington¿s climbing achievements. He is one of the most accomplished and respected climbers in the world. In this 2016 revised edition, which features over 500 photographs, we are given a frank perspective into the surreal, majestic and occasionally tragic corners of his incredible mountaineering career. Whether in the Arctic, the jungle or on an 8,000-metre peak, Bonington¿s stunning photography and engaging conversational prose take us through the detail of daily life on expedition, the action of the climbing and the grandeur of the mountains. From his foundations ¿ climbing in Snowdonia, the English Lake District, and the Highlands of Scotland ¿ Bonington takes us to the Alps and on his expedition apprenticeship in 1960s Nepal. This quickly leads to trips to Patagonia, the Karakoram, the Amazon, Baffin Island and the River Nile, before the meat of his career on the big walls and 8,000-metre peaks of the Himalaya ¿ with his leadership of the expeditions that made the first ascents of the south face of Annapurna in 1970 and the south-west face of Everest in 1975, and culminating in his own ascent of Everest in 1985. The greatest challenge and survival story of all is his first ascent and epic descent of The Ogre in Pakistan with Doug Scott. Bonington¿s undying hunger for adventure leads to later exploratory trips to Greenland, India and Morocco, and a return to the scene of one of his defining first ascents, the Old Man of Hoy, with world-class adventure climber Leo Houlding. The result is a penetrating insight into the motivations and fears of a driven climber who set out year after year from a life of comfort and success to test himself amongst the world¿s most savage mountains. Chris Bonington Mountaineer is a must for anyone with a passion for exploration, mountains or climbing.