Everest South West Face

by Chris Bonington

Everest South West Face

Genres: Nonfiction, Mountaineering, Climbing, Adventure, Travel

Paperback

First published December 9, 1976

About the author

Chris Bonington was educated at University College School, London and the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He was commissioned in the Royal Tank Regiment in 1956. He spent three years in North Germany in command of a troop of tanks and then two years at the Army Outward Bound School as a mountaineering instructor.It was during this period that he started climbing in the Alps, making the first British ascent of the South West Pillar of the Drus in 1958 and then the first ascent of the Central Pillar of Freney on the south side of Mont Blanc in 1961 with Don Whillans, Ian Clough and the Pole, Jan Dlugosz. At that time this was one of the most difficult climbs in the Alps and even today is considered one of the great classics of the Mont Blanc region.He made the first British ascent of the North Wall of the Eiger in 1962.

Reviews

[Geoffrey Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather pedestrian account of the epic struggle to climb this route; it failed due to the appalling extremes of wind and cold. Certainly enlightens one on the complex logistics involved in such an expedition.

[Nigel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A failed attempt at a "last" big wall on Everest in 1972 in a fairly big expedition would probably sum this up. The South West face went from being impossible to possible maybe over time. This Chris Bonington book gives the history of the previous attempts on the face prior to his expedition (which originally was to be a small team climbing the South Col route).

This was a fairly important expedition in the history of Everest and was probably one of the later big attempts. The vibe was changing towards far small and faster attempts. Worth noting too that this was an Autumn attempt which brought it's own risks. The book does go into some of the minutiae of the expedition which some might find rather slow (I used to read a lot like this but tastes change).

I have realised that Bonington does have a particular style of writing and leadership which I probably know enough about now. One thing he has always been strong on (if not always right) is the logistics of such expeditions. Supplying upper camps is vital to the success of expeditions. He does make a comment about using computers to plan this and looks at this before the expedition which was interesting.

While this expedition was unsuccessful it did contribute towards the ultimately successful expedition that first climbed this face (with Bonington as leader again) 3 years later. Of interest to aficionados but others can probably look at more recent/smaller attempts for the armchair climbing! Slightly strangely the paperback I read doesn't appear to be on Goodreads (based on the cover, publication date etc) but I'm pretty certain it was a version of this edition.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

“But perhaps the reason, above all, is to gaze at that vista of peaks after laboriously crawling, higher and higher, up Everest’s South West face and then, if lucky, to reach the summit, to enjoy that climactic moment when the mountain drops away on every side and you are standing on the highest point on earth”

[Jean Dupenloup · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chris Bonnington is perhaps the iconic name of British mountaineering.

This classic account of his pioneering climb of an unclimbed (at the time) facet of Everest makes for a compelling read.

Highly recommended to all fans of the genre.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

read this years and years ago. carried with me for 30+ years so it must've been good! :-)